Chapter XII: The Commerce and Life of Timbuctoo

‘Timbuctoo is the meeting-place of all who travel by camel or canoe.’

This simple dictum of an old Sudanese chronicle excellently expresses the commercial greatness of the city; the ‘canoe’ representing the south of Timbuctoo (the Sudan), and the ‘camel’ indicating the Sahara and the whole of northern Africa, Morocco, Algeria, Tuat, Tunis, Tripoli, and, finally, Europe.

An intermediary of exchange between north and south having become essential, Timbuctoo supplies the part, and serves to unite the Berber and Arab with the Negraic world. This task is marvellously facilitated by her unique situation. Placed as she is at the outlet of a labyrinth of tributaries, creeks, and channels, at the point where the Niger bends abruptly from the western to its eastern course, she offers an easy point of concentration to north and south. Here the Sudan can assemble her many different products, and satisfy all her clients of the north at the same time. Timbuctoo is like a port with bonded docks situated on the coast of an opulent continent, with a sea of sand stretching before her upon which the fleets of the desert come and go.

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The commerce of the desert and the organisation of its caravans were established by the Moorish and Arabian tribes who dwelt on the confines of the desert. The country in which they pitched their tents permits of no cultivation, but favours the rearing of innumerable camels, and the nomads offer the native merchants the hire of these useful animals[12] in exchange for cereals and clothing.

On account of its proximity and its former conquest of the city, Morocco has become the principal client of Timbuctoo, Tendouf, Souara, Marrakesh, Fez, and Tafilalet being the points of departure of its caravans. Algeria is only of secondary importance, as its relations with the city are indirect, being established by means of Tuat; in the same manner Tunis and Tripoli trade through Ghadames. The caravans from the coast are chiefly laden with European stuffs, the principal fabric being the indigo blue cotton called Guinea, which is imported all over Africa. It is worth from fourteen to twenty-five francs the length in Timbuctoo, and only seven in Senegal. White calico is also in great request, and a few silks are numbered among the more luxurious textiles. In a general way the odd medley of patterns and colours which are in such demand upon the coast are despised in Nigerian Africa, their place being taken by more sober designs of Arabian character.

Other articles of commerce are firearms, gunpowder, cutlery, paper (sold on the Niger at twenty-five or thirty centimes a sheet), scissors, needles, mirrors, silk, and seed pearls (for embroidery), amber, coral, large pearls for necklaces, spices (principally cloves), sugar, tea, coffee, perfumes, tobacco from Tuat, teapots, cups, snuff-boxes, dates, carpets, fez, burnouses, caftans, etc.

The camels are only partly loaded on starting, for half-way the caravans complete their freights with that unique article, salt. I have laid stress upon the primary importance of this product in former chapters, and it only remains for me to show how it is procured.

The long depression in the western Sahara bearing the name of El Djouf is a vast mine of rock salt. We have seen that the supply first came out of Thegazza, and that these mines were abandoned in the sixteenth century for those of Taoudenni, situated nearer Timbuctoo.

Little accustomed as they are to smiling pastures, Taoudenni, according to the people of the desert, is one of the dreariest spots on the face of the earth, possessing neither trees nor vegetation, while the little water that is to be found there is salt. Shade, and water fit to drink, must be sought at the wells of Oued Teli, distant a day’s journey. Not even earth for the construction of dwellings is to be found, houses and mosques being built of rock salt and roofed with camel skins. The inhabitants of the town subsist upon the dates the caravans bring on their way to Timbuctoo, and the cereals and other provisions they leave behind on their return.

Under a thin covering of sand the mineral is found in clearly marked layers. It is dug out in large lumps by slaves, and trimmed down to blocks (about 3 ft. 7 in. by 1 ft. 3 in.), looking like bars of red or grey-veined marble, and which, as they come out of the mine, are stamped with the trade-marks of the different contractors. They are worth from two to six francs, according to their quality, and a camel can carry four or five at a time.

