Act. 2.1 Trading Gold for Salt in West Africa

The Soninke leaders of Ghana were able to create a powerful kingdom in West Africa by using their military strength and location—between the northern Saharan salt mines and the gold fields to the south-to control a system of silent trade. Silent trade occurred when North Africans and Wangarans came to Ghana to trade gold and salt. Instead of meeting and negotiating face to face, the North Africans and Wangarans who spoke different languages, used the Soninke as brokers, or middlemen, to protect the interests of both sides. Because of their geographic position, the Soninke were able to carry on this system of trade and tax its participants. As a result, the kingdom of the Ghana—and later Mali and Songhai—was able to acquire an enormous amount of wealth.

North Africans were willing to travel to Ghana to trade their salt for gold because they valued gold as currency and West Africans valued salt, which was scarce in West Africa and is needed to replace fluids lost from the body through perspiration. They also used salt to preserve and flavor food. Gold, however, was plentiful in the western Sudan but had limited value to the Wangarans and the Mande, who mined it. Tools, for example, could not be made out of the soft metal. To the people of the western Sudan, salt and gold were considered equally valuable. They generally traded in equal amounts—a pound of gold for a pound of salt.