Barter goods and means of payment in East Africa

Our modern life is based on money; the value of goods and services is reflected in the sum we have to pay for them. Currency does not necessarily mean pieces of paper and coins or immaterial money in the form of bank accounts or credit cards. Any object could serve as means of payment if a society agrees on it.

For centuries, a major part of trade in Africa and originally also in Europe took place as exchange with commodity money, i.e. as trade with goods against goods. Animal, plant or metal products, minerals and metals served as a currency. Commodity money could not only be a means of payment but could also be used in ritual contexts.

Traditional currencies could be produced by anyone and put into circulation without a central issuing authority. Factors that determined the value were the availability of the material, the time needed for production or extraction and the local intra-African trading place. Beads were accepted in the trade with Europeans as barter goods if patterns and colours were “valid” in the local market.

A large number of traditional currencies often prevailed only in relatively small areas like salt money (amole) in the form of bars in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Congo. Besides them existed currency like Cowrie shells (shell money) that since the 9th century A.D. was valid all over Africa, and in exchange with tradesmen from the Arab world and Europe. Rifles served even in pre-colonial Africa as barter goods, and tool money in the form of knifes, hoes and axes circulated. From their everyday forms developed decorative forms, no longer used but only designed for exchange. Some currencies like metal bracelets, beads and Cowrie shells were worn as decoration or were attached to cloth and showed their owner’s social status.

Together with expanding trade relations from ivory and slave trade and changing power structures after the colonization in the 19th century coins prevailed more and more as currency, commodity money disappeared.

The traditional currencies and barter goods presented in the special exhibition are confined to the East African economic region where St. Ottilien missionaries worked since 1887. Vendors of the over 100 year old objects are unknown despite completed provenance research; the price paid for the objects is equally unknown, there are no indications in the museum’s archives.

 

Exotic furs

Leopard furs were insignia of power for African rulers and warriors, the animals were associated with power, courage and smartness. From the 9th century on, exotic furs became articles of exchange in the Trans-Saharan trade between North Africa resp. the Mediterranean coast and Africa south of the Sahara, later as well in the trade with Europe. As a threat for domestic animals, herds and in rare cases even humans, leopards were hunted; and even today the animals are not welcome in agricultural areas. With the Washington convention on the protection of endangered species, fur trade and poaching could be contained; still the predators are a lucrative source of income for landowners: big-game hunting of the leopard, one of the so-called "big five", is still legal in many African countries, the import as a hunting trophy is possible in many EU countries.

 

Firearms (weapon money)

The spreading of rifles and other firearms since the 1850ies as commodity changed the economic, social and political framework in East Africa. Weapons served as trading goods but also as payment for military units and were sought-after diplomatic gifts between African potentates but also in contact with the major European powers.

The use of arms in the caravan trade, for systematic elephant hunt and the establishment of permanent military units in the slave trade and for raids contributed to a shift in the existing balance of power. A strong demand for control on the firearms trade was consequently the base of political authority in many African countries.

Critical evaluation of this situation was even before colonisation a basis of different regulatory efforts by European powers. At the Brussels conference in 1889/90 a "protected zone" and a ban on the trade with newer arms was established. Under the moral argument of slave trade suppression these measures served as well for implementation of colonial power structures and military presence in wide parts of Africa.

 

Ivory

The trans-regional caravan trade in the 19th century developed on the base of increased demand for ivory in Europe and America; turntable of the trade was Zanzibar Island. Caravans with often several thousand people were equipped by tradesmen from the African coast and from the outback; the tusks were transported by coolies for lack of other means of transport. Thus, a trading area developed which reached from the coast to the Congo. Through increasing barter trade of ivory and firearms the social framework changed and armed conflicts around the caravan trade emerged in East Africa. Together with the trade caravans Islam and literate culture spread, a cultural exchange developed between the coastal region and the hinterland.

