Of slaves and the gift: Kabre sale of kin during the era of the slave trade

Journal of African History

Volumn 37, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 31-49

  Piot, Charles ^a  

^a DUKE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0002386706     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0021853700034782     Document Type: Article

References (69)

1. Frobenius' observations appeared in his Und Afrika sprach: unter den unsträflichen Aethiopien (4 vols.) (Berlin, 1912-19), iii (1913), 379-413. They were translated into French by Jacques Delord, a missionary who lived among Kabre from 1946 to 1961, as 'Notes et commentaires sur les Kabre de Frobenius', Le monde non chrétien, LIX-LX (1961), 101-73. This translation includes extensive commentaries as footnotes in the text. 2 While the slave trade was legally abolished by the British in 1807, tens of thousands of slaves continued to be exported annually from Dahomey -the coastal entrepôt where many Kabre slaves were sent - until the 1860s; Patrick Manning, Slavery, Colonialism and Economic Growth in Dahomey, 1640-1960 (Cambridge, 1982), 27-36.
2. Frobenius' observations appeared in his Und Afrika sprach: unter den unsträflichen Aethiopien (4 vols.) (Berlin, 1912-19), iii (1913), 379-413. They were translated into French by Jacques Delord, a missionary who lived among Kabre from 1946 to 1961, as 'Notes et commentaires sur les Kabre de Frobenius', Le monde non chrétien, LIX-LX (1961), 101-73. This translation includes extensive commentaries as footnotes in the text. 2 While the slave trade was legally abolished by the British in 1807, tens of thousands of slaves continued to be exported annually from Dahomey -the coastal entrepôt where many Kabre slaves were sent - until the 1860s; Patrick Manning, Slavery, Colonialism and Economic Growth in Dahomey, 1640-1960 (Cambridge, 1982), 27-36.
3. Frobenius' observations appeared in his Und Afrika sprach: unter den unsträflichen Aethiopien (4 vols.) (Berlin, 1912-19), iii (1913), 379-413. They were translated into French by Jacques Delord, a missionary who lived among Kabre from 1946 to 1961, as 'Notes et commentaires sur les Kabre de Frobenius', Le monde non chrétien, LIX-LX (1961), 101-73. This translation includes extensive commentaries as footnotes in the text. 2 While the slave trade was legally abolished by the British in 1807, tens of thousands of slaves continued to be exported annually from Dahomey -the coastal entrepôt where many Kabre slaves were sent - until the 1860s; Patrick Manning, Slavery, Colonialism and Economic Growth in Dahomey, 1640-1960 (Cambridge, 1982), 27-36.
4. Claude Meillassoux, The Anthropology of Slavery: The Womb of Iron and Gold, trans. Alide Desnois (Chicago, 1991).
5. See, for example, Françoise Héritier, 'Des cauris et des hommes: production d'esclaves et accumulation de cauris chez les Samo (Haute-Volta)', in C. Meillassoux (ed.), L'esclavage en Afrique précoloniale (Paris, 1975), 477-508; J. P. Warnier, 'Traite sans raids au Cameroun', Cah. Ét. Afr, CXIII (1989), 5-32.
6. See, for example, Françoise Héritier, 'Des cauris et des hommes: production d'esclaves et accumulation de cauris chez les Samo (Haute-Volta)', in C. Meillassoux (ed.), L'esclavage en Afrique précoloniale (Paris, 1975), 477-508; J. P. Warnier, 'Traite sans raids au Cameroun', Cah. Ét. Afr, CXIII (1989), 5-32.
7. While the general history of slaving in the Kabre area is known, there is no detailed information on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century exchange forms. I have thus had to draw heavily upon material on exchange from the more recent past. Still, passages in Frobenius' text (from about the turn of the century) and statements made to me by today's elders about the time when they were children (the 1910s and 1920s) indicate that today's forms of exchange (and of value and ownership) were present at least during the last century.
8. See, for instance, Jane Guyer, 'Wealth in people and self-realization in Equatorial Africa', Man, XXVIII (1993), 243-65; Guyer, 'Introduction', to section on 'Wealth in people, wealth in things', and Guyer and S. M. Eno Belinga, 'Wealth in people as wealth in knowledge: accumulation and composition in Equatorial Africa', J. Afr. Hist., XXXVI (1995), 83-90, 91-120; Barbara Cooper, 'Women's worth and wedding gift exchange in Maradi, Niger, 1907-89', J. Afr. Hist., XXXVI (1995), 121-40. These papers, and others, have been part of an ongoing set of discussions - in sessions organized at the annual meetings of the African Studies Association (USA) over the past three years - on issues of wealth and personhood in African societies.
