Paulina Opoku-Gyimah says: Sometimes I read stuff about Ghana (???) and I don’t recognise it!!!!! The following makes for interesting reading!!!!!
Title: A partial history of hard money in Ghana
Dated: Thursday, August 5, 2010 By Micky Man
When you travel through Ghana, one feature that leaps out at you is the pile of
concrete (actually sandcrete) blocks piled up on people's property. It is not
unusual to see them in a place where construction is obviously ongoing, but what
seems strange is seeing such piles of blocks in front of houses in which the
signs of new work are absent. Or as you whip along the highway you encounter
plots of vacant land dotted with a couple of small piles totalling perhaps
twoscore blocks. What's going on?
Block
plant at Weija, just west of Accra. Block plants are everywhere in
Ghana.
Here's the thing. About 40 years ago
the Ghanaian unit of currency, the cedi, was equal in value to the US dollar. So
if your uncle had been a millionaire in those days, and hid his money in the
basement and then forgot about it, what would it be worth now? Brace
yourselves--that million cedis you just exhumed from his basement was converted
in July of 2007 into new cedis (called formally the "Ghana cedi") at a rate of
10,000:1. So if you went to the bank with one million old cedis, you would
receive 100 Ghana cedis, which would be worth about USD 70. That is some loss of
purchasing power, even if you ignore what has happened to the US dollar over the
same timeframe.
If your uncle had been smart enough to buy gold, he would
have been well ahead of the game, but even though Ghana is one of the top gold
producers in the world, it was facing hard times in 1970 and there wouldn't have
been a lot of gold around. Probably the best he could have done would have been
to have stored his wealth in pessawa coins (1/100 of a cedi, and made of copper
in those days). One hundred million such coins, although bulky, would have done
a much better job of preserving his wealth than paper.
Given their
monetary history, Ghanaians seem to well understand the futility of storing
wealth as paper. The gradual decline of purchasing power of the new cedi (which
was worth more than 1 USD in July of 2007 but is now more than 30% less)
provides constant reinforcement of that basic lesson.
So how do you
preserve your wealth in a persistently inflationary environment. You invest in
hard assets. While for most of us that means gold, in Ghana it now means
sandcrete block. They don't rot. They tend not to go away. They tend to hold
their value (their price rises roughly at the same rate as the value of the cedi
sinks). They are useful--most of their buyers actually intend to build
something, but lack the capital to build it all at once. As there are no other
useful ways to save, they hold their savings in the form of block. If they
accumulate enough block they can build a better house.
The use of block
as a hard asset is a relatively recent economic innovation, and has been
responsible for a rapid profusion of block plants over the past ten years. This
in turn has led to something of a boom in residential and small commercial
construction. But different assets have been used in the past.
Gold
and cowries
Ghana is the former Gold Coast. And the history of gold
in Ghana is a complex one.
Gold ornaments and jewellry from West Africa
have long been known to the outside world. For centuries, worked gold was sent
north across the Sahara, to North Africa and Egypt (Garrard, 1989). The gold was
supplied from a series of West African kingdoms, including Mali, the Songhai,
and ancient Ghana (Bovill, 1995)
. As far as modern
Ghana is concerned, the most important gold trade involved the Asante, a kingdom
which arose and came to prominence due to improved agricultural practice (
Wilks, 1993
), but which is best known for the quality of its goldsmiths
(Ayensu, 1997). The Ashanti carried out trade for gold with both Moors and
Europeans, but most quantitative estimates of gold traded come from the European
trade.
European exploration of West Africa was driven by a number of
factors, including population pressure and the desire for new wealth. It was
facilitated by the improvement in navigational aids (compass, astrolabe,
quadrant), in ship design (mating of square-rigged sails and rudder from North
Sea vessels with Mediterranean carvel hulls), in chart designs (Mercator), chart
construction, and printing. But the major impetus was the establishment of a
navigational centre in Portugal by Prince Henry, which lasted from 1418 until
his death in 1460 (Guill, 1980). The Portuguese took slaves at Arguin, an island
in a bay (which may have been Cerne) that they fortified in 1448 to serve as a
trading centre. Alvise da Cadamosto discovered the Cape Verde Islands in 1457,
and reached what is now Guinea-Bissau. By 1462, Portuguese ships had reached
what is now Sierra Leone.
