AFRICA A Voyage of Discovery in HD: Caravans of Gold - Episode 3/8 - Basil Davidson

(African music: drums, marimba, vocals)

♪ Africa ♪

(bird cries)

(male narrator)
Long before the first ships from Europe

reached the distant shores
of tropical Africa,

a powerful and peaceful network
of trade already existed.

It was a vast commercial system,

whose markets and links by land and sea

stretched as far as India and China.

Its African heart lay far from the coast,

here, in the great medieval empire of Mali.

Today Mali is among the poorest countries
in the world,

but 600 years ago, it was a land
of wealth and comfort.

This is Djenne, still a flourishing
market town,

but once a commercial center of
far-ranging importance.

Djenne guaranteed the prosperity of
a great regional system,

attracting camel caravans which brought

merchandise from all points of the compass.

The reason is explained in a single word:

this was an economy based on gold.

That gold is much in evidence,
even today.

(music)

(chickens clucking)

The fascinating story of
the caravans of gold

may be unknown or quite forgotten
in the outside world,

but here in Djenne it's a story that
remains vividly alive.

Even a little sidestreet of this ancient city,

once part of the great empire of Mali,

can afford a glimpse of rich traditions
from the past.

The fine jewellery of his craft still

reflects the brilliance of the golden trade
of old West Africa.

(light tapping)

The smith usually works from
quantities of gold dust,

melted in a crucible and then fashioned

by skilfull beating into shapes long
hallowed by tradition.

(goldsmith introduces himself)

The design of these earrings may reflect

the art of the individual craftsman,

but it never strays too far from the

recognized styles preferred by the
different peoples of the region:

Bambara, Mandinka, Soninke, and others.

Each of these peoples has its own
distinctive jewellery.

The size, rather than the style, gives an
indication of a person's standing.

Here, gold has always been used as much

for display as for a standard of wealth.

(music)

By about AD 1250, the oldest goldfields,

along the upper reaches of the Niger River,

to the west of Djenne,
were becoming exhausted.

But to the great advantage of
trading towns like Djenne,

a new source of gold began to be developed.

RIch quantities of gold now came from
the country to the south,

today part of the modern republic of Ghana.

This development brought power and wealth
to the forest people,

and in due course, to those of
the kingdom of Ashanti.

(horns, drums, chanting)

Even today, King Opoku Ware, traditional
ruler of Ashanti,

can still display the glittering opulence

which so astonished the first Europeans

who visited this kingdom founded
three centuries ago.

(drums, talking)

The Ashanti use of gold is
lavish and extraordinary,

and it reflects the golden wealth

of the grand empires of Western Africa
in the Middle Ages.

(drums, talking)

(horns)

More than 900 years ago, a North African

historian described the royal court and

ceremonial of that distant time,
in the empire of ancient Ghana,

almost as though he were describing
King Opoku Ware of today:

(male voice)
"The king adorns himself like a woman,

wearing necklaces and bracelets of gold.

Behind him stand pages holding shields

and swords decorated with gold.

And on his right are the sons of the
subordinate kings of his country,

all wearing splendid garments,

and their hair plaited with gold."

(host)
Today, most of the king's political power

has gone. But, in accordance with tradition,

the king still has the right to promote

his subordinate chiefs to higher ranks.

These chiefs, as on similar
occasions in the past,

come forward one by one to reaffirm

their loyalty and offer royal praises.

(royal praises in an African language)

Ashanti power rested on farming
prosperity and military strength,

but its gold had long attained
a far wider influence.

By a fortunate blessing, the majestic Niger,

called by its people "The River of Singers,"

lay to the north.

(talking)

A learned Egyptian visitor
of the 14th century

described this great trading region as

four months of travel long,
and four months wide.

The Mali empire was in fact among
the biggest trading systems in the world,

with its roots in the gold of Western Africa.

(music)

From the markets of the upper Niger

to those of Hausaland and Bornu,

a distance wider than Western Europe,

the Niger still carries a daily traffic

whose style and tone speak for
an ancient stability and peace.