9. See, for instance, Jane Guyer, 'Wealth in people and self-realization in Equatorial Africa', Man, XXVIII (1993), 243-65; Guyer, 'Introduction', to section on 'Wealth in people, wealth in things', and Guyer and S. M. Eno Belinga, 'Wealth in people as wealth in knowledge: accumulation and composition in Equatorial Africa', J. Afr. Hist., XXXVI (1995), 83-90, 91-120; Barbara Cooper, 'Women's worth and wedding gift exchange in Maradi, Niger, 1907-89', J. Afr. Hist., XXXVI (1995), 121-40. These papers, and others, have been part of an ongoing set of discussions - in sessions organized at the annual meetings of the African Studies Association (USA) over the past three years - on issues of wealth and personhood in African societies.
10. See, for instance, Jane Guyer, 'Wealth in people and self-realization in Equatorial Africa', Man, XXVIII (1993), 243-65; Guyer, 'Introduction', to section on 'Wealth in people, wealth in things', and Guyer and S. M. Eno Belinga, 'Wealth in people as wealth in knowledge: accumulation and composition in Equatorial Africa', J. Afr. Hist., XXXVI (1995), 83-90, 91-120; Barbara Cooper, 'Women's worth and wedding gift exchange in Maradi, Niger, 1907-89', J. Afr. Hist., XXXVI (1995), 121-40. These papers, and others, have been part of an ongoing set of discussions - in sessions organized at the annual meetings of the African Studies Association (USA) over the past three years - on issues of wealth and personhood in African societies.
11. See, for instance, Jane Guyer, 'Wealth in people and self-realization in Equatorial Africa', Man, XXVIII (1993), 243-65; Guyer, 'Introduction', to section on 'Wealth in people, wealth in things', and Guyer and S. M. Eno Belinga, 'Wealth in people as wealth in knowledge: accumulation and composition in Equatorial Africa', J. Afr. Hist., XXXVI (1995), 83-90, 91-120; Barbara Cooper, 'Women's worth and wedding gift exchange in Maradi, Niger, 1907-89', J. Afr. Hist., XXXVI (1995), 121-40. These papers, and others, have been part of an ongoing set of discussions - in sessions organized at the annual meetings of the African Studies Association (USA) over the past three years - on issues of wealth and personhood in African societies.
12. On the movements of people in the Voltaic area generally, see Ivor Wilks, 'The Akan and Mossi states: 1500-1800', in J. F. A. Ajayi and Michael Crowder (eds.), History of West Africa, 2nd ed. (2 vols.) (New York, 1976), i, 413-54; and Nehemiah Levtzion, 'Trade and politics among Dyula and Mossi-Dagomba', in Richard Gray (ed.), The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 4: c. 1790-c. 1870 (Cambridge, 1975), 181-91. On Kabre more specifically, see Robert Cornevin, Histoire du Togo (Paris, 1962), 26-42, 59-74, 105-18; Robert Cornevin, La République Populaire du Bénin: des origines dahoméennes à nos jours (Paris, 1981), 31-65, 159-95; Jean Claude Froelich, Pierre Alexandre and Robert Cornevin, Les Populations du Nord-Togo (Paris, 1963); and Yves Person, 'Brève note sur les Logba', Études dahoméennes, XVII (1956), 35-49. Cornevin, Froelich, Alexandre and Person were all administrators in the French colonial government stationed in northern Togo and Benin in the 1940s and 50s. Their accounts are based on oral materials which they personally collected. Of these, Cornevin's is the most detailed and comprehensive. Still, by comparison with other areas, even his data are thin and more work remains to be done.
13. On the movements of people in the Voltaic area generally, see Ivor Wilks, 'The Akan and Mossi states: 1500-1800', in J. F. A. Ajayi and Michael Crowder (eds.), History of West Africa, 2nd ed. (2 vols.) (New York, 1976), i, 413-54; and Nehemiah Levtzion, 'Trade and politics among Dyula and Mossi-Dagomba', in Richard Gray (ed.), The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 4: c. 1790-c. 1870 (Cambridge, 1975), 181-91. On Kabre more specifically, see Robert Cornevin, Histoire du Togo (Paris, 1962), 26-42, 59-74, 105-18; Robert Cornevin, La République Populaire du Bénin: des origines dahoméennes à nos jours (Paris, 1981), 31-65, 159-95; Jean Claude Froelich, Pierre Alexandre and Robert Cornevin, Les Populations du Nord-Togo (Paris, 1963); and Yves Person, 'Brève note sur les Logba', Études dahoméennes, XVII (1956), 35-49. Cornevin, Froelich, Alexandre and Person were all administrators in the French colonial government stationed in northern Togo and Benin in the 1940s and 50s. Their accounts are based on oral materials which they personally collected. Of these, Cornevin's is the most detailed and comprehensive. Still, by comparison with other areas, even his data are thin and more work remains to be done.
