Trust

Ryszard Kapusckinsci is an amazing journalists who has an ability to get behind the journalistic story and reveal the humanity, myths and histories that lie behind it.

His book, the Shadow of the Sun, is a collection of his 40 years of experience in Africa. One of the most fascinating stories that he tells is "salt and gold". Development experts frequently conclude that one of the reason Africa has lagged behind the rest of the world is because the whole notion of trust needed for a free market has no precedent in Africa. Salt and Gold says otherwise.

"Between the people of the Sahara and the sedentary tribes of the Sahel and the green savanna there had existed for centuries in this part of Africa a form of commerce known as silent trading. The inhabitants of the Sahel traded salt and received gold in return. This salt, a highly coveted and priceless commodity was carried from the interior of the Sahara to the River Niger where the transaction took place. ' When the Negroes reach the river, they proceed as follows,' tells a fifteenth-century Venetian merchant, Alvise Ca da Mosto. "each of them forms a little hillock out of the salt he brought and marks it. Leaving the salty piles arranged in one straight line, they retreat a half day's travel time in the direction from when they came. Then the people from another Negro tribe arrive. They come on large boats, probably from nearby islands, disembark and place next to each mound of salt a certain amount of gold. Then they too withdraw, leaving behind the gold and the salt. When they are gone, those who bought the salt return and if they deem the amount of gold to be sufficient, they take it, leaving the salt; if not, they take neither the gold nor the salt and go away once again. Then the other ones come back and take those piles of salt that have no gold next to them.; next to the others they place more gold, if they consider it appropriate or leave the salt. In this manner they conduct their commerce, never seeing one another and never speaking. This business has been going on for a very long time'".