(music: instruments and man singing)

Gold here was always important,
but nobody can eat gold.

The Niger has always provided fish
in abundant quantities,

and that's a vital source of protein in a
local diet based largely on cereals.

(music, talking)

With no means of refrigeration
in this hot climate,

immediate drying or smoking of the fish

has been essential if they're to be kept
for any length of time.

By custom, this work is done by women,

who usually share the profit
on a family basis.

Smoke-dried fish is carried and sold

to towns and villages far from the river itself.

A day's journey from Djenne, downstream
along this broad river highway,

traders reach Mopti, nowadays the biggest

market along this section of the Niger.

(conversations)

I've come to this port on the great

inland waterway of West Africa,
the River Niger,

more than a thousand miles from the sea,

because it's always been
a vital artery of trade.

And in this port and others like it,

the wealth of this vast inland region
arrived and departed:

fashionable cottons from Hausaland,

tusks of ivory from grassland hunters,

kola nuts from the forests of the south,

foods in bulk such as sorghum,

bars of iron, bars of copper, and
most precious of all,

the biggest underlying standard
of trading value, gold.

The women wear their immensely valuable
regalia in perfect safety.

It seems that this sense of security
is by no means new.

The famous traveler of the 14th century

visited the empire of Mali when it was

still at the height of its prosperity,

and recorded this in his memoirs:

(male voice)
"Of all peoples, the Negroes are those

who most abhor injustice.

There is complete and general safety
throughout the land.

The traveler here has no more reason

than the man who stays at home

to fear brigands, thieves or ravishers."

(host)
The man who wrote those words was a

traveling scholar from Morocco,
named Ibn Battuta,

and fortunately for us, his memoirs
have survived,

recalling much of the vivid detail of West
Africa as it was, 600 years ago.

Here is his description of
Mali's imperial court:

(male voice)
"On certain days, the Sultan holds audiences

in the palace yard, where there is
a platform under a tree.

It is carpeted with silk, and over it stands

an umbrella, which serves as a kind of

silken pavilion, surmounted by
a bird in gold.

On his head the Sultan wears
a golden skullcap;

his usual dress is a velvety red tunic
made out of costly European fabrics.

The Sultan is preceded by musicians,

who carry gold and silver guitars,

and behind him come 300 armed slaves."

(music)

The wide prosperity of
the West African interior

called for a unifying form of government,

and that was provided through almost

a thousand years by the old empires,

Ancient Ghana, then Mali,
and then Songhay and Bornu.

These old empires ensured
a widely accepted stability and peace.

(music)

Word about the wealth of these lands

got out in time, even to distant Europe.

A famous Spanish map of 1375 portrayed
the source and controller of that wealth:

while the outline of North Africa
was already known,

the map gave Europe for the first time

pictorial news of the far interior.

(drums)

Beneath the desert wastes of the Sahara,

in the middle of the empire of Mali,

the map showed the figure of
a Berber camel rider,

who might almost be Ibn Battuta himself.

He's shown approaching the mighty
lord of Mali, seated on his throne,

and holding aloft a splendid orb of gold.

This emperor was rumored to be the
wealthiest man on the face of the earth.

In 1324, an earlier emperor of Mali,
Mansa Musa,

was returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca.

Eager to enhance the prestige of Islam,

he decided to convert his trading city

of Timbuktu into a centre of learning
and religion.

At the heart of this Islamic city,

Emperor Musa built a mosque that set

a new style in West African architecture.

(call to prayer)

It was the beginning of Timbuktu's wide

and well-deserved reputation as a focus

of African scholarship, teaching Islamic

law and politics, as well as theology.

Writing soon after 1500, the visitor

from Spain set down his impressions:

(male voice)
"In Timbuktu, there are numerous judges

and learned men, all well supported
by the ruler of the city.

Many handwritten books from North Africa
are sold here,

and there is more profit to be had
from this book trade

than from any other branch of commerce."