14. On the movements of people in the Voltaic area generally, see Ivor Wilks, 'The Akan and Mossi states: 1500-1800', in J. F. A. Ajayi and Michael Crowder (eds.), History of West Africa, 2nd ed. (2 vols.) (New York, 1976), i, 413-54; and Nehemiah Levtzion, 'Trade and politics among Dyula and Mossi-Dagomba', in Richard Gray (ed.), The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 4: c. 1790-c. 1870 (Cambridge, 1975), 181-91. On Kabre more specifically, see Robert Cornevin, Histoire du Togo (Paris, 1962), 26-42, 59-74, 105-18; Robert Cornevin, La République Populaire du Bénin: des origines dahoméennes à nos jours (Paris, 1981), 31-65, 159-95; Jean Claude Froelich, Pierre Alexandre and Robert Cornevin, Les Populations du Nord-Togo (Paris, 1963); and Yves Person, 'Brève note sur les Logba', Études dahoméennes, XVII (1956), 35-49. Cornevin, Froelich, Alexandre and Person were all administrators in the French colonial government stationed in northern Togo and Benin in the 1940s and 50s. Their accounts are based on oral materials which they personally collected. Of these, Cornevin's is the most detailed and comprehensive. Still, by comparison with other areas, even his data are thin and more work remains to be done.
15. On the movements of people in the Voltaic area generally, see Ivor Wilks, 'The Akan and Mossi states: 1500-1800', in J. F. A. Ajayi and Michael Crowder (eds.), History of West Africa, 2nd ed. (2 vols.) (New York, 1976), i, 413-54; and Nehemiah Levtzion, 'Trade and politics among Dyula and Mossi-Dagomba', in Richard Gray (ed.), The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 4: c. 1790-c. 1870 (Cambridge, 1975), 181-91. On Kabre more specifically, see Robert Cornevin, Histoire du Togo (Paris, 1962), 26-42, 59-74, 105-18; Robert Cornevin, La République Populaire du Bénin: des origines dahoméennes à nos jours (Paris, 1981), 31-65, 159-95; Jean Claude Froelich, Pierre Alexandre and Robert Cornevin, Les Populations du Nord-Togo (Paris, 1963); and Yves Person, 'Brève note sur les Logba', Études dahoméennes, XVII (1956), 35-49. Cornevin, Froelich, Alexandre and Person were all administrators in the French colonial government stationed in northern Togo and Benin in the 1940s and 50s. Their accounts are based on oral materials which they personally collected. Of these, Cornevin's is the most detailed and comprehensive. Still, by comparison with other areas, even his data are thin and more work remains to be done.
16. On the movements of people in the Voltaic area generally, see Ivor Wilks, 'The Akan and Mossi states: 1500-1800', in J. F. A. Ajayi and Michael Crowder (eds.), History of West Africa, 2nd ed. (2 vols.) (New York, 1976), i, 413-54; and Nehemiah Levtzion, 'Trade and politics among Dyula and Mossi-Dagomba', in Richard Gray (ed.), The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 4: c. 1790-c. 1870 (Cambridge, 1975), 181-91. On Kabre more specifically, see Robert Cornevin, Histoire du Togo (Paris, 1962), 26-42, 59-74, 105-18; Robert Cornevin, La République Populaire du Bénin: des origines dahoméennes à nos jours (Paris, 1981), 31-65, 159-95; Jean Claude Froelich, Pierre Alexandre and Robert Cornevin, Les Populations du Nord-Togo (Paris, 1963); and Yves Person, 'Brève note sur les Logba', Études dahoméennes, XVII (1956), 35-49. Cornevin, Froelich, Alexandre and Person were all administrators in the French colonial government stationed in northern Togo and Benin in the 1940s and 50s. Their accounts are based on oral materials which they personally collected. Of these, Cornevin's is the most detailed and comprehensive. Still, by comparison with other areas, even his data are thin and more work remains to be done.
