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Salt tablets, Mopti, Mali, 1998 Photo ©1998 by L. Lee McIntyre |
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Salt tablets, Mopti, Mali, 1998 Photo ©1998 by L. Lee McIntyre |
Two of the major trade commodities in the past in west Africa were salt, like these slabs from the salt mines in the Sahara desert, and gold, from the mines of the Gold Coast, now Ghana. In addition, kola nuts were grown in the forest to the south and traded all over Moslem Africa. Finally, for a period from the 17th to the 19th century, the trade in slaves was important.