(talking)

(host)
Based on the written word,

the teachings of Islam brought to these
lands a new literacy,

still very much alive today.

Like Muslim children everywhere,

these youngsters have to learn
the Quran by heart,

but they must do it in Arabic,

a language that's not their own.

(murmur of many voices)

It was and is a stern training,

an old-fashioned discipline,
not intended to be fun.

Islam exercised a profound and permanent
effect on West African life.

Through the influence of Islamic scholars,

this great region became an intellectual part
of a wide world, across many frontiers.

At heart, the teachings of the Prophet

were a code of strict moral behavior,

a set of rules to help men govern
their personal, inner lives.

But Islam also had its public face.

Rules were established for credit and pricing,

all of which led to more efficient ways
of organizing trade.

There's not much business here any longer,

but Timbuktu after about 1300 AD became

and remained a market town of widespread fame.

To this northernmost point of the River Niger,
goods came up from Djenne,

and here merchants and dealers from
every neighboring country

got together with the Berber traders who
made the voyage across the great desert.

(music)

For me, this is one of Africa's
truly dramatic scenes,

just because it shows a crucial link

in Africa's historical development.

Even now, on certain days you can walk
out from Timbuktu

and glimpse the inner drama of
trans-Saharan trade.

(music)

On this day, these Tuareg Berbers,

who operate the camel caravans,

are bringing a load of salt southwards

from the surface mines at Taoudenni,

500 miles to the north, a journey
of 21 days each way.

And on their journey northward,

in the heyday of the old prosperity,
they also carried gold.

(music)

The arrival of the caravan will be greeted
with music and dancing.

(clapping, drum, talking)

Against the background
of their harsh environment,

the Tuareg travelers of the desert

have created a musical culture
full of elegance.

The caravan's arrival is an occasion for

these Tuareg people to celebrate their skill

in mastering the relentless trails of the Sahara.

And there's joy and relief at having
reached another journey's end.

(singing, clapping, drum)

(talking, baby crying, fire crackling)

Here I'm somewhere out beyond the edge

of the southern shore of this vast
ocean of sand, the Sahara Desert.

And these are the people of the desert,

the Tuareg, a hard people who live
in a hard land.

Not a bit romantic, in spite of appearances.

Today's descendants of the Berber nomads

who in ancient times mastered the secrets

of human survival in the desert and made
themselves at home here.

Immensely self-reliant, persevering,

they became the lords of the long-distance

caravan trade long before the camel was
known in these regions,

and that was 2000 years ago.

I like to think of the crucial part played

by these voyagers, always facing the
perils of the desert,

traveling through weeks and months,

navigating by guess or by intuition,

or else navigating by the stars.

(drum)

Sixty days of riding and walking
were needed to cross the Sahara,

a daily average of about 25 miles,

between the ports of the opposing shores.

Several main routes led from oasis to oasis.

Some went through the western Sahara,
others crossed further east,

but the eventual destination was Cairo.

Almost a generation ago, this film was made

of a typical caravan as it came
out of the desert

through the Atlas mountains, to arrive
at Marrakesh,

famous among the ports or cities

on the northern fringe of the Sahara.

In these Berber towns, throughout
the Middle Ages,

the gold of West Africa set the monetary
standard for long-distance commerce,

and provided the substance of their riches.

(talking)

(drum, camels, voices)

It's the end of Ramadan,
a time for celebration.

(talking)

Frequently on the move,
these People of the Tent,

as they like to call themselves,

have always controlled the trading routes
through North Africa,

and long ago their power and influence
were greater still,

for their kings and governments ruled

a brilliant Islamic civilization in Spain
for several hundred years.

But mostly the Berbers were given to
the pleasures of small wars

amongst themselves, of which
they never seemed to tire.

(camel sounds)

While Berber clans could unite with
each other against an external enemy,

strong local loyalties and rivalries
usually divided them.

The power they once wielded can still

be caught on ceremonial days like this,

when all their firy pride is on display.

(hooves on sand, small explosion)

Throughout the Middle Ages,

fierce and fast-moving Berber warriors

of various clans monopolized all movement
of goods across the Sahara.

