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Chapter 5
Commerce and Credit in Katsina
in the Nineteenth Century
Yacine Daddi Addoun and Paul E. Lovejoy
As A. G. Hopkins has demonstrated in his seminal study of West African economic history, the period after 1807 involved a major shift in the external trade of West Africa. The
beginnings of slave trade abolition encouraged a transition to the export of agricultural and
other commodities from West Africa, rather than slaves.1 For Hopkins, this was a “crisis of
adaptation” that laid the foundations for the modern economy of the region and eventually
resulted in the colonial conquest at the end of the century. Hopkins recognized that 1807 was
only the start of a decades-long transition that would be propelled through the cycles of
world trade in the last three decades of the century into colonialism. Hence during the period of transition and transformation after 1807 there were multiple adjustments within
West Africa. While the production and export of palm oil and then palm kernels was the
leading sector in this transition, other commodities were also important. As the present
study of commerce in the Sokoto Caliphate demonstrates, however, the extent to which this
transition affected Muslim areas in the interior is less clearly understood. The Sokoto Caliphate
was formed at virtually the same time as the British abolition of the Atlantic slave trade—
that is, in 1804–8 — but rather than reflect changes in the European-dominated Atlantic
world, the caliphate economy was oriented more toward the north and other parts of Dār
al-Islām than to the coast. In that regard, the slave trade hardly declined but rather continued unabated at least through the middle of the nineteenth century.2 There were modest attempts to extend British abolition across the Sahara, but other than ending Muslim corsair
raids in the Mediterranean after 1816, British diplomatic efforts had little if any effect. Indeed, there is some indication that Muslim authorities in the Sokoto Caliphate had no objections to abolition in regard to trading in slaves with non-Muslims, and especially Christians.3
A study of commerce and credit in the first half of the nineteenth century establishes
that a Muslim commercial system was operating in the interior that was relatively im1. A. G. Hopkins, An Economic History of West Africa (London: Longman, 1973). See also Robin
Law, ed., From Slave Trade to “Legitimate” Commerce: The Commercial Transition in Nineteenth-Century West Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
2. For the nineteenth-century slave trade from the Sokoto Caliphate, see Paul Lovejoy, “Commercial Sectors in the Economy of the Nineteenth-Century Central Sudan: The Trans-Saharan Trade
and the Desert-Side Salt Trade,” African Economic History 13 (1984): 85–116.
3. The now classic study is A. A. Boahen, Britain, the Sahara, and the Western Sudan, 1788–1861
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964), but see also John Wright, The Trans-Saharan Slave Trade (London:
Routledge, 2007). For caliphate opposition to the Atlantic slave trade, see Paul Lovejoy, “The Clapperton-Bello Exchange: The Sokoto Jihad and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, 1804–1837,” in Christo111
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mune to changes in Atlantic trade. Muslim trade across the Sahara still governed commercial
exchange at least through the middle of the century. This study examines this interior
trade on the basis of the accounts of one of the most important merchants in the Sokoto
Caliphate from the 1820s through the 1850s, Abū ‘l-Ghayth b. Aḥmad al-Tuwātī, who
was otherwise known as Balghīth and who resided in the city of Katsina. On the basis of
Balghīth’s surviving accounts, it is possible to analyze commerce and credit arrangements
that were virtually isolated from Atlantic patterns of commerce. While commercial papers
on the shift to so-called “legitimate” commerce are plentiful and readily accessible along
the West African coast, the same is not the case for the Muslim interior of West Africa.
Through a combination of circumstances, we now know a considerable amount about Balghīth’s career, and something about his personal life. This is particularly so because a
considerable portion of his accounts have survived. Balghīth’s surviving account book is
located in the Nigerian National Archives, Kaduna, and covers the period 1245–64 AH
(1829–45 CE).4 The account book consists of 35 folios, numbered from 1 to 69.5 We only
have had access to a photocopied version of the original document, and therefore cannot
establish the condition of the document. The folios are not in any particular order, except for two of the folios that are connected. Each folio lists items according to the way
the accounts were entered. The accounts are usually recorded in cowrie shells but occasionally in gold mithqāl and silver dollars, which also circulated in the Sokoto Caliphate
along with cowries. Almost all the names are crossed out, including often the accounts
themselves, either totally or partially, once the account was settled. Hence, reading the text
and deciphering names are difficult and sometimes impossible.
Abū al-Ghayth b. Aḥmad al-Tuwātī, also known as al-Hājj Balghīth b. Sayyid Aḥmad
b. Sayyid Muḥammad al-Wajdāwī ‘l-Tuwātī, was undoubtedly the wealthiest merchant
in Katsina in the first half of the nineteenth century. As Balghīth’s name suggests, he was
from Tuwāt, apparently from the village of Wājda, near Timimoun, but had lived in
Katsina since at least the late 1820s. He dealt in slaves, salt, camels, silk, houses, perfume,
coral, yellow and red tanned leather, antimony, horses, carpets, mirrors, cotton textiles
of local manufacture, scarves, and other goods. Most of the items in the book, as its title
suggests, are the debts various persons owed Balghīth, although the contents are in fact
more diverse. As a leading merchant, he also had to arrange transport, as noted in his
business with Zungu Aghuil, who owed 2,000 cowries, which was “the price of renting camels,
meaning letting us take care of them since last year, after they brought them to us; we
transport on them the merchandise destined for the Sudan: textiles, Kūr cloths, white
clothes, Sha‘rī, Adafan . . . coats: big and small, . . . and other various things, including
shoes.” Moreover, he held the mortgages on houses and other property and served as a
banker, the details of which are discussed below. Other details of his life are also known,
including various commercial partnerships, including that with Muḥammad al-Madanī
al-Ghātī, gifts of wafq, the bride-price for one of his wives, and the terms of his last will
and testament. Indirectly, Balghīth’s business provides some insight into issues of social
hierarchy and attitudes toward race, ethnicity, and slavery in the Sokoto Caliphate, and
pher Wise, ed., The Desert Shore: Literatures of the African Sahel (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2000),
201–28.