By this time,
Cadamosto had determined that the gold coinage of southern Europe dating from
the 14th and 15th centuries had its origin in West Africa. He determined that
it had come from the Gold Coast and the upper parts of the Niger, Senegal, and
Gambia rivers, from which it passed through Melli and Timbuctoo, then overland
to Tunis, Algeria, and Morocco (Junner, 1973).
From the Moors of northern
Morocco, the Portuguese learned of the gold in the Gold Coast, and in 1471, led
by Moors captured in Senegal, two Portuguese ships under the command of
Juan
de Santerem and Pedro de Escobar reached the Gold Coast, where they
immediately began trading in gold dust. The trade was set up at a place called
by the Portuguese “Oro de la Mina”, and this was initially held to be Elmina,
although
Kesse (1985)
contends that it was Shama, near the mouth of the Pra River.
Fernão Gomes established a trading centre at what is now Elmina, and its
importance was so great that a large fort was built (São Jorge da Mina) in
1481. In 1482, Diego Cam reached the Congo River. The map of Martin Behaim
(1492) clearly depicts São Jorge da Mina to the east of Cape Three Points, as
well as the Pra and Ankobra Rivers (Emery and Uchupi, 1984).
Old map of the
Gold Coast (present-day Ghana). Compiled by Boulton
(1787).
The first trade in gold dust
from the mouth of the Pra River by the Portuguese is the first well-documented
record of gold being obtained from the Gold Coast (Junner, 1973), although there
is abundant evidence of earlier trade. When the Portuguese arrived in the Gold
Coast, the natives were predominantly hunters and fishermen.
The chief
wore a great deal of gold, but gold was not used as money. Trade was conducted
by the use of goods and
cowrie
shells. Cowrie shells were directly convertible into gold, at the rate of
32,000 cowries to one ounce of gold (
Anin, 1994
). Forty cowry shells would be tied into one string, five
strings made one bunch, and ten bunches were equivalent to one Ackie of gold.
The Ashanti had a very involved system of gold weights and standards, whereby
there were 16 Ackies in one ounce of gold and, 12 takus in one Ackie
(Niangoran-Bouah, 1977
). In the interior,
gold was used as currency, according to Leo Africanus (1526), but shells
imported from Persia were used for small matters.
So we see that one day,
some strange-looking people showed up and began to offer fantastic items like
umbrellas and steel pots and firearms and alcohol for this worthless stuff that
any fool could find in any amount desired in just about any river. The sudden
appearance of all this alien technology had a profound impact on the peoples on
the Gold Coast, mainly causing them to re-evaluate their perception of the value
of gold.
This is trade at its best. Two groups meet, each holding
something that has little value to them, yet they are able to trade it for
something of tremendous value. If only the interaction between Africa and Europe
had remained limited to this trade.
Until the 16th century, the natives
possessed considerable quantities of gold, which they had undoubtedly
accumulated over a long period of time. They placed very little value on it,
using it for ornamentation, and to sprinkle on the bodies of the dead (Anin,
1994). Gold was buried with the dead, because it was thought that they would
reappear in a world where it would be of great value. It was freely traded for
things of little value to Europeans. The natives were well accustomed to winning
gold from stream and beach gravels, and they did not begin attempting to mine
auriferous reefs until the early 18th century.
Woodcut from Dapper (1668) showing native
gold mining in the lower Ankobra River (presently in the western region of
Ghana). This image was taken from Garrard (1989)
. If you visit the lower Ankobra you will notice that this
image is reversed--it is unclear whether this is due to the image being the
reverse of the woodcut, or whether the print was somehow reversed before
appearing in Garrard (1989).