Without them, the intricate trading
networks of Northern Africa

would have withered in the sun.

These men were the lords of the desert,

and their influence reached from Timbuktu
to the proud gates of Cairo.

(music)

This is the gate of old Cairo,
opening to the south and west,

the Bab al-Zuweila, a superb structure
built 900 years ago.

Through its majestic portals,
century after century,

came traders and travelers, generals,

even kings, from West Africa, North Africa,

from Muslim Spain, and sometimes from
the countries of Christian Europe.

The whole international system of trade
of those days,

reaching as it did from the Atlantic
to the Sea of China,

had its heart and center here in Old Cairo.

(music, conversations)

A city of Islam since the 7th century,

Cairo entered a long period of
prosperity and power

when the Sultans of Northwest Africa,

known as the Fatimid Dynasty,

moved east from Tunis and established
here a new capital.

Under the Fatimid sultans, Cairo became

a remarkably rich and tolerant city,

renowned for its spending on art
and scholarship,

and dominating the commerce
of half the world.

Ibn Khaldun, a great North African historian,

has left us a description of the city he knew

as it was at the end of the 14th century:

(male voice)
"Cairo is the metropolis of the universe,

the garden of the world,
the gateway of Islam,

the throne of kings.

A city of castles and palaces, lit by
the moons and stars of erudition."

(call to prayer)

(host)
And all this grand structure of learning

and devotion was underpinned,
and its credit upheld,

by a monetary standard of coins
minted in African gold.

♪ Africa ♪

♪ Africa ♪

For years, the most important coin remained

the Almoravid or Berber dinar
of Northwest Africa.

Then Europe, emerging from its poverty
in the Dark Ages,

became at last able to pay for the
import of African gold.

Florence minted the first European gold
coins since Roman times.

Other cities followed, and new gold
currencies appeared

in Spain and the Netherlands,
France and Portugal.

A new era in commercial development
had begun,

laying foundations for Europe's supremacy
in trade and industry.

The new monetary standard moved north
as far as England,

where a series of gold coins
were to culminate

in the famous golden guinea of Charles II,

minted, like all the others,
in gold from West Africa,

symbolized by an elephant.

(medieval music: recorder and voice)

Europe depended on Africa for its monetary

stability in a trading partnership,

which we can see reflected in the grand
flowering of Renaissance culture.

(music)

However different they might be
in their history and appearance,

black people are depicted in these
great works of art

as the natural equals of white people.

This had been the attitude
of the Greeks and Romans,

and still, for a time at least,

it remained the attitude of Europe.

In that ever-surprising new dawn
of the Renaissance,

the essential unity of mankind
was not in question.

(music)

But African trading links reached
far beyond Europe.

To the east of Cairo lay the great sea
routes to India and China.

The sailing rig in use today has changed

very little since the great trading days
of the past.

East African sailors were tacking their ships

against the wind,
up to an angle of 35 degrees,

long before Europeans had learned the
necessary technique.

The Africans who manned
and still man these vessels,

are the Swahili, a coastal people
who speak their own African language.

These mariners were at home on the
highways of the sea.

Just as in West Africa the camel caravans

traversed the Saharan ocean of sand,

so did the ships of the Swahili traverse
their ocean of water.

Once again, this time in the east,

linking the African interior with
the markets of the world.

This is Lamu, a charming little town
on the northern coast of Kenya.

It was the destination of many of the ships

coming down from the Red Sea,
the Persian Gulf,

and some from as far away
as India and even China.

They timed their voyages to take advantage

of the seasonal monsoon winds,

which blow back and forth between
the Swahili coast and Northern India.

(music)

The ships brought with them
not only goods for sale,

but a wide range of ideas and beliefs.

The most influential of these came from
the lands of Islam to the north,

and it was not long before the majority
of Swahili had accepted Islam.

In spite of this northern influence,

much of their culture has remained
distinctly and uniquely Swahili,

and it has kept its own identity.