17. On the movements of people in the Voltaic area generally, see Ivor Wilks, 'The Akan and Mossi states: 1500-1800', in J. F. A. Ajayi and Michael Crowder (eds.), History of West Africa, 2nd ed. (2 vols.) (New York, 1976), i, 413-54; and Nehemiah Levtzion, 'Trade and politics among Dyula and Mossi-Dagomba', in Richard Gray (ed.), The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 4: c. 1790-c. 1870 (Cambridge, 1975), 181-91. On Kabre more specifically, see Robert Cornevin, Histoire du Togo (Paris, 1962), 26-42, 59-74, 105-18; Robert Cornevin, La République Populaire du Bénin: des origines dahoméennes à nos jours (Paris, 1981), 31-65, 159-95; Jean Claude Froelich, Pierre Alexandre and Robert Cornevin, Les Populations du Nord-Togo (Paris, 1963); and Yves Person, 'Brève note sur les Logba', Études dahoméennes, XVII (1956), 35-49. Cornevin, Froelich, Alexandre and Person were all administrators in the French colonial government stationed in northern Togo and Benin in the 1940s and 50s. Their accounts are based on oral materials which they personally collected. Of these, Cornevin's is the most detailed and comprehensive. Still, by comparison with other areas, even his data are thin and more work remains to be done.
18. See Robin Law, 'Slave-raiders and middlemen, monopolists and free-traders: the supply of slaves for the Atlantic trade in Dahomey c. 1715-1850', J. Afr. Hist., XXX (1989), 45-68; Manning, Slavery, Colonialism and Economic Growth in Dahomey; Patrick Manning, 'The slave trade in the Bight of Benin, 1640-1890', in Henry Gemery and Jan Hogendorn (eds.), The Uncommon Market: Essays in the Economic History of the Atlantic Slave Trade (New York, 1979), 107-41; Patrick Manning, Slavery and African Life (Cambridge, 1990); Ivor Wilks, Asante in the Nineteenth Century: The Structure and Evolution of a Political Order (Cambridge, 1975), 243-309.
19. See Robin Law, 'Slave-raiders and middlemen, monopolists and free-traders: the supply of slaves for the Atlantic trade in Dahomey c. 1715-1850', J. Afr. Hist., XXX (1989), 45-68; Manning, Slavery, Colonialism and Economic Growth in Dahomey; Patrick Manning, 'The slave trade in the Bight of Benin, 1640-1890', in Henry Gemery and Jan Hogendorn (eds.), The Uncommon Market: Essays in the Economic History of the Atlantic Slave Trade (New York, 1979), 107-41; Patrick Manning, Slavery and African Life (Cambridge, 1990); Ivor Wilks, Asante in the Nineteenth Century: The Structure and Evolution of a Political Order (Cambridge, 1975), 243-309.
20. See Robin Law, 'Slave-raiders and middlemen, monopolists and free-traders: the supply of slaves for the Atlantic trade in Dahomey c. 1715-1850', J. Afr. Hist., XXX (1989), 45-68; Manning, Slavery, Colonialism and Economic Growth in Dahomey; Patrick Manning, 'The slave trade in the Bight of Benin, 1640-1890', in Henry Gemery and Jan Hogendorn (eds.), The Uncommon Market: Essays in the Economic History of the Atlantic Slave Trade (New York, 1979), 107-41; Patrick Manning, Slavery and African Life (Cambridge, 1990); Ivor Wilks, Asante in the Nineteenth Century: The Structure and Evolution of a Political Order (Cambridge, 1975), 243-309.
21. See Robin Law, 'Slave-raiders and middlemen, monopolists and free-traders: the supply of slaves for the Atlantic trade in Dahomey c. 1715-1850', J. Afr. Hist., XXX (1989), 45-68; Manning, Slavery, Colonialism and Economic Growth in Dahomey; Patrick Manning, 'The slave trade in the Bight of Benin, 1640-1890', in Henry Gemery and Jan Hogendorn (eds.), The Uncommon Market: Essays in the Economic History of the Atlantic Slave Trade (New York, 1979), 107-41; Patrick Manning, Slavery and African Life (Cambridge, 1990); Ivor Wilks, Asante in the Nineteenth Century: The Structure and Evolution of a Political Order (Cambridge, 1975), 243-309.
22. See Robin Law, 'Slave-raiders and middlemen, monopolists and free-traders: the supply of slaves for the Atlantic trade in Dahomey c. 1715-1850', J. Afr. Hist., XXX (1989), 45-68; Manning, Slavery, Colonialism and Economic Growth in Dahomey; Patrick Manning, 'The slave trade in the Bight of Benin, 1640-1890', in Henry Gemery and Jan Hogendorn (eds.), The Uncommon Market: Essays in the Economic History of the Atlantic Slave Trade (New York, 1979), 107-41; Patrick Manning, Slavery and African Life (Cambridge, 1990); Ivor Wilks, Asante in the Nineteenth Century: The Structure and Evolution of a Political Order (Cambridge, 1975), 243-309.