4. The manuscript is filed as Kitab Zima-mun Duyun by Alhaji Bulgat Tuat, 1245 A.H. (A.D.
1829), Katprof G/AR3/1, Nigerian National Archives, Kaduna. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the workshop “Historical Constructions of ‘Race’ and Social Hierarchy in Muslim West and
North Africa,” Dakar, Senegal, December 9–12, 2008. We wish to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History
for their support.
5. Folios 1–19, the will on f. 32, and ff. 41–69 have been transcribed and translated.
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more generally for the Central Sudan and the Sahara. It is clear from the book that Balghīth was a man of average learning. The book is barely readable and contains spelling
and grammatical mistakes. It is also clear that several individuals, not only Balghīth, made
entries in the accounts.
The account book and other information indicate that Balghīth had extensive commercial
dealings and was knowledgeable of market conditions and the political landscape of the
Sokoto Caliphate and the Sahara. Moreover, it appears that Balghīth was the principal
Tuwātī merchant in Katsina at the height of the trans-Saharan slave trade in the second
quarter of the nineteenth century. Fortunately, moreover, he was a principal informant
and host of Heinrich Barth, the British diplomat who toured the Central Sudan from
1849 to 1855 and who was in Katsina twice, first in early 1850 and then again in early
1853. Barth’s comments are invaluable in providing an impression of the man that is independent of the account book.6 According to what Barth learned, “haj Bel-Ghet” had
been “born in Tawat, but who had long been settled in Katsena, and though not with the
title, yet in reality holding the office of ‘a serki-n-turawa’” — that is, Sarkin Turawa, the
office in several emirates that was responsible for merchants coming from North Africa.7
When Barth first met him, he was already an “old man.” In 1850, he had a son, whom Barth
estimated to be about thirty-five.8 Initially Barth did not get along with Balghīth, later
remembering him as “one of my direst tormentors, the bare remembrance of whom is even
now unpleasant.” Nonetheless, Balghīth became Barth’s “protector” — hence his designation as the de facto Sarkin Turawa — and he grudgingly considered Balghīth his “old
fanatical friend,” with whom he had fierce theological debates, especially over being called
“kāfir” (pagan), to which Barth took exception, since the term technically did not refer
to Christians.9
Through Barth’s description of Katsina and his relationship with Balghīth, it is possible to identify many of the individuals mentioned in the account book and thereby reconstruct social and commercial relations that provide context for the study of the caliphate
economy. Actually the account book was written in different hands. The most elegant
writer was a Tuwāti scholar living in Katsina, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad Yūsuf alTuwātī, who is certainly the same ‘Abd al-Raḥmān mentioned by Barth as a cleric (Hausa:
mallam) in Katsina and a companion of Balghīth:
Besides this man [Balghīth], my principal acquaintance during my stay in Katsena this time was a Tawati of the name of ‘Abd e’ Rahman, a very amiable
and social man, and as a faki, possessing a certain degree of learning. He had
been a great friend of the Sultan [Muḥammad] Bello [d. 1837], and expatiated
6. Heinrich Barth, Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa; Being a Journal of an Exhibition Undertaken under the Auspices of H.B.M.’s Government in the Years 1849–1855 (New York:
Harper and Brothers, 1857), 1:455–67; 3:83.
7. Barth, Travels and Discoveries, 1:455. The title literally means “chief of the whites,” that is, North
Africans. See Paul E. Lovejoy, Caravans of Kola: The Hausa Kola Trade, 1700–1900 (Zaria, Nigeria: Ahmadu Bello University Press, 1980). The term “turawa” (sing. bature) came to apply to Europeans in
the colonial era, but did not have this connotation in the middle of the nineteenth century. As
Cheggueun explained it to Eugène Daumas in 1839, “Ces Touraoua (Arabes) sont descendus chez toi,
veille sur eux; s’il arrive qu’on les vole ou qu’on leur fasse le moindre mal, ne leur volât-on qu’une aiguille, ne leur fît-on qu’une injure, je ferai vendre au marché les coupables.” See Eugène Daumas and
Ausone de Chancel, Le Grand Désert ou Itinéraire d’une caravane du Sahara au pays des nègres (Royaume de Haoussa) (Paris: Imprimerie et Librairie Centrales de Napoléon Chaix et Cie, 1848), 222.
8. Barth, Travels and Discoveries, 1:466.
9. Rather inconsistently, Barth did agree that Russians, who were known as “Mosko,” could be
considered kāfir; see ibid., 465.
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with the greatest enthusiasm on the qualities and achievements of this distinguished ruler of the Negroland. He also gave the first hints of some of the
most important subjects relating to the geography and history of western Negroland, and called my attention particularly to a man whom he presented as
the most learned of the present generation of the inhabitants of Sokoto, and
from whom, he assured me, I should not fail to obtain what information I
wanted. This man was ‘Abd el Kader dan Taffa (meaning the son of Mustapha),
on whose stores of knowledge I drew largely.10 My intercourse with ‘Abd e’
Rahman was occasionally interrupted by an amicable tilt at our respective
creeds. On one occasion, when my learned friend was endeavoring to convince me of the propriety of polygamy, he adduced at an illustration that in
matters of the table we did not confine ourselves to a single dish, but took a
little fowl, a little fish, a little roast beef; and how absurd, he argued, was it to
restrict ourselves, in the intercourse with the other sex, to only one wife. It
was during my second stay in Katsena that I collected most information which
I have communicated on a former occasion with regard to the history of
Hausa.11
In addition, Muḥammad b. ‘Abd Allāh al-Tuwātī al-Gurārī is mentioned on folios
9–10, 16, 17, and 20. Al-Makkī b. ‘Abd Allāh al-Tuwātī, Mūsā b. al-Ḥājj Muḥammad b.
Hibat Allāh al-Ghadāmisī was Balghīth’s “constant companion,” according to Barth, who
met him when he was in Katsina in 1850.12 There are others who figure as scribes or witnesses. Moreover, in many cases, individuals contracting debts often wrote for themselves, which apparently helped to validate contracts. In examining the names and ethnic
or region of origin of people mentioned in the accounts, we find that Balghīth provided
credit to the poor and the rich, to men and women, as well as to free persons and slaves
alike. Among those with whom he did business was Kawdi, chief of the Kel Ewey Tuareg
(ff. 48, 51–52), and the emir of Katsina, Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (f. 49). Balghīth also mentions business with Ḥājj Maṭṭiḍan b. al-Ḥājj Aḥmad b. al-Ḥājj Muḥammad Hibat Allāh.