(music)

This traditional stick dance
is a kind of ballet,

but it's also an occasion for
individual challenge,

and that's very much an element in the
culture and character of the Swahili.

Although the cities of the Swahili
in their heyday

had a common interest in trade,

each of them preferred to stay on its own.

They liked to compete against each other,

as these men in the stick dance,

but had no interest in territorial conquest.

(music)

Lamu was just one of many Swahili towns
built in coral stone

all the way along the coast from
Somalia down to Mozambique.

The domestic architecture of Lamu has been

no mere copy of the styles of Arabia or India.

From the outside of a traditional
Swahili house,

there's really nothing to see except
a blank wall,

and a porch with benches
for receiving guests.

And even when the handsome front doors
are opened,

there's still only a blank wall behind them.

But once inside, it's a very different story.

Six or seven hundred years ago,

when houses like this one first began

to be designed and built
by Swahili architects

for leading men and merchants, there were

few houses anywhere else in the world

so well designed for comfortable city life.

This particular house dates from the
early 18th century,

but much older examples of Swahili
domestic architecture

not only demonstrated a unique
construction and embellishment,

but were built to a high standard of what
we now call modern conveniences.

While the inhabitants of London in
Elizabethan times

were emptying chamber pots out of the window,

Swahili residents of Lamu who could afford
such a house as this

enjoyed the luxury of good internal sanitation.

These old Swahili houses spell out for us

the basic aims that guided the architects
in their design:

to make the best possible use
of local materials,

finely plastered coral stone,

necessarily short rafters of
mangrove tree poles,

and then to ensure a high level
of domestic privacy,

and not least, to show off and guarantee

the credit-worthiness of the owner,

so essential in a community whose livelihood

always depended on the profits

and the risks of long-distance trade.

Lamu is nowadays the best-preserved of
the old Swahili coastal towns,

but it was by no means the most important.

(music)

Through excavation or analysis
of graveyards such as this one,

archeologists have identified
more than 50 Swahili towns,

all constructed in the same coral stone,

a stone which can be readily worked
beneath the surface of the ocean,

but then takes on a permanent toughness
and durability

soon after being exposed to the air and sun.

And here is one of the best surviving examples

of the pillar graves unique to this
Swahili coast.

And there are, as you see, fine pieces
of porcelain from China

embedded in this African tomb.

Such plates and bowls from Ancient China

are pointers to the involvement of Africa

in the far-reaching networks
of eastern trade,

long before the coming of the Europeans.

Even more striking evidence is provided

by this Chinese painting
of an African giraffe,

dating from the year 1414.

The giraffe was sent as a gift to
the Chinese emperor

from one of the cities of the Swahili.

Looking rather indignant, it must have
endured a voyage of many months.

The Swahili cities were built
at short distances from each other,

all down the long East African coastline.

The southernmost of them was the chief point

which linked the Indian Ocean traders

with the gold-producing region of the
Southern African interior.

(music)

On this high and fertile plateau,
a flourishing civilization had developed,

which, like the kingdoms of West Africa,

played a decisive role in the trading
patterns of the Middle Ages.

And here on these temperate grasslands,

a unique culture, emerging in about
the 12th century,

reached its climax in the splendid buidlings

which are known today as Great Zimbabwe.

Efforts to recapture the essence
of Great Zimbabwe culture

were undermined a century ago by
treasure-seeking Europeans.

They came up from South Africa,

and ransacked this place for gold and
jewellery soon after they discovered it.

A few pieces escaped the looters,

all made from local gold, mined extensively

in the area from about the year 800.

But perhaps even more surprising
are some of the objects found here

for which Zimbabwe gold was traded:

delicate ornaments brought across
the ocean from China and India.

It's evidence like this which has helped
historians and archeologists

to piece together the whole great story
of long-distance trade.

That trade had its source in the Zimbabwe
cultures of Inner Africa,

which possessed the skills,
as well as the wealth,

to build powerful monuments.

On these massive walls, overlooking
the entire area,

stood sacred bird carvings in stone.