23. On tribute to, and slave-raiding by, the kingdoms in this area, see Cornevin, Histoire, 26-42, 59-74, 105-18; Cornevin, La République, 31-65, 159-95; Jacques Lombard, Structures de type 'féodal' en Afrique Noire: étude des dynamismes internes et des relations sociales chez les Bariba du Dahomey (Paris, 1965); and Wilks, Asante, 243-309. On the slave merchants who bought slaves in the north and sold them at the coast, see Law, 'Slave-raiders'.
24. On tribute to, and slave-raiding by, the kingdoms in this area, see Cornevin, Histoire, 26-42, 59-74, 105-18; Cornevin, La République, 31-65, 159-95; Jacques Lombard, Structures de type 'féodal' en Afrique Noire: étude des dynamismes internes et des relations sociales chez les Bariba du Dahomey (Paris, 1965); and Wilks, Asante, 243-309. On the slave merchants who bought slaves in the north and sold them at the coast, see Law, 'Slave-raiders'.
25. On tribute to, and slave-raiding by, the kingdoms in this area, see Cornevin, Histoire, 26-42, 59-74, 105-18; Cornevin, La République, 31-65, 159-95; Jacques Lombard, Structures de type 'féodal' en Afrique Noire: étude des dynamismes internes et des relations sociales chez les Bariba du Dahomey (Paris, 1965); and Wilks, Asante, 243-309. On the slave merchants who bought slaves in the north and sold them at the coast, see Law, 'Slave-raiders'.
26. On tribute to, and slave-raiding by, the kingdoms in this area, see Cornevin, Histoire, 26-42, 59-74, 105-18; Cornevin, La République, 31-65, 159-95; Jacques Lombard, Structures de type 'féodal' en Afrique Noire: étude des dynamismes internes et des relations sociales chez les Bariba du Dahomey (Paris, 1965); and Wilks, Asante, 243-309. On the slave merchants who bought slaves in the north and sold them at the coast, see Law, 'Slave-raiders'.
27. On tribute to, and slave-raiding by, the kingdoms in this area, see Cornevin, Histoire, 26-42, 59-74, 105-18; Cornevin, La République, 31-65, 159-95; Jacques Lombard, Structures de type 'féodal' en Afrique Noire: étude des dynamismes internes et des relations sociales chez les Bariba du Dahomey (Paris, 1965); and Wilks, Asante, 243-309. On the slave merchants who bought slaves in the north and sold them at the coast, see Law, 'Slave-raiders'.
28. Meillassoux, Anthropology of Slavery; Law, 'Slave-raiders'.
29. Meillassoux, Anthropology of Slavery; Law, 'Slave-raiders'.
30. On Bariba, see Lombard, Structures; Cornevin, Histoire, 16-42, 59-74, 105-18; and Cornevin, La République, 31-65, 159-95. On the swings in prices of slaves at the coast, see Law, 'Slave-raiders'.
31. On Bariba, see Lombard, Structures; Cornevin, Histoire, 16-42, 59-74, 105-18; and Cornevin, La République, 31-65, 159-95. On the swings in prices of slaves at the coast, see Law, 'Slave-raiders'.
32. On Bariba, see Lombard, Structures; Cornevin, Histoire, 16-42, 59-74, 105-18; and Cornevin, La République, 31-65, 159-95. On the swings in prices of slaves at the coast, see Law, 'Slave-raiders'.
33. On Bariba, see Lombard, Structures; Cornevin, Histoire, 16-42, 59-74, 105-18; and Cornevin, La République, 31-65, 159-95. On the swings in prices of slaves at the coast, see Law, 'Slave-raiders'.
34. Cornevin, Histoire, 16-42, 59-74, 105-18; Cornevin, La République, 3-65, 159-95; Philip de Barros, 'The Bassar: large scale iron producers of the West African savanna' (Ph.D. thesis, University of California - Los Angeles, 1985), 63-4, 68; Raymond Verdier, Le pays Kabiyé: cité des dieux, cité des hommes (Paris, 1982), 187-8.
35. Cornevin, Histoire, 16-42, 59-74, 105-18; Cornevin, La République, 3-65, 159-95; Philip de Barros, 'The Bassar: large scale iron producers of the West African savanna' (Ph.D. thesis, University of California - Los Angeles, 1985), 63-4, 68; Raymond Verdier, Le pays Kabiyé: cité des dieux, cité des hommes (Paris, 1982), 187-8.
