Akan Weights and the Gold Trade by Timothy F. GarrardReview by: Gerald M. McSheffreyCanadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines, Vol. 16, No. 3(1982), pp. 648-650Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Canadian Association of African StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/484576 .

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648 Canadian Journal of African Studies

Timothy F. GARRARD, Akan Weights and the Gold Trade. London and New York: Longman Group Ltd., 1980, xix + 393p. (Legon History Series.)

This is the latest volume to appear in the Legon History Series, and it may well represent the most substantial contribution to date. This is the case, however, only because the wealth of historical information Garrard has amassed outweighs the rather unimaginative and often somewhat limited manner in which he has chosen to treat such a vital and interesting topic. Whatever its shortcomings, though, this is an important book whose modest title tends to obscure the overall significance and scope of the work itself. It is essential reading not only for specialists in Akan history and culture but for all Africanists with an interest in the economic history of West Africa in the pre-colonial period.

As the title suggests, Garrard has in fact written two books of approximately five chapters each, one dealing with the historical origins of goldworking and goldweight production among the Akan, the other, a comprehensive account of gold production and the gold trade in this area of West Africa from the earliest times to 1900. The former section includes chapters on Gold in the Akan States, The Art of the Goldsmith, Goldweights in Akan Society, Akan Weight-Names, The Dating of Akan Goldweights and The Evolution of the Akan Weight-System, while the latter has chapters on The Origins of the Akan Trade, The Guinea Trade, Gold Production and Export, 1400-1900, and Goldweight Production: A Numerical Estimate. Much of what is contained in the chapters on the introduction and development of goldworking and the production of goldweights, as well as the evolution of the latter from functional accessories of the gold trade and the gold currency system to highly stylized art forms in themselves, will be of primary interest to archaeologists, art historians and specialists in Akan culture.

Although a lot of what one learns here is already known in broad outline, the breadth and scope of Garrard's research ensures that this is likely to remain the definitive work on the subject as it clearly supersedes anything that has come before. The number and diversity of the sources the author has employed are in themselves amazing, and his ability to meld written references with oral evidence is an example of African historio- graphy at its best. On the other hand, the specialist is more likely than not to be exasperated by the author's failure to examine his sources more critically in the light of what is already known on the subject and to speculate a little more widely on the basis of the information he has amassed. Garrard prefers, however, to let his sources speak or not speak for themselves, as the case may be, and any conclusions he comes to, therefore, are, to say the least, tentative ones.

What he does tell us is that advanced methods of goldcasting and the utilization of gold as currency, as well as the standardized goldweight system of measurement, were introduced to the Akan from North Africa via Mande-speaking intermediaries from the Western Sudan. Both gold-working and goldweight production were "probably" widespread

" . . by the late fourteenth and fifteenth century" (p. 3) but it was consider- ably later however, i.e., the 18th century, when gold replaced its predecessor, iron, as the most important form of currency on the Gold Coast. The Akan system of weights and scales was also a product of trans-Saharan influences which was modified later to suit the exigencies of the Atlantic Trade. Further speculation to the contrary, Garrard con-

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Books/Livres 649

vincingly shows that this was not a complex system rooted in indigenous Akan concepts of reckoning but rather " ... appears to consist of the fusion of four very simple systems of weights, two Islamic, and two European" (p. 5).

The arrival of the Europeans on the Gold Coast strongly stimulated gold production and the gold trade in the Akan States, and, with the exception of the 18th century when there was a dramatic decline as a result of the predominance of the slave trade, gold remained the single most important commodity in the trade of this area down to the colonial era. Despite its vital importance, there has been no comprehensive study of gold production or the gold trade prior to Garrard's work. It is in this area, therefore, that Garrard has made his most substantial contribution, and his systematic attempt to measure the volume of gold production and export over the period 1451-1900 is as important in its own right as Philip Curtin's attempted census of the slave trade. Like the latter work, Garrard's study is based on an exhaustive survey of the available records as well as carefully worked out calculations of the likely capacity of indigenous methods of gold production. The result is a drastic downward revision of previous estimates of the volume of gold production and exports in the Gold Coast and, by implication, in West Africa as a whole. Garrard estimates a total gold production of 14 million ounces for the period 1451-1900, for an annual average of 28,000 ounces (p. 166); of this, he reckons 4,250,000 ounces and 9,350,000 ounces found their way into the trans-Saharan and Atlantic trades respectively (p. 163), while the remainder was retained for use in the domestic market (p. 165). Garrard's figures are striking when one compares them with the earlier estimates of Burton, 366,000 ounces annually (p. 148), or Mauny's grossly inflated guess of as much as four tons annually (p. 149). Such figures, Garrard con- clusively shows, were far beyond the capacity of indigenous producers who had neither the necessary technology nor labour.