In addition, he did business with slaves (f. 25), emancipated slaves who were linked to the
emir, and anonymous individuals of low status. Women appear in the book as beneficiaries of Balghīth’s services and guarantors of other people, such as Nanna Ruqayya (f.
25). The way people are addressed and the names that are used reveal a subtle taxonomy
that highlights status and the kinlessness of slaves. Thus, preceding the signature are such
phrases as “the servant of his Lord [so and so]” and sometimes more explicitly, “the slave
of his Lord” (‘Abd rabbihi, or ‘Abīd rabbihi). This metaphorical language suggests qualities of humility and dignity that are contrasted with references to slaves, who are always
the ‘abd of another human being. The contrast between free people and slaves is always
clear. The following slave names are found in the accounts; it is noteworthy that slaves and
former slaves were not normally called the standard Muslim names — Muḥammad,
Abubakar, Usman, Musa, Aḥmad — but rather had unique names that identified servile
status, including male Mainassara (Hausa: the victorious), Bawa, Barka, and Faraji; and
female names, Bakashina, Zaynab, Biru, Hawa, and Akakba (f. 26).
The earliest transactions in Balghīth’s accounts date to 1829, including the following
entry from August 1829, which outlines a contract for goods that were advanced on credit,
with the expectation that the amount would be paid in two months:
10. He may have been the son of Mustafa, but ‘dan Taffa refers to his mother, Taffa.
11. Barth, Travels and Discoveries, 3:86.
12. Ibid., 1:458–59.
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Praise be to God. Aḥmad b. Ḥamma, known as al-Tuwātī owes 48,000 [cowries]
to his indebted Sīdī-Balghīth the owner of the book, the price of merchandise he
bought from him, and the deadline for him is fixed at two months after the date.
Written by the one who heard them, knowing both of them, at the end of Ṣafar
of the year 1245 [end of August 1829], the servant of his Lord, Muḥammad b.
‘Abd Allāh al-Tuwātī. May God pardon him. Amen. The aforementioned Aḥmad
also owes 4,000 cowrie shells for merchandise. Written by [the one] who heard
on the date mentioned above. The servant of his Lord, Muḥammad b. ‘Abd Allāh
al-Tuwātī. The aforementioned Aḥmad b. Ḥamma still has a debt of 24,000.
115
The importance of a fixed date for repayment should be noted, as in the case of “May
Nasar[a] [who] owes his creditor, the owner of the book, 8,500 [cowries] and the deadline is the 20th of Rabi‘ I.”
While Balghīth advanced goods on credit, he was also involved in formal business partnerships, as in the case of his dealings with a partner, Muḥammad al-Madanī, in the oasis
of Ghāt.
Praise be to God. This is the inventory of our merchandise which is in Ghat in
the hands of our beloved Muḥammad al-Madanī. As a deposit: coats: qashāshīb,
and pants. . . . Inside of which one pound of Laban pure, a pant, 12 pounds of . . .
expensive one . . . seven . . . one box of . . . 5,000 and 170 pieces of silk and a veil
Aḥulī, In the custody of Shukri 5,400 for silk and I waited for him benevolently.
Similarly, in another transaction, Balghīth distinguished between slaves who were purchased through his partnership with Muḥammad al-Madanī and a slave who had been acquired through the collection on a separate and unrelated debt.
Praise be to God. Concerning the price of the female slaves who were part of the
capital of the partnership which exists between me and Muḥammad al-Madanī,
the first one is Bakashina and her daughter worth 60,000. Then Zaynab is worth
31,000. Then Bīru is worth 30,000. The whole is worth 121,000. As for Ḥawā, she
is not from the joint capital but is among my belongings which I brought with
me from Ghāt with the knowledge of my partner Muḥammad al-Madanī and
which is the remainder of a debt owed me by some people before the partnership [with Muḥammad al-Madanī].
As is clear in this entry, Balghīth had traveled to Ghāt at least once, and it is reported
that he had been on pilgrimage to Mecca.
The difficulty of collecting debts can be seen in several entries. For example, Balghīth
claimed that al-Makkī still owed him money, although Balghīth had “waited for him patiently with generosity and charity, [which was] testified by Ḥamīd b. al-Faqī Sa‘d and
Abba b. al-‘Azzāwī b. ‘Afiyya b. Balqāsim al-‘Azzāwī” (f. 48). In another case, it is recorded
that
Kandark, the Tuareg man, owes 303,000, the price of two slave girls and a slave
boy and what we spent for them, in addition to water skins.13 It was a deposit and
he breached the contract. I initially sent the slave girl and the boy to Ḥājj Maṭṭīdan and they did not reach him. Instead he sold them himself. So, I made the
calculations with him and estimated them to be 303,000, and he paid the amount
of 115,000. Dadda al-Maqazdī [owes] 2,500, the price of salt. [Name unclear]14
13. The 3,000 cowries in the price was probably the commission.
14. This reads as AMRBNF, which is unclear because there are no vowels indicated.
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owes 25,200, the price of 85 pieces of silk, [and] I gave him until the 10th of
Muḥarram [to pay]. The aforementioned Kandark paid 52,000 of the said amount
in [1829–30], by the hand of Muḥammad Maṭṭidan b. al-Hājj Aḥmad b. al-Ḥājj
Muḥammad b. Hibat Allāh.
Balghīth also reports cases in which he was forced to make payments as a result of the decision of a qāḍī (judge):
A woman pretended that she left a deposit of 6,000 with Hājj Mūsā. She complained to the qāḍī, and she brought the witnesses she was asked to provide. The
qāḍī ordered me to pay 6,000. I paid the amount to her. The balance is 77,500.
The old woman [called] the daughter of Ḥājj Mūsā, who complained to the qāḍī
that she had made a deposit in her father’s care. The qāḍī gave the old woman
[the money]. That’s all.