36. Cornevin, Histoire, 16-42, 59-74, 105-18; Cornevin, La République, 3-65, 159-95; Philip de Barros, 'The Bassar: large scale iron producers of the West African savanna' (Ph.D. thesis, University of California - Los Angeles, 1985), 63-4, 68; Raymond Verdier, Le pays Kabiyé: cité des dieux, cité des hommes (Paris, 1982), 187-8.
37. Cornevin, Histoire, 16-42, 59-74, 105-18; Cornevin, La République, 3-65, 159-95; Philip de Barros, 'The Bassar: large scale iron producers of the West African savanna' (Ph.D. thesis, University of California - Los Angeles, 1985), 63-4, 68; Raymond Verdier, Le pays Kabiyé: cité des dieux, cité des hommes (Paris, 1982), 187-8.
38. There are no data that I know of estimating the specific number of slaves that came from this area. Still, given the area's importance as a slave reserve, the far-flung reputation of the Kabre as sellers of kin, and Kabre memory itself about the practice, there must have been many thousand. Again, while providing no basis for numeration, it is nevertheless worth noting that both Kabre and Logba were among the (former slaves) interviewed by Koelle in Freetown in the 1850s when he was compiling his linguistic vocabularies; S. W. Koelle, Polyglotta Africana, or A Comparative Vocabulary of Nearly Three Hundred Words and Phrases in More than One Hundred Distinct African Languages (London, 1854).
39. The ethnographic present used throughout this and subsequent sections is the 1980s when I conducted fieldwork among Kabre. I address below my assumption that there are historical continuities in Kabre economic forms/practices which allow us to interpret the past from the present.
40. The notion of the 'gift', or 'prestational', economy is, of course, taken from Marcel Mauss, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, trans. Ian Cunnison (New York, 1967). See both Christopher Gregory, Gifts and Commodities (New York, 1982), and Marilyn Strathern, The Gender of the Gift (Berkeley, 1988), for more recent articulations and elaborations of this concept that have influenced my own work. See also Deborah Battaglia, On the Bones of the Serpent: Person, Memory and Mortality in Sabarl Island Society (Chicago, 1900); Nancy Munn, The Fame of Gavia: A Symbolic Study of Value Transformation in a Massim (Papua New Guinea) Society (Cambridge, 1986); and the essays in Jerry Leach and Edmund Leach (eds.), The Kula: New Perspectives on Massim Exchange (Cambridge, 1983).
41. The notion of the 'gift', or 'prestational', economy is, of course, taken from Marcel Mauss, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, trans. Ian Cunnison (New York, 1967). See both Christopher Gregory, Gifts and Commodities (New York, 1982), and Marilyn Strathern, The Gender of the Gift (Berkeley, 1988), for more recent articulations and elaborations of this concept that have influenced my own work. See also Deborah Battaglia, On the Bones of the Serpent: Person, Memory and Mortality in Sabarl Island Society (Chicago, 1900); Nancy Munn, The Fame of Gavia: A Symbolic Study of Value Transformation in a Massim (Papua New Guinea) Society (Cambridge, 1986); and the essays in Jerry Leach and Edmund Leach (eds.), The Kula: New Perspectives on Massim Exchange (Cambridge, 1983).
42. The notion of the 'gift', or 'prestational', economy is, of course, taken from Marcel Mauss, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, trans. Ian Cunnison (New York, 1967). See both Christopher Gregory, Gifts and Commodities (New York, 1982), and Marilyn Strathern, The Gender of the Gift (Berkeley, 1988), for more recent articulations and elaborations of this concept that have influenced my own work. See also Deborah Battaglia, On the Bones of the Serpent: Person, Memory and Mortality in Sabarl Island Society (Chicago, 1900); Nancy Munn, The Fame of Gavia: A Symbolic Study of Value Transformation in a Massim (Papua New Guinea) Society (Cambridge, 1986); and the essays in Jerry Leach and Edmund Leach (eds.), The Kula: New Perspectives on Massim Exchange (Cambridge, 1983).
43. The notion of the 'gift', or 'prestational', economy is, of course, taken from Marcel Mauss, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, trans. Ian Cunnison (New York, 1967). See both Christopher Gregory, Gifts and Commodities (New York, 1982), and Marilyn Strathern, The Gender of the Gift (Berkeley, 1988), for more recent articulations and elaborations of this concept that have influenced my own work. See also Deborah Battaglia, On the Bones of the Serpent: Person, Memory and Mortality in Sabarl Island Society (Chicago, 1900); Nancy Munn, The Fame of Gavia: A Symbolic Study of Value Transformation in a Massim (Papua New Guinea) Society (Cambridge, 1986); and the essays in Jerry Leach and Edmund Leach (eds.), The Kula: New Perspectives on Massim Exchange (Cambridge, 1983).