Garrard's estimates lend credence to his observation that oral traditon among the Akan suggests that the gold trade was traditionally viewed as a "bad trade," offering a meagre return for the time and labour invested in production (p. 148). Thus, although Garrard himself refuses to speculate too widely in this direction, it is clear why it was infinitely more profitable to sell slaves than to retain them as labour in the production of gold. This explains the dramatic decline in gold production during the height of the slave trade and the subsequent and equally dramatic increase in production after abolition of the trade early in the 19th century. It may also account for a shift from free to slave labour in the gold industry in the Gold Coast in the 19th century, a subject about which Garrard is somewhat hesitant to speculate. The latter question has been the subject of some dispute among historians involved in the mode of production debate in the Gold Coast, and, while Garrard cautiously refrains from any definitive conclusions, he has provided the first extensive data on the economics of gold production to which others more ideo- logically inclined might do well to refer. Modes of production aside, the overall implication is that goldmining on the Gold Coast prior to the introduction of full scale mechanization in the 20th century was a marginal industry, whose principal justification was to be found in the fact that the gold trade was the only trade for much of the time in question.

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650 Revue canadienne des etudes africaines

Finally, one would be remiss to conclude a review of this excellent study without

commenting on the outstanding quality of the photographs, maps and drawings. This is a handsome book, from cover to cover, and this helps but does not entirely alleviate some of the pain of the purchase price.

Gerald M. McSHEFFREY Etobicoke, Ontario.

David J. GOULD, Bureaucratic Corruption and Underdevelopment in the Third World: the Case ofZaire. New York: Pergamon Press, 1980, 183 p.

Dans cet ouvrage, David J. Gould analyse l'evolution de la corruption bureaucratique au Zaire suivant trois etapes historiques:

- La periode coloniale et la naissance du phenomene: l'introduction de la corruption au Congo devenu Zaire coincide avec la colonisation du pays par la Belgique par le truchement, entre autres, du systeme d'administration indirecte applique par le Gouvernement.

- Elle se developpe de 1960 a 1965, periode au cours de laquelle des Congolais issus des derniers echelons de la hierarchie administrative coloniale prennent le relais de leurs anciens maitres et s'efforcent d'accumuler les avantages qui revenaient anterieurement a ces derniers en s'appropriant l'appareil de l'Etat et en recourant aux mecanismes de corruption. La consolidation de cette bourgeoisie naissante se heurte aux dissensions internes nourries par des rivalites ethniques ou regionales.

- Elle culmine de 1965 a 1979. Vaincre ces dissensions etait une des taches

primordiales du nouveau regime issu du coup d'Etat militaire du 24 novembre. Une conjoncture interne plus calme permet a cette bourgeoisie de s'unifier et de consolider sa puissance aux niveaux social, economique et politique. A chacun de ces niveaux, I'auteur stigmatise les chainons de la corruption: bas salaires, malnutrition, detournements de fonds, fraudes fiscales, logement, sante publique et securite negliges, dependance economique du pays, extraversion de son

systeme economique. Il s'attaque enfin au caractere dominant et mystificateur du Parti Politique Unique, le M.P.R., eleve au rang d'institution supreme du pays dont depend toute promotion sociale.

Cet ouvrage a le grand merite de resumer en un langage clair la realite zairoise, depuis la periode coloniale jusqu' nos jours, du point de vue politique et socio-economique. Il est preced' d'une partie theorique sur le sous-developpement et la corruption bureau- cratique. Cette theorie s'appuie sur des faits quotidiennement vecus dont l'auteur reproduit de larges extraits dans le corps du livre et surtout dans les annexes. A ce titre, cette publication differe de celle qui resulterait d'une "recherche en chambre" oii la theorie remplacerait les faits au lieu de s'appuyer sur eux. Cette demarche temoigne de l'experience de l'auteur sur les problemes du Zaire.

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