A creditor could force repayment of a loan or an advance, as Balghīth did when he was
set to travel and his client had not returned and therefore could not settle the debt:
Praise be to God. Whoever sees this document should know that when Abū ‘lGhayth, mentioned above, decided to go on a trip, and [because] the above mentioned Bābā was still absent, he [Balghīth] came to us and we handed the slave
girl to him, in replacement of the price [amount?] indicated, as the above mentioned Bābā himself instructed us before. The slave of his Lord Almighty, ‘Abd
al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad Yūsuf al-Tuwātī. May God be kind to him. Amen.
And the servant of his Lord Almighty, al-Ḥājj al-Makkī b. ‘Abd Allāh al-Tuwātī.
May God be kind to him. Amen.
In another entry, Balghīth reports that “Al-Sannūsī has ordered me to give to his slave
girls 3,500 [cowries], and I have handed the sum to them before they get married.” The
entry establishes that “the aforementioned Sannūsī is the brother of the deceased Ḥājj
Mūsā.”
There is considerable information on the price of slaves, including the prices of the
three women and a girl who belonged to Balghīth and Muḥammad al-Madanī (Bakashina
and her daughter at 60,000 cowries, Zaynab at 31,000; and Bīru at 30,000), already cited.
In 1829, Balghīth was involved in a slave transaction in which a slave woman cost 18,000
cowries: “Bābā b. Ḥammādī from In Ṣālaḥ paid Abū ‘l-Ghayth 18,000 for the price of a
slave woman who is in the custody of Muḥammad b. Faḍlūn. Written by who heard it,
Al-Ḥājj Aḥmad b. ‘Abd Allāh b. al-Ṭālib b. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān.” In another transaction, the
price of a male slave was stated as being 25,000 cowries. The transaction and payments
were recorded as follows:
Bakū b. Kunkur has also [a debt of] 29,000, 20,000 in the charge of his brother,
‘Īsā, and 9,000 in the charge of his slave who accompanied him [‘Īsā] to Zagzag
[Zaria]. He paid 66,000, then he paid 23,000, then he paid 25,000, the price of
a male slave. He paid 10,000 [and] then he paid 9,000.
And yet in another case, a slave girl sold for 50,000 cowries, while a male slave and his
wife sold for 30,000 cowries, which also included a commission of 3,500 cowries. “This
is a reminder of the deposit of Ḥājj Mūsā. We sold his slave girl for 50,000. The slave man
and his wife cost 30,000.” These prices can be compared with other data, especially that
of the account of prices in Katsina as recorded by Eugéne Daumas. The information Daumas reported appears to date to the early 1830s, when it was known that Balghīth was in
fact trading in slaves in Katsina. According to Cheggueun, a male adolescent cost
10,000–15,000 cowries, while a young woman, depending on her perceived beauty, could
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cost from 50,000 to 60,000 cowries. An adult male cost 45,000 and an adult woman,
35,000 to 40,000 cowries.15
As in the sale of other items, there was usually a commission on the sale of slaves.
Although this is not always mentioned, a commission was standard Islamic practice. In
the account book, it appears that the small sums of cowries added on to high prices were
probably the commission, as in the case of the purchase of two slaves for 100,000
cowries, in which there is a sum of 2,000 cowries that seems to be added on. For example, “Al-Ḥājj Muḥammad b. al-Ṭayyib has [bought] two female slaves, [their cost]
totaling 100,000; he still has 2,000 [to pay] as well; he paid 35,000.” Slaves were also
given on credit with payment expected within a specified period of time, usually one
to three months.
Praise be to God. Al-Ḥājj Muḥammad b. al-Ṭayyib al-Tuwātī has a female
slave worth 75,000 belonging to Abū ‘l-Ghayth b. Aḥmad al-Tuwātī. Testified
by the slave of God Almighty, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad Yūsuf al-Tuwātī,
may God be pleased with him. He also [owes] 30,000 for the price of merchandise. The fore mentioned ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad Yūsuf testified
about it.
In addition to his mercantile activities, Balghīth was also a landlord (mai gida) in the traditional sense used in Muslim Hausa society.16 As a mai gida he owned an extensive compound and accommodated visiting traders. In 1850, Balghīth became the landlord of
British diplomat Heinrich Barth, and in that capacity provided accommodations, arranged
for interviews with the emir and other officials, and assisted in Barth’s trade. According
to Barth’s critique of his host, he was not impressed when Balghīth showed him to his quarters; he found himself “lodged in a small house opposite the spacious dwelling of BelGhet [Balghīth]; and though, on first entering, I found it almost insupportable, I soon
succeeded in making myself tolerably comfortable in a clean room neatly arranged.”17
As his host, Balghīth was responsible for his well-being and for his introduction to the
emir of Katsina, who at the time was Muḥammad Bello (1844–70). According to Barth,
Balghīth “promised” his assistance if Barth would “bind myself to return to Katsena . . .
after having sufficient supplies from the coast.”
This I did to a certain degree, under the condition that circumstances should
not prove unfavorable to such a proceeding; indeed, I doubted at that time very
much whether I should be able to return this way again. But when I did revisit
Katsena in the beginning of 1853, with a considerable supply of presents, and met
before the gates of the town this same man, who had been sent to compliment
me on the part of the same governor, it was a triumph which I could scarcely have
expected. The old man was on the latter occasion almost beside himself with
joy, and fell upon my neck exclaiming, over and over again, “‘Abd el Kerim! ‘Abd
el Kerim!”18 while I told him, “Here I am, although both my companions have
15. Daumas and Chancel, Grand Désert, 241–42.
16. There is an extensive literature on the functions and roles of mai gida in the history of the
Central Sudan and more generally West Africa, specifically in Muslim contexts; see Lovejoy, Caravans of Kola, Lovejoy, Salt of the Desert Sun, and the sources cited therein.
17. Yusufu Bala Usman, The Transformation of Katsina, 1400–1883 (Zaria, Nigeria: Ahmadu Bello
University Press, 1981), 217.
18. Barth was known by this name in the Central Sudan.
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died; I am come to fulfill my promise. I am on my way to Sokoto, with valuable
presents for the Emir el Mumenin.”