44. The notion of the 'gift', or 'prestational', economy is, of course, taken from Marcel Mauss, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, trans. Ian Cunnison (New York, 1967). See both Christopher Gregory, Gifts and Commodities (New York, 1982), and Marilyn Strathern, The Gender of the Gift (Berkeley, 1988), for more recent articulations and elaborations of this concept that have influenced my own work. See also Deborah Battaglia, On the Bones of the Serpent: Person, Memory and Mortality in Sabarl Island Society (Chicago, 1900); Nancy Munn, The Fame of Gavia: A Symbolic Study of Value Transformation in a Massim (Papua New Guinea) Society (Cambridge, 1986); and the essays in Jerry Leach and Edmund Leach (eds.), The Kula: New Perspectives on Massim Exchange (Cambridge, 1983).
45. The notion of the 'gift', or 'prestational', economy is, of course, taken from Marcel Mauss, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, trans. Ian Cunnison (New York, 1967). See both Christopher Gregory, Gifts and Commodities (New York, 1982), and Marilyn Strathern, The Gender of the Gift (Berkeley, 1988), for more recent articulations and elaborations of this concept that have influenced my own work. See also Deborah Battaglia, On the Bones of the Serpent: Person, Memory and Mortality in Sabarl Island Society (Chicago, 1900); Nancy Munn, The Fame of Gavia: A Symbolic Study of Value Transformation in a Massim (Papua New Guinea) Society (Cambridge, 1986); and the essays in Jerry Leach and Edmund Leach (eds.), The Kula: New Perspectives on Massim Exchange (Cambridge, 1983).
46. Those Kabre who live in northern Togo (as opposed to those who have migrated to the south) do very little cash-cropping. They subsist largely on sorghum, millet and yams. While cultivating is the exclusive domain of men, the gathering of sauce ingredients, the cooking of food and marketing in general are the domains of women.
47. See Charles Piot, 'Of persons and things: some reflections on African spheres of exchange', Man, XXVI (1991), 405-24, for a fuller description of the Kabre system of exchange spheres. Prestations in this economy come in other forms as well. For instance, Kabre 'wealth' (nyim) - primarily animals, though also money, grain and tree products - that is not disposed of in this particular system of exchange will most likely find its way into the sacrificial system. Sacrifice is, of course, a form of gift giving: when the meat from sacrifices has been cooked, it is then distributed to other members of the community.
48. Gregory, Gifts, 29-33.
49. For a more detailed, though somewhat differently focused, analysis of the marketing system, see Charles Piot, 'Wealth production, ritual consumption and center/periphery relations in a West African regional system', American Ethnologist, XIX (1992), 34-52.
50. The market standard is apparently calculated in the same way as the community standard - that is, according to a labor theory of value. However, certain Kabre also claimed that the consumption values of things determined their prices in the markets. Thus, a hoe blade, they said, was more expensive than a sheep because it could feed a whole family for up to two years, whereas a sheep was quickly consumed; and a sheep was more expensive than a goat because, when sacrificed, the former fed more people. I think - though I need more research to adequately determine - that these two theories of value coincide; that is, they both produce the same results.
51. Frobenius, Und Afrika sprach, iii, 407; Delord, 'Notes et commentaires sur les Kabre de Frobenius', 160.
52. Frobenius, Und Afrika sprach, iii, 407; Delord, 'Notes et commentaires sur les Kabre de Frobenius', 160.
53. I am assuming, of course, that the data are reliable - that we are indeed comparing the same products (this is almost certainly the case with the clay pots and the hoe blades, at least) and that, even if the data were collected at different times of the year, this would not account for the types of fluctuations evidenced here.
54. This labor varies from species to species and, thus, so do the rules governing how the offspring are divided. For instance, because a borrower expends relatively little labor in feeding goats and sheep (they feed themselves for much of the year), he/she has rights to only one of the offspring of the borrowed animal, with the owner receiving the rest. However, the borrower of a chicken, a guinea hen, or a dog divides the offspring evenly with the animal's owner because feeding these animals requires much more labor. For instance, chickens and guinea hens are fed termites that are gathered daily from clay pots deposited in the plain, a 45-minute walk away; and, dogs are fed human food - they are given their own bowl of porridge every night with the evening meal.
