Pre-colonial trading networks and traders

The Diakhanké

Bibliographic Data

ID20043492
AuthorsPhilip D Curtin (corresponding author)
Year2018
Pages228-239
Publication date2018-09-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueDevelopment of Indigenous Trade and Markets in West Africa (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9780429487552-12
OpenAlexW2924074267
ISBN9780429487552
LanguageEN
Citations received7

The Diakhanke were a trading people inhabiting a number of scattered villages and towns in the hinterland of the Senegambia, especially in Wuli, Tanda, Niokholo, Futa Jallon, Bundu, Dentilia, and Bambuk. They had much in common with the Dioula, whom they regard as being a related people. Both claim Soninke origins but speak a dialect of Malinke; both trace their origins to Dia on the Niger; both were specialists in commerce during the pre-colonial period; and they share a similar tradition of Islamic learning. The Diakhanke have not been a political entity, and they may never have been. Their villages were independent of one another, often with a special relationship of quasi-independence from whatever secular political authority existed in the region. The cultural features that set them off most decidedly from their neighbours are a combination of pacifism, avoidance of political power and worldly rule, devotion to Islamic teaching as profession, and similar devotion to commerce

Archaeology · Business · Colonialism · African Studies and Geopolitics · History

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