Like other landlords, Balghīth not only owned and managed several properties in Katsina
city, he was actively involved in buying, selling, leasing, and mortgaging property. In one
case,
Zongo paid 60,000. Then he paid 55,000. He also paid 40,000 [and] also 45,000.
He paid also 15,000. Praise be to God. ‘Abd Allāh the freed slave of Maynasara
owes 35,000 to Abū ‘l-Ghayth b. Aḥmad al-Tuwātī. Written by whom he testified
about it, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Yūsuf al-Tuwātī, may God be pleased with him.
Amen. Also he owes 5,000. He also owes 3,000, [and] 2,000. He still has to pay
20,000. Praise be to God. The fore mentioned ‘Abd Allāh took us as witness that
he put his house, widely known that it belongs to him, situated not far from
Bābā, in the hands of the fore mentioned Abū ‘l-Ghayth, [who now] has the
right to [let use] whom he wants and refuse whom he wants; written by the servant of his Lord Almighty, the fore mentioned ‘Abd al-Raḥmān. May God be
pleased with him. Amen.
Not only did Balghīth own a considerable amount of property, he was also involved in real
estate transactions. On one occasion, he reports:
Praise be to God Muḥammad b. Ḥājj Dārī owes Abū ‘l-Ghayth b. al-Ḥājj Aḥmad
al-Tuwātī 120,000 cowries. The agreement for payment is the next holy month
of Dhū ‘l-Ḥijja. Written and witnessed in the month of Jumādā ‘l-Ākhir 1256
[July-August 1840], by ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad b. Yūsuf. Muḥammad
b. al-Ḥājj Dārī also testifies about himself, with his hand writing that he paid
10,000, then 20,000. Then [he] paid 80,000, the price of the house he sold to
him.
He was also involved in mortgaging houses, as the following case demonstrates, which indicates that houses were owned and there was a market in housing. And it is clear that
rooms and compounds were rented, as in the case when “Balghīth b. Aḥmad al-Tuwātī,
for rental of a room [perhaps, compound] for a year to ‘Abd Allāh, for his manumitted
slave May Nasar[a], at 25,000. He then paid the rest” (f. 69). We do not know, but it is
likely, whether he owned plantations and farms outside the city. Landlords operating on
his scale had to invest in plantation agriculture to produce food for visitors and dependents, and fodder and grain for livestock. They also speculated in grain and other products because of their scale of production. As seems clear in this transaction, Balghīth
gained control of a house that he could use for his own purposes until the mortgage was
cleared, which included using it to provide accommodations to strangers, as foreigners
and visiting merchants were called, or to lease out to others, who could include tenants,
prostitutes, or the dependents of visiting merchants and dignitaries. Camels, donkeys,
and other livestock had to be accommodated outside the city, which increases the likelihood that Balghīth had property in the villages and towns surrounding Katsina, particularly to the south and southeast of the city.
Slaves were also used as collateral on mortgages, since they were legally and personally considered to be property that could be bought and sold at the discretion of the
owner. On that basis, they themselves could be mortgaged. However, unlike “mortgaging” in the true sense of the term, slaves, like real estate, were held in pawn. Any profits
from houses, as well as the labor and services of slaves, were at the behest of the creditor, unlike in mortgaging where the individual in debt retains control of his assets. Even
slaves could be mortgaged, as in the case of an unidentified imam demonstrates:
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We seek His help. I testified, with Mūsā and Sīdī Ḥamad, that Sīdī b. Muḥammad, the imām of [name unclear]19 has given his slave girl, Akakba, as mortgage to Balghīth in exchange for 15,000. She is in the hands of the mortgage
holder. The deadline [for repayment] is the month of Dhū ‘l-Ḥijja. If he shows
up and pays, she returns to him. Otherwise . . . (f. 66)
119
Foreclosure on debt was clearly recognized, but hard to enforce. The arrangement to secure
repayment of a debt could be done at considerable distance, such as across the Sahara, and
had to be conducted through agents, known in Hausa as dillali (pl. dillalai). Thus was the
case of Waru’s debt to Balghīth, which was handled through his agent, Ratgu, in 1829.
In the name of God, this is to remember of the obvious, and the consequences
of time. Waru owes 35,000 for the goods from Balghīth, and the deadline [for repayment] is two months from the date of Monday 24 Jumādā 2, 1244 [December 21, 1829]. His representative is Ratgu, who is the witness as well. That’s all.
Ratgu was made custodian of his slave. Then the slave became like a mortgage.
If he [Waru] delays his return, then the slave will be sold for the price he owes.
As in a mortgage, the asset could be sold after a specified period of time, and in these cases
the time was specified in terms of months, which are named. Hence, the creditor had both
immediate control and use of the asset, whether or not immovable or human, but could
foreclose through sale after a set period. In another case, a female slave was being held as
ransom, for a debt that was certainly small, as indicated by the commission of 500 cowries,
which shows that Balghīth was interested in any amount of money, no matter how small:
I witness that Bābā b. Ḥammādī al-Tuwātī owes 40,500 cowrie shells to his creditor Abū ‘l-Ghayth al-Tuwātī and the mentioned Bābā mortgaged his female slave,
Khadīja, who is put under the custody of Ba‘u bt. Mūsā. Written by whom testified
about it the end of Jumādā II, 1246 [July 20, 1830]. The slave of his Lord Almighty,
‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad Yūsuf al-Tuwātī, may God be kind to him. Amen.
In this case, it is no wonder that ‘Abd al-Raḥmān inveighed God to be kind to him, which
he often did. We do not know much about Khadīja, but the implication of being put “under
the custody of Ba‘u bt. Mūsā” meant that she might be sold. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān, in bowing
before Allah, reduced himself to the level of “the slave of his Lord Almighty,” thereby claiming some recognition of the indignation and suffering that was involved, albeit in mockery.
Balghīth was far from heartless, as is evidenced in his involvement in arranging the redemption
of slaves by relatives—as in this case, where the apparent commission was much higher than
in all other transactions in Balghīth’s accounts (i.e., where commission seems to be identified). In this case, the apparent commission was 4,000 cowries, not a few hundred:
Anybody who sees this [document] should know that the slave girl whom her father ransomed from the above mentioned Ḥammadānī still has to pay 34,000.