55. I am indebted in this section to conversations I have had with Jane Guyer and Eric Gable about these issues and to Jane Guyer's recent stimulating article, 'Wealth in people'. My argument is also influenced by Strathern, The Gender of the Gift, especially in terms of the way in which she ties a discussion of personhood to the larger context of the gift economy.
56. For instance, a recently married man I knew who had just become head of his extended family (because his father had recently died) once complained to me that he had become weary of the unending funeral obligations he had to fulfil. He had just finished making four large funeral prestations of beer and animals over a two-month period but was unable to come up with the gifts on his own. Thus, he had had to borrow from others and knew that his obligation to repay would interfere with his desire to fulfil other needs and embark on other projects.
57. Jan Hogendorn and Marion Johnson, The Shell Money of the Slave Trade (Cambridge, 1986), 104-9, suggest that cowrie shell currency had made its way into the marketplaces of this hinterland area by at least the early 1800s.
58. Again, the historiography on this point is not nearly as explicit as one would like. It indicates, as did my informants, that raiding by Bariba was supplanted by selling at Djougou. But how and why is not clear. One hypothesis would be that Kabre entered into an agreement with the king at Djougou - who paid tribute to Bariba - that they would sell their slaves at Djougou if he stopped the Bariba from raiding them.
59. This conflict is inscribed in many ritual practices - most notably at the times of a person's birth, initiation and death. For example, when a child is first initiated, father and mother's brother exchange sharp words, accusing one another of mistreating the child and warning the other that, if such continues, they will revoke the other's rights over the child.
60. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that the various parties were compensated for the loss of the child, it is likely that conflicts remained, especially between the child's father and the mother's brother, and between the child's mother and her brother. Further, in that marriages were tied up with long-term relationships between families, such conflicts would have had deleterious effects on the relationships between them. My guess - unfortunately, I did not pursue the point during my research - is that such conflicts lie buried within the marriage histories of many Kabre houses. I am reminded here, for instance, of the incident in Laura Bohannan's Return to Laughter (New York, 1964), 168, in which a case of witchcraft she observed was found to have had its origins in a conflict between two families over the sale of a child into slavery five generations previously.
61. See, for example, Elizabeth Isichei, A History of Nigeria (Longman, 1983), 192-3, and M. G. Smith, The Affairs of Daura (California, 1978), 113-20, 243-5.
62. See, for example, Elizabeth Isichei, A History of Nigeria (Longman, 1983), 192-3, and M. G. Smith, The Affairs of Daura (California, 1978), 113-20, 243-5.
63. See Piot, 'Wealth production, ritual consumption and center/periphery relations'.
64. The ethical judgment must rest on the local consequences of the transactions involving people as things, since it goes without saying, of course, that Kabre who sold their kin into slavery, and in so doing fed the Atlantic slave trade, had no knowledge where these kin would end up.
65. Mary Hawkesworth, 'Brothels and betrayal: on the functions of prostitution', International Journal of Women's Studies, LXXXI (1984), 81-91, and Jennifer James, 'Motivations for entrance into prostitution', in Laura Crites (ed.), The Female Offender (Lexington MA, 1976), 177-98.
66. Mary Hawkesworth, 'Brothels and betrayal: on the functions of prostitution', International Journal of Women's Studies, LXXXI (1984), 81-91, and Jennifer James, 'Motivations for entrance into prostitution', in Laura Crites (ed.), The Female Offender (Lexington MA, 1976), 177-98.
67. See Hogendorn and Johnson, Shell Money of the Slave Trade, among others. Similar neo-classical arguments are made for slave prices in David Eltis, 'The volume, age/sex ratios, and African impact of the slave trade: some refinements of Paul Lovejoy's review of the literature', J. Afr. Hist., XXXI (1990), 485-92, and Robin Law, 'Posthumous questions for Karl Polanyi: price inflation in pre-colonial Dahomey', J. Afr. Hist., XXXIII (1992), 387-420.
68. See Hogendorn and Johnson, Shell Money of the Slave Trade, among others. Similar neo-classical arguments are made for slave prices in David Eltis, 'The volume, age/sex ratios, and African impact of the slave trade: some refinements of Paul Lovejoy's review of the literature', J. Afr. Hist., XXXI (1990), 485-92, and Robin Law, 'Posthumous questions for Karl Polanyi: price inflation in pre-colonial Dahomey', J. Afr. Hist., XXXIII (1992), 387-420.
69. It would be interesting here - since so much attention in the scholarly literature on the slave trade has been concerned with the prices paid for slaves - to know what determined the prices at which Kabre slaves were sold. My guess would be that, as with other sales in the market, the subjective needs of individuals, rather than the objective conditions of the market, determined the price at which an individual would have been willing to sell a slave.