Before entering the Negraic countries they undergo a regular toilet at Timbuctoo, where they are embellished with geometrical designs in black paint, and the name of some venerated chief is written on them in Arabic characters. Sidi Yaia, the patron of Timbuctoo, Abd’ el Kader, the great Algerian chief, Cheikou Ahmadou, El Hadj Omar, etc., are honoured in this fashion. Thus ornamented, they are bound round with thongs of raw leather, which are arranged to hold the fragments together in cases of fracture. The fact that the manufacture of these thongs occupies an entire branch of business from one end of the year to another will give some idea of the importance of her salt trade to Timbuctoo.

The densest and whitest blocks are the most in demand, those veined with red being of an inferior quality. Their price in Timbuctoo varies according to the greater or less security of the Sudanese routes. ‘There was a time,’ said the old men, ‘when these blocks cost only from five to ten francs’; but during my sojourn there thirty or forty francs more nearly represented the price paid for them. An exporter from Jenne and Sansanding will purchase five hundred blocks at a time. Bought at thirty francs, for example, and worth forty-five at Sarafara and double at Jenne, they represent about seventy or eighty francs apiece at San or Sansanding, increasing in value at the same rate until they reach Mossi and the regions of Lake Chad. With such voyages in prospect the advantage these bars of salt possess over our powdered substance is sufficiently obvious. Hard as stone, and proof against injury from moisture, they do not suffer from the loss and theft to which our sacks of salt are peculiarly liable. The seller retails them in small pieces proportioned to the demand. They often serve the traveller as a means of barter, for the Sudanese who declines to sell his provisions for cowries, silver, or even gold, will never refuse a small lump of salt.

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Having completed its freight at Taoudenni, and paid one or several tolls to the Touaregs, the caravan reaches Timbuctoo, if it has not been entirely pillaged by the way. It does not enter the town, which would be seriously encumbered by its multitude of camels, but encamps before the northern walls in the _Abaradiou_, or caravan suburb. This quarter consists of groups of straw cabins surrounded by thorny fences, which recall the early settlement of Touaregs that gave birth to the city of Timbuctoo.

The merchants accompanying the caravans lodge in the town, but the camel-drivers find shelter in the Abaradiou. The camels are watered at large pools lying near, and are pastured on the neighbouring dunes, where the sober-minded animals find the camel-grass and other miserable and thorny vegetation which form their chief delicacies.

As one would suppose, the number and importance of the caravans vary in direct relation with the security of the Sahara on the one side and the prosperity of the Sudan on the other. The large caravans include from six hundred to a thousand camels and from three to five hundred men, their freight representing from six hundred thousand to a million francs’-worth of goods. They generally arrive from December to January and from July to August. Smaller caravans of sixty or a hundred camels are arriving all the year round, the town annually receiving about fifty or sixty thousand camels. In the year following our occupation (evidently an abnormal one) the official returns only stated fourteen thousand camels.

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Like the burdens of the camels, the cargoes of the fleets comprise two distinct parts. One portion, destined for Timbuctoo and the towns and nomadic tribes of the Sahara, consists principally of matters of alimentation, such as millet, rice, karita, manioc, arachides, honey, kola nuts, neta and baobab flour, monkey-bread, tamarinds, onions and tobacco (cheaper and inferior to that of Tuat), dried fish, and in addition, soap, iron, antimony, cotton, straw hats, potteries, and calabashes. The other is specially allotted to Morocco, Tuat, and Ghadames, and comprises gold, ivory, ostrich plumes, raw leather, wax, incense, civet musk, indigo, gum, etc., and includes a few slaves.