He put the fore mentioned slave in the custody [as mortgage] in the hands of
Abū ‘l-Ghayth until her father hands over 30,000. Written by him who testified
about them, the slave of his God Almighty, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad Yūsuf
al-Tuwātī. May God have mercy on him; amen. The above mentioned Ḥammadānī gave two pillows as a deposit.
Slaves were given in payment of debt, which involved the evaluation of the slave in some
way that is not clear. Presumably the creditor — that is, Balghīth — set the value, although
19. It is clear that it is a place name but because it is not vocalized it is not clearly written, we
were not able to read it accurately: SLMNWY.
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this had to be done in the presence of witnesses and therefore most certainly reflected
current market prices in Katsina. The emir of Tuareg, Kawdi, bought a camel evaluated
at 50,000 cowries, which was reduced to] 40,000, and he also paid for a male slave who
was evaluated at 30,000. Similarly, the Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, emir of Katsina, 1836–44,
owed Balghīth 81,000 cowries. The emir also received “a white barnūs [baban riga] worth
45,000.” According to the account, the emir gave Balghīth a female slave worth 22,000
cowries. Presumably, the emir of Katsina had access to slaves for this purpose through the
annual campaigns that resulted in the enslavement of people in enemy territory. There are
also references to emancipated slaves, such as ‘Abd Allāh, Mainassara and Ma‘allam Nafāti,
to whom Balghīth loaned money or had given goods on credit.
Balghīth is referred to in the annotation on the account book in the Kaduna archives as
an al-Ḥajj, but when he had performed the pilgrimage is uncertain. Such recognition certainly suggests that he was among the elite of the commercial and scholarly world of western Africa. As Daumas reported, Tuwāt consisted of a series of dispersed oases, villages, and
hamlets, at which various ṣūfī brotherhoods maintained retreats. Barth’s confrontation with
Balghīth over religious issues may have reflected the fact that Balghīth’s family was associated with one of these religious orders. The contemporary observations of Daumas, admittedly based largely on secondhand information, confirm the intensity of religious conviction
in the region during the period of Balghīth’s business dealings in Katsina and was reflected
in the intellectual confrontation that Barth experienced while under Balghīth’s patronage.
Bala Usman interviewed two of Balghīth’s descendants, Alhaji Barmo Makudawa and
Abba Darho, in Unguwar Alali, Katsina, in the early 1970s, thereby establishing continuity in the family business that lasted several generations and probably extended back
at least to the time of Balghīth’s father, Aḥmad.20 At the time that Barth knew Balghīth
in the 1850s, Barth thought that Katsina had “declined” from its position before’dan
Fodio’s jihad (1804–8), and the most influential merchants had shifted to Kano.21 Despite
this claim, it is difficult to document such a decline, especially in light of Yusufu Bala
Usman’s interpretation of Katsina’s trade and economy in the nineteenth century.22 Merchants who had immigrated from Borno, known locally as Beriberi and Kambarin Beriberi,
settled in Katsina in after ca. 1810. Other merchants, known as Agalawa, emerged in the
towns and villages to the southeast of Katsina city. By origin, they were descended from
slaves of Tuareg nomads, such as the Kel Ewey, who are mentioned in Balghīth’s accounts.
Finally, there merchants who came from the western Sudan, who were known in West
Africa as Wangara, or in Hausa as Wangarawa These merchants had important connections to the west, and particularly to the middle Volta basin, ties in Mohammed Gardo
Baquaqua’s family.23 If Katsina did experience any decline, it was only relative to the great
expansion in the trade and production of Kano, to the south. It is interesting that in Balghīth’s accounts, there is no recognized connection with Kano, although supposedly many
Katsina merchants were trading to Kano by the middle of the nineteenth century.
20. Usman, Transformation of Katsina, 217. Usman thought that Balghīth had been in Katsina for
“at least a decade” before Barth’s visit, but from internal evidence in the account book, Balghīth was
there in the late 1820s, and perhaps earlier.
21. Barth, Travels and Discoveries, 1:479.
22. Usman, Transformation of Katsina. Usman incorrectly gives his name as Ahmad Abu al-Gaith
al-Tuwati. For the role of the Agalawa and Kambarin Beriberi in Katsina, see Lovejoy, Caravans of
Kola.
23. See Lovejoy, Caravans of Kola; Lovejoy, “The Kambarin Beriberi: The Formation of a Specialized Group of Hausa Kola Traders in the Nineteenth Century,” Journal of African History 14, no.
4 (1973): 633–51; Lovejoy, Salt of the Desert Sun; and Stephen Baier and Lovejoy, “The Desert-Side
Economy of the Central Sudan,” International Journal of African Historical Studies, 8, no. 4 (1975): 551–81.