They were associated with oracles
that were thought to speak for the gods.

The religious heart of Great Zimbabwe

stood on a hilltop, commanding
the surrounding countryside.

In the valley below, the king had
his royal residence.

All this activity called for a strong
central government,

and that government was formed by
their king and council,

who ruled from here through lesser
kings and governors,

in a wide territory across the vast central
plateau of Southern Africa.

Even now, these mighty walls make an
irresistible claim

to political power and achievement.

17 feet thick in places,
and 800 feet in length,

they're as big and impressive
as a great cathedral.

Far too impressive, as it turned out,

for the white settlers of later years.

They refused to believe that this
could have been the work of Africans,

or that these very Africans had
a trading network

which stretched right across
the known world.

And far down the East African coast,

on this most distant link in the
old trading network,

there lies hidden the last
of its surprises.

On a long voyage southward, the traders

pursued their route far beyond Zanzibar.

There they approached what was once

the most important and famous of all
the Swahili trading cities:

this was Kilwa, on an island close by the
coast of modern Tanzania.

It's hard to get here, for Kilwa remains
quite untouched by the modern world.

This is still the only means of approach

to one of the most intriguing historical
sites in the whole of Africa.

Surprising as it must seem, up these steps

some 600 years ago came visitors from

all the countries of the golden East:

ambassadors, merchants,
soldiers, mariners.

And what they saw spread out before them
as they reached the top

was a scene, a sight of remarkable
and even unique splendor.

But ruin struck long ago.

Rising to great commercial wealth in
about the year 1200,

Kilwa was once a place of comfort
and urban splendor,

its royal palace, one of the grand buildings
of Islamic and Swahili culture,

as portrayed in this accurate
archeological reconstruction.

Here was one of the high points
of civilized development,

promoted and sustained by Africa's
trading networks.

Placed on the edge of the ocean skyline,

Kilwa was much admired by our old
traveling companion, Ibn Battuta.

He came here in 1332, and remembered Kilwa

as one of the most handsome towns
he'd seen in all his travels.

This once-splendid mosque remains,
even in partial ruin,

a most impressive religious monument.

Here on the distant fringe of the
world of Islam,

the African citizens of Kilwa honored
their membership of that world

with a taste and craftsmanship
distinctively their own.

Founded in the 12th century, the mosque
was much enlarged in the 15th,

when a patriotic citizen spent 1000
gold dinars on improvements.

(slow drumbeat)

Very soon after, in the year 1498,

an event took place which was to lead,

not only to the ruin of Kilwa,
but in due course

to the destruction of the Swahili trading
network all along the coast.

In that year, for the first time in history,

three small Portuguese ships,

under the command of Vasco da Gama,

sailed 'round the Cape of Good Hope
and into the Indian Ocean.

The European incursion had begun.

Returning home, Vasco da Gama
reported what he'd seen,

and just seven years later, a much larger

and more menacing fleet
appeared on the horizon.

A German eyewitness called Hans Mayr

has left an account of what took place:

(male voice)
"Admiral d'Almeida came here

with 14 men-of-war and 6 caravels.

He ordered the ships to have
their artillery ready.

At dawn on Thursday the 24th of July,

all went into their boats to the shore.

They went straight to the palace,

and only those inhabitants who did not

resist were granted their lives.

At the palace, the holy cross was put down,

and Admiral d'Almeida prayed.

Then everyone started to plunder the town

of all its merchandise and provisions."

(gunfire, loud music)

The sack of Kilwa by the Portuguese in 1505

marked a turning point in the history of
the whole East African coast.

For the Portuguese, and after them
the Dutch, the English, the French,

seized the Indian Ocean trade
and turned it to their own benefit.

The old Swahili cities of coral stone,

which had depended on that trade,

and now had lost it, fell into decay.

Indeed, Africa had now to suffer

a long period of destructive conflict
and confrontation,

begun by the outside world,

and this would continue until these
old splendors

of the African past were all but forgotten.

(music: woman singing)

♪ Africa ♪