Olfert Dapper (1668) described how
the natives of the lower Ankobra River would dive into the river, returning to
the surface with nuggets from the river gravels. John Bardot (1732) furthered
this description, adding that the natives would return to the bank, with the
bowl again on their heads, now filled with a mixture of materials from the
riverbed, which were poured into bowls held by other men and women. These bowls
were held against the flow of the river until the soils and sands are washed
away, the gold sinking by its own weight to the bottom. The gold has been
described as being composed of small grains, but some in lumps as big as peas or
beans, and as fine dust.
According to Bosman (1698), women and boys
living near Elmina collected and washed beach gravels and sand after violent
rain, using large troughs or trays, which they filled with sands and washed out
the lighter material with water (between Elmina and Apollonia). The concentrate
was washed again in a small tray until the gold could be removed. The process is
much the same today.
Galamsay
(artisanal) miners in action north of Asanta (just west of the Ankobra River) in
early 1997. This property is now part of Adamus Resources Limited's Nzema Gold
Project.
Descriptions of native women recovering gold
near Cape Coast in the early 19th century suggest that they repeatedly washed
the sands in a circular fashion in large wooden bowls, and visually inspect for
gold at the bottom. Any gold found was dried in the sun or by fire. In the area
around Taccorary (Takoradi), the natives had many rich mines where they dug ore
and ground it between rubbing stones to separate the gold from the
quartz.
Knowledge of gold production from the Gold Coast is sketchy.
Annual production fluctuated considerably, especially during slave wars, but
estimates of production up to 1930 exceed 22 million ounces (Junner, 1973).
Production in the late 1860’s was probably less than half what it was in the
early 1800’s. Production fluctuated between about 10,000 and 20,000 ounces per
year until 1903, when production climbed sharply to 200,000 ounces per year (by
1906) as European-operated mines came into production.
Artisanal mining
(galamsay) activity is still very common in southwestern Ghana. Old galamsay
workings are evident at numerous places along the coast.
Money of stone
There have been
other forms of money used in the Gold Coast as well. Junner (1973) refers to an
early encounter with natives in what is now western Ghana who used "ceremonial
axes" as money. When I first read this description, now over fifteen years ago,
my first thought was "how did they know they were ceremonial?"
As you
enter the Western Region of Ghana, you enter the region of Cape Three Points.
This is the most prominent feature in the above map of the Gold Coast--the
southernmost tip. The Ankobra River is near the western boundary of the map. A
short distance west of the point--perhaps fifteen kilometres west of Cape Three
Points--lies Aketekyi and Princes Town. Princes Town is the site of an old
German castle (of which more will be written some other time).
I was
working on the headland overlooking these two towns in early 1997 with a
venerable geologist. We were walking at the edge of a cornfield on or very near
the highest point of the headland--we could see the embayments on both sides of
us--when my companion suddenly asked me to stop and look around. I did not
notice anything out of the ordinary. He asked me what I thought about all the
flakes of stone lying around on the ground. Well, okay, I could see they didn't
come from the local rocks because there were none. And no boulders either. He
picked up one angular piece of stone and opined that it was a hand axe. A hand
axe that had broken while being flaked and so it was discarded.
I was
completely skeptical. I had to admit that he had had past experience with stone
age tools, having seen them during previous fieldwork in Europe. And I had to
agree that the flakes of stone were definitely unusual. But I had a killer
argument. The stone was talc!
Talc is the softest
mineral known. If you tried to cut a green sapling with a talc axe, all you
would do is spoil the axe. Talc cannot cut wood--it cannot even whittle wood.
You can easily scratch it with your fingernails. So we had a brief argument
about it and even though I could think of no natural process that would bring
flakes of talc from an unknown location to the highest point for miles, I also
did not accept that any group of people would be foolish enough to make axes out
of talc. For that reason, sorry, I didn't take any pictures (this was before the
digital age, at least for me).