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Balghīth’s account book helps inform our understanding of other information on the
social organization of trade at Katsina in the early nineteenth century. As recorded in his
autobiography, Mohammed Gardo Baquaqua’s mother’s family was from Katsina and
was operating to the middle Volta basin in the 1820s, 1830s, and 1840s.24 Baquaqua’s maternal relatives are almost certainly to be identified as part of the “Wangarawa” community in Katsina, whose commercial connections were to the west and especially to the
Volta basin. Baquaqua’s maternal uncle was associated with the silver trade, as well as
kola and other commodities, and owned houses in Salaga, the main kola market of Asante, as well as being connected with Katsina. It is noteworthy that Barth observed that
“almost all the more considerable native merchants in Katsena are Wangarawa (Eastern
Mandingoes),” and the likelihood is that Baquaqua’s maternal family were part of this
community.25 Baquaqua’s maternal family was associated with Islamic learning, including divination. The family in Katsina may or may not have been clients of Balghīth, but
it is hard to imagine that the family would not have been in contact with him. The combination of sources makes it possible to understand the business operations of one of the
most important merchants of the Sokoto Caliphate in the first half of the nineteenth century. Perhaps Balghīth obtained the kola mentioned in his accounts from the “Wangarawa”
family of Baquaqua’s mother and uncle, who appear to have been quite prominent. Unfortunately, Baquaqua did not give the name of his mother’s family, and there were many
kola merchants in Katsina city and in the towns and villages nearby.26
There is other information on the trade of Katsina during the period that Balghīth
was the principal merchant there, specifically the unusual account of caravan trade from
Algeria to Katsina in Eugène Daumas and Ausone de Chancel’s Le Grand Désert ou Itineraire d’une caravane du Sahara au pays des nègres (Royaume de Haoussa). Daumas and
Chancel, both officers in the French army, trace the journey of a Tuareg caravan leader,
Cheggueun, who reputedly had made several trips to the “Soudan” before ca. 1835.27 According to Daumas and Chancel, Cheggueun led several expeditions to Katsina during the
reigns of Umaru Dallaji, emir of Katsina, who died in 1836, and Caliph Muḥammad Bello
of Sokoto, who died in 1837, although the account was not published until 1848.28
According to Daumas and Chancel, the slave trade from Katsina to Algeria was considerable in the early 1830s, which seems to have been an exaggeration.29 Nonetheless,
their observations, although confused and perhaps partially fabricated, suggest that Tuwāt
was a principal staging ground between Algeria and the Sokoto Caliphate. Whether or
not Cheggueun’s account is authentic, his journeys to Katsina would have coincided exactly with the period when Balghīth was already operating there; however, Balghīth is
not mentioned. Moreover, Balghīth’s accounts shows a strong connection with Tuwāt. A
number of his creditors were from this southern region of Algeria, including ‘Abd al24. Robin Law and Paul E. Lovejoy, eds., The Biography of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua: His Passage from Slavery to Freedom in Africa and America, 2nd ed. (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publisher,
2007), 26–27.
25. Barth, Travels and Discoveries, 1:479.
26. Lovejoy, Caravans of Kola.
27. Cheggueun’s information refers to Caliph Muhammad Bello of Sokoto, who died in 1837, and
to Emir Umar Dallaji of Katsina, who died in 1836. When interviewed in 1839, Cheggueun seems
not to have been aware of the death of either. Daumas clearly did not know and did not check the information before publication in 1848; see Daumas and Chancel, Grand Désert, 1, 220.
28. Ibid., 220. Daumas refers to Mohamed Aomar (Umar Dallaji), who died in 1836, as emir of
Katsina. Hence, the source of his information appears to date to the period before then.
29. See the discussion in Yacine Daddi Addoun, “Abolition de l’esclavage en Algérie: 1816–1871”
(PhD diss., York University, 2010), 59–62.
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Raḥmān b. Muḥammad Yūsuf, his scribe, al-Ḥājj Sāliḥ b. Bāhir, Muḥammad b. ‘Abd Allāh,
Aḥmad b. Ḥamma, al-Ṣiddīq al-Anṣārī, Zungu, Muḥammad al-‘Āyish b. al-Hājj Aḥmad,
Bābā b. Ḥammādī, al-Makkī b. ‘Abd Allāh, al-Hājj Qāsim b. Lakhḍar, Qādā b. Bakhālid,
and Qāda b. al-Dabbāgh. The narrator of Daumas and Chancel’s account, Sid El Hadj Mohamed, was supposedly from Metlili, the home of the Chaamba Berezga, and also where
Cheggueun is said to have had a wife and child. Daumas and Chancel claim that El Hadj
Mohamed was a learned person [marabout, taleb]. Since the most common name in the
region was Hadj Mohamed, it is difficult to know if there was such a person, especially
since nothing more is given about his identity, such as the name of his father, only the fact
that he was a Chaambi. As with Hadj Mohamed, there is no evidence that Cheggueun
was a real person, and he may well have been nothing more than the personification of
the French stereotype of the typical Tuareg. It seems unlikely that a Tuareg could have
headed a caravan for the whole journey from Metlili to In Ṣālaḥ (more than 650 km or
500 miles), which was in the territory of the Chaamba, with whom the Tuareg were in conflict during this period, especially in the Hoggar. However, from In Ṣālaḥ onward, it was
not only possible for a Tuareg to lead a caravan; it was the only way trade could be done.30
While Cheggueun supposedly led the caravan across the Sahara, in reality the trade was
done by relay rather than via a direct trans-Saharan network. For Daumas, the link in
this trade was the Mzab, and he claimed that some people belonging to the “wahhābiyya,”
resided in Katsina, and linked them to the Mzab region. Daumas made a common mistake confusing wahhābiyya, which is the fundamentalist Islamic movement in Arabia,
with wahbiyya, which refers to the Ibāḍi of the Mzab. Hence his statement that there were
“wahhābiyya” resident in Katsina with links to Mzab is a mistake or a confusion at best.31
The Chaamba were essential in linking the Mzab to the Sokoto Caliphate, as described
by Daumas and Chancel. This is why Cheggueun supposedly had a wife and a child in Metlili.
The presence of a Tuareg caravan leader in Chaamba territory would have been impossible without such a guarantee. Even French officials knew that the Chaamba and Tuareg
were at odds. French officials had invited Tuareg leaders to Algiers, but because of the
hostility, none appear to have come, at least before midcentury. Similarly, Cheggueun
supposedly had a wife in In Ṣālaḥ and another in Hoggar, which would have been convenient for the same purpose of bridging Saharan politics. There was no such claim that
he had a wife in Katsina, which might have been expected, considering the level of business ascribed to him. By contrast, Balghīth had settled in Katsina, married, and had a
family, and it is possible that he was even born there.
Invaluable as the account of Cheggueun is for many purposes, it should be recognized
that Le Grand Désert was an attempt by Daumas and Chancel to justify the continuation
of the slave trade through Algerian territory, which was the route followed by the caravan. They considered the slave trade a form of labor migration, in some ways anticipating more recent illegal immigration to Europe in search of work. As French officials,
Daumas and Chancel argued that the French government should regulate and promote
this trade.32 Chancel subsequently promoted this argument more bluntly in two books pub-
30. See, e.g., f. 28.
31. For a discussion of trade through a system of relays, see Daddi Addoun, “Abolition de l’esclavage
en Algérie.” As Daddi Addoun demonstrates, the link described in Daumas and Chancel between the
Mzab and the Wahhābiyya is confused. The Mzab was associated with “wahbī-Ibadism” (wahbiyya),
not the Wahhābiyya.