The different methods of northern and southern transport being now explained, the commerce of Timbuctoo appears in all its simplicity. The camels transfer their burdens to the canoes, and the vessels confide their cargoes to the camels, Timbuctoo being the place of trans-shipment. The city is merely a temporary _dépôt_, situated between the borders of the desert and the copiously watered valleys of the south, and is so completely a town of warehouses and docks that none of its merchants possesses either camel or boat. What part, then, do its people play if they are neither exporters nor importers? They are brokers, contractors, and landlords. ‘The guest is a present from God,’ says an Arabian maxim much in vogue in Timbuctoo, where there are no caravansaries. The inhabitant offers gratuitous board and lodging to the stranger merchant for the first three days, and interprets the noble precept in a disinterested and elevated manner. There is a perfectly straightforward understanding that at parting on the fourth day the guest shall hire one of his host’s houses (some own as many as ten or fifteen) for the remainder of his stay. These dwellings are similar to the one I occupied, and are large enough to serve as warehouse as well as habitation. Moreover, the part of _diatigui_ or landlord does not end there; he is expected to instruct the stranger on the current prices, the abundance or scarcity of the product he has come to buy or sell, the standing of any client who may offer himself, and also to assist his guest in making his purchases, the price of lodging thus including the benefits of brokerage.

I too made use of my landlord according to custom, asking him to advise me in the choice of tradespeople, and appealing to him in all my business transactions. I requested him to conduct me about the town as though I were some merchant of Mossi or Tafilalet, and he led me through the markets and showed me the interior of those crumbling wrecks of houses which had so deceived me on my arrival. To my great surprise I found well-provided shops under these ruins, stored with the most varied fabrics from all parts of Europe and the Sudan, and containing every description of native product. We pursued the same dilapidated road I had followed on the first day. Under the low roof of a hut, open to the four winds, we found a tailor and his nine workmen, whose needles were flying through blue-and-white stuffs, while an old greybeard in spectacles read verses of the Koran to them through his nose. Some were making pantaloons and the ample robes of the Sudan, while others were ornamenting them with elaborate Moorish embroideries. These embroidered robes (Timbuctoo’s chief industry) were notorious at the time of the Sudan’s greatest prosperity, and her workshops could barely keep pace with the demand for them. They were exported to Morocco, Bammaku, and Gao, and cost from three to four thousand francs apiece. They are marvels of taste and delicate workmanship, with roses and arabesques on the back and front, embroidered in shining silken threads that stand out in brilliant whiteness from the raw silk of the fabric.

Shoemakers formerly employed a similar art upon the wonderful leather of the country, the true marocco, fine, supple, and light, which is made into boots embellished with green and yellow embroideries, and into slippers, cushions, and bindings. We directed our steps towards a cracked and dilapidated house, whose upper story had fallen into fragments. It was the abode of a great merchant, and before its closed and barricaded door my guide recited the accustomed discourse; in spite of the several months of our occupation, the old habits of precaution have not entirely disappeared. Having passed the second armoured door, we found ourselves in a courtyard shaded by a large verandah, whose arched galleries ran round its four sides, like the _patio_ of Spanish houses. Out in the streets the heat was terrific, but this court was agreeably cool, with no trace of the external misery and ruin. Everything was marvellously clean and well kept, and after the _Lasciate ogni speranza_ of the exterior it seemed a paradise.

Carpets and cushions were scattered about under the galleries, for this court is the reception-room, and it is here that all business is transacted. A panther skin was offered me for seat, and we were served with tea and sugar and the delicious dates of Tuat. After that we visited the shop, which ran across the entire house, and in which sacks of millet were heaped upon sacks of rice, and blocks of salt were to be counted by the hundreds. Bales of dates lay side by side with packets of ostrich feathers and elephant tusks. This house, outwardly a ruin, contained about fifty thousand francs’-worth of merchandise.

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Side by side with these unofficial are the official brokers or _taifa_, who specialise in certain products, such as salt, gold, cattle and textiles. They go from house to house, offering their services, showing samples, and explaining prices. On asking the number of the specialists, I am told, ‘There are about three hundred who carry on the profession from father to son, but all, even the women and children, are brokers in Timbuctoo.’

If he is provided with the necessary capital, and sees the moment to be propitious, the native of Timbuctoo is not above speculating on his own account, and his operations are very similar to those of our Bourse. At certain periods of the year, when the great caravans are expected, the rich merchants buy up all the chief articles of commerce, salt, cereals and textiles, thus causing an artