The Desert-Side Economy of the Central Sudan

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Boston University African Studies Center and Board of Trustees, Boston University are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The International Journal of African Historical Studies. Historians have long appreciated the role of the desert edge in WestAfrica, but the recent sahelian drought and the tragedy it has entailed for so many people have accentuated the need to understand the relationship between desert and savanna.1 The drought, which began in some places in 1968 and continued in many areas until 1973 or 1974, has been the worst in over two centuries, but its economic impact on the savanna, although severe, has nonetheless been minimized because of a reorientation of the savanna economy toward the coast, a shift which dates to the beginning of the colonial period. With the end of the trans-Saharan trade, the redirection of overseas trade toward the Atlantic, and the development of peanuts as an agricultural export, much of the savanna gained new independence from the economy of the desert and sahel. Nevertheless, the area along the southern edge of the Sahara was extremely significant historically in the development of adjacent savanna regions before the colonial period, and it seems likely that the decline of the desert-edge sector was one of the most underestimated impacts of colonialism. The region offered an extensive market for grain, manufactures, and other products imported from the savanna, was a source of livestock, several types of mineral salts and transport services, and provided access to North African markets. In addition, it was the original home of many immigrant merchants, craftsmen, and farmers who contributed greatly to the development of the savanna. An examination of the desert edge therefore reveals the dynamics of economic change in the precolonial era and provides a comprehensive perspective on the recent crisis. lWe wish to thank

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