32. Daumas and Chancel, Grand Désert, ix–x.
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lished in 1853 and 1859.33 It seems likely, therefore, that Daumas and Chancel drew on
a number of sources for their account of the caravan trade in Le Grand Désert. Daumas
collected information from various informants and wrote extensively on the Sahara.34 Indeed, his household servant at the time of the compilation of Le Grand Désert was a Hausa
native, almost certainly first arriving in Algeria as a slave, perhaps even in a caravan similar to the one that is described in Daumas and Chancel’s account.
Although Balghīth’s career corresponded to the period of Hopkins’s “crisis of adaptation” to the demise of the transatlantic slave trade and the shift to “legitimate” trade on
the coast, coastal developments had no perceivable impact on Balghīth’s business. Several British missions went to the Sokoto Caliphate to promote “legitimate commerce”
and the abolition of the slave trade, but Balghīth continued to trade in slaves, as his father most likely had done before him. Rather, it seems that trade across the Sahara and
the links throughout West Africa that connected with that trade were relatively isolated
from the changes in the Atlantic world during the period of the shift away from the slave
trade. As demonstrated elsewhere, Islamic networks and cross-cultural exchange remained
largely beyond the effects of British abolition in the Atlantic.35 Modest diplomatic pressure in the Maghreb scarcely had any impact on the lands beyond the Sahara, although
change was under way, both in Algeria with the French occupation, and in Tunisia, where
slaves were formally emancipated in 1846.36 Yet it would be several decades more before
the interior regions of West Africa would feel the pressures of abolition, and only then with
European colonial occupation.
Appendix
Bride-Price for Balghīth’s Marriage:
Praise be to God. This is the copy of what we paid [ . . . ] when we married her:
•
Zane37 Zulwami38 costing 1,100;
33. Ausone de Chancel, D’une émigration de noirs libres en Algérie (Algiers: Bastide, 1853); and Cham
et Japhet, ou de l’Émigration des Nègres chez les Blancs considérée comme moyen providentiel de régénérer
la race nègre et de civiliser l’Afrique intérieure (Paris: Impr. De Hennuyer, 1859).
34. Daumas’s publications include Le Sahara algérien, études statisticiques et historiques sur la région au sud des établissements français en Algérie (Paris: Langlois et Leclercq, 1845); Mœurs et coutumes de l’Algérie: Tell-Kabylie-Sahara (Paris: Librairie de L. Hachette et Cie, 1853); Correspondence:
Collection de documents inédits sur l’histoire de l’Algérie après 1830 (Algiers: Typographie Adolphe
Jourdan, 1840); Exposé de l’état actuel de la société arabe, du gouvernement et de la législation musulmane (Paris: L. Hachette et Cie, 1845); Les Chevaux du Sahara (Paris: L. Hachette et Cie, 1858); and
(with M. Fabar) La Grande Kabylie: Étude historiques (Paris: L. Hachette et Cie, 1847).
35. See, e.g., Ghislaine Lydon, On Trans-Saharan Trails: Islamic Law, Trade Networks, and CrossCultural Exchange in Nineteenth-Century Western Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2009).
36. See Daddi Addoun, “Abolition de l’esclavage en Algérie;” and Ismael Musah Montana, “Slavery and Its Abolition in the North African Regency of Tunis, 1730–1846” (PhD diss., York University,
2007).
37. “A woman’s body cloth, usually about two yards in length and reaching from the armpits to
the ankles. If of European weaving it takes two widths, i.e. about four yards of material;” see G. P. Bargery,
A Hausa-English Dictionary and English-Hausa Vocabulary (London, 2934), 1129: “Zane IV.”
38. “Cloth with black and blue threads in wrap with blue weft;” see Bargery, Dictionary, 1146.
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•
Zane Jimada39 costing 1,700;
•
Turku’di40 costing 2,600;
•
50 gūriya costing 900 cowries;
•
slippers costing 150 cowries;
•
3,000 cowries;
•
Lefe41 with 100 cowries;
•
150 cowries for Tukayti;
•
then 200 cowries;
•
still remaining to pay for her dowry: 20,000 cowries.
All this was executed by the hands of the writer, the servant of his God Almighty, ‘Abd alRaḥmān b. Muḥammad Yūsuf al-Tuwātī may God be pleased with him. Amen.
Balghīth’s Will and Testament:
Praise be to God alone and may God bless [our Lord Muḥammad and his family]. This is the testament of Balghīth b. Sayyid Aḥmad b. Sayyid Mḥammad
al-Wajdāwī ‘l-Tuwātī. Following, to begin with, I testify there is no God except God, He alone with no partner and Muḥammad his servant and messenger. He [Balghīth] said, at his death he shall be prepared [for the funeral]
in the best possible manner and be wrapped in a shroud. He left five [riyal].
He who digs the grave shall be paid half of a riyal, and he who washes him one
riyal and a half in return; and the wage of he who warms water and removes
the soil and [brings] the water used to wash his corpse . . . , he who took off
from . . . is shall be given three riyals. The half of the two Tanammir palm trees
he has as partnership with Mūsā b. Sīdī Muḥammad b. ‘Abd Allāh Ḥasan b.
Ibrāhīm, are declared as ḥabūs for the . . . of Sīdī Brāhīm, wishing the pardon
of God most generous. He also dedicated a Tanammir palm tree which he
owns in Būr al-Bukhārī to the muʾadhdhin of Wajda. He holds for Sīdī Mawlāy
al-Sharīf Sīdī ‘Abd al-Ḥayy b. Sīdī Mawlāy Laḥsan al-Sharīf of Sharwīn 10
ounces of gold in weight . . . which we found the equivalent of nine ounces of
the weight of the East, which is the equivalent to 30 mithqāl darāhim, as a
deposit.
39. “A black and white stripped cloth;” see Bargery, Dictionary, 503.
40. “A cotton cloth consisting of twelve strips of material sewn together (each strip eight cubits
in length), dyed indigo, rendered glossy, folded and wrapped in paper;” see Bargery, Dictionary, 1063.
41. “A basket made of palm fronds. Also, the cloths given by a bride to a bridegroom, because
usually given in the above basket;”see Bargery, Dictionary, 725.