As so often happens, the revelation came
later. How did the first Europeans know the natives' axes were ceremonial? I had
assumed when I read those words that the axes were very small. But what if they
were made of talc--a material that is too soft to be useful as a tool, but is
fairly easy to work (not withstanding the occasional accidents that result in
spoiling the labour).
About two years ago I decided to try to retrace my
steps. My guide Kabi and I drove back to Aketekyi and quickly ascended the ridge
to the headland. We were close to the stone flaking site when we were blocked by
a local land-clearing project.
Fires on the Aketekyi headland,
September 2008.
We were
forced to retreat, and I made a fortunate discovery. I noticed the path we had
retreated along looked a little bit chalky. Following the lumps of "chalk" back
into the woods led me to a small defile crossed by the path, and in the exposed
rock was a thin seam of talc schist. Interestingly, there were telltale signs
that the little seam had been mined some time . . .
Outcropping
talc schist on the Aketekyi
headland. The talc is the angular pebbles in the shade of the
tree.
Which begs the
question--how would stone axes work as currency? I think the way they would work
is that the value represented by the stone axe is the labour it took to make it.
The number of axes in circulation could be increased only by applying labour,
and as much of this labour would be needed for the day-to-day struggles of
fishing and farming, there was probably not a great excess of labour available
to make them. It is also possible that there may have been some kind of tribal
restriction on the number that could be made, or some sort of guarantee like
they had to be made by a particular artisan and had to be carved at a particular
location, which may have had religious significance (or maybe they liked the
view).
The valuation of worked stone as currency was not unique to
coastal Ghana. Famously, the people of
Yap used large stone disks as
currency, the labour value of which was considerable as they had to travel to
distant islands to obtain the stone.
One mystery may be solved, but that
brings me to another. The streets of Axim (a coastal city near the Ankobra
River) are covered with gravel. According to local lore, much of this gravel was
dredged up from the sea, primarily by dragline, although no one seems to be able
to put an exact date on when this happened. Among the stones of some parts of
Axim are these.
Stones
of Axim, with holes of uncertain origin.
My first thought,
when finding these, was that they were fire-starter stones--the holes worn into
them by the friction of the spinning wood. But it doesn't seem logical to use
such small stones for such a purpose. Also, the two holes on the right side of
the rock at the top of the picture above are actually one "U-shaped" hole. This
would seem to be very difficult to make accidentally, and might preclude a
natural origin (given the hardness of the rock).
There are organisms
which can make indentations in a rock. Abalone, for instance do this, and there
are rocks along the shore not far from Axim which have just such marks in
them.
The indentations on the rock at left
are caused by abalone, but they are all much larger than the indentations in the
above pebbles. Note the linear distribution--the abalone seize on planar
weaknesses in the rock, where it is easier to rasp their way
in.
Furthermore, some of the indentations in the pebbles actually pass
completely through the stone (below).
So far we have only found these features
in dredged gravels of Axim, which does happen to be one area with a
profusion of
tool-sharpening marks on coastal rocks. Assuming they are man-made and not
some natural features, they do not appear to be useful items, nor do they appear
to be representative of anything. They may have been some simple
ornamentation.
Or maybe they were money. Once again, the value of the
individual pieces could have been tied to the labour represented by their
fashioning. I have no evidence that these were money, but there are a lot of
them to be found in shallow marine gravels in western Ghana, once again pointing
to the possibility of finding evidence of human habitation in what is now the
sea.
Ghanaians have come full circle--from using worked stones (possibly)
as money, to worked stone axes, to cowrie shells and gold, and back to worked
stone (sandcrete block). I don't see any signs of paper money used except in the
very recent past.
Additional note: The sandcrete block is a useful hedge
against inflation. But it is a poor hedge against deflation, which sadly, occurs
with a vengeance every five years or so. Paper money vanishes, and people with
block find they can trade them for neither money nor food.
Source: http://worldcomplex.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/partial-history-of-hard-money-in-ghana.html