At the end of the 19th century the caravan trade stopped, but the remaining structures shaped further development of the whole East African region. Ivory trade was banned since the 1989 Washington convention on the protection of endangered species; exceptions provide space for fraud and violations. In January 2022, further legal tightening became effective in the EU.

 

Cowrie shells (shell money)

As early as the 9th/10th century, cowrie shells were traded for gold and ivory; since the 15th century, this means of payment is also documented as currency in the slave trade. Cowrie shells were one of the favourite currencies throughout Africa. A single cowrie had only small value; thus it was possible to buy articles of everyday use in small amounts. Packed in bags in a certain amount, stringed or in basket-like containers the value of cowries increased dependent of the distance to the place they were harvested.

When the natural range of the money cowrie (Monetaria moneta) in Maldives was exploited harvesting of cowrie money shifted to the coast of Zanzibar where the ring cowrie (Monetaria annulus) prevailed. German tradesmen achieved significant profit margins through the shorter transport route and the cheaper East African cowries, which they sold in great quantities in West Africa. This led to an oversupply in the 19th century, to increasing problems in counting great numbers und eventually to inflation.

Coins, introduced by the colonial powers, contributed as well to the decrease of the cowrie-based trade. Coins travelled along the rivers to the African hinterland and prevailed against the opposition of the dealers. Cowrie money maintained for a while its significance as small change and was used at markets in remote areas but disappeared completely until 1955.

Because of their decorative appearance, cowrie shells were also used as ornaments on belts and other articles of clothing and showed the social status of their owners.

 

Rare metal bracelets and decoration (jewelry money)

With the exception of a few areas, there are no natural sources for copper in in East Africa. While thick copper „bracelets“ (so-called manillas) circulated in West Africa from the early 16th century as means of payment in the international trade, decorations for arm and neck made of copper or an alloy served in East Africa as prestige object and symbol of wealth.

 

Banknotes German East Africa / coins British East Africa

Owing to the quick change of power structures after colonization, from 1885 coinage was subject to significant changes. Due to the increasing trade with India, in the 1880ies the Indian Rupee replaced the Maria Theresa thaler, from the end of the 18th century accepted as means of payment throughout East Africa. In 1890, the German East African Company received permission to mint their own Rupees. In 1904, the German government took over the monetary affairs in the protectorate and introduced a new Rupee, which was denominated in 100 Heller (cents) instead of 64 Pesa. Banknotes were printed as well to facilitate the protectorate’s money transactions with Germany and foreign countries.

After German East Africa’s occupation in World War I by Belgian and British troops in 1916, the British East African Rupee was introduced; in Burundi and Rwanda, the Belgian-Congolese Franc replaced the Rupee. In 1920, the Rupee was replaced by the Florin, but only a year later the East African Shilling was introduced in British East Africa (today Kenia), Tanganyika (today mainland of Tanzania) and Zanzibar. Until the independence in the 1960ies, they served as currency in these countries. Today, the Kenyan shilling, the Tanzanian shilling, the Burundian franc and the Rwandan franc are in circulation.

 

Beads (jewelry money)

Venetian and Bohemian glass beads served for centuries as barter goods and means of payment in exchange for gold and ivory; they were worked into jewelry and demonstrated their owner’s social status.

However, Beads were also means of payment in the slave trade. Arabian tradesmen, and from the 16th century onwards European dealers as well payed in the cruel business of slave hunt, kidnappings, torture and murder with the so-called "slave beads".

European tradesmen and explorers reported repeatedly that barter or trade did not occur because the offered beads were not accepted as means of payment. The theory of a complex and volatile system of trade markets which could be understood only by the local communities is more likely than the assumption bead patterns or colors were dictated by "fashion" and European tradesmen were sometimes stuck with their beads because they were not according to the latest trend.

 

Axe, bush knife, household knives (tool money)

There is evidence of tool money as barter good and means of payment until the early 20th century. Over time, richly adorned symbol and decoration forms with oversized blades developed where the metal value replaced the function as a tool; a transition to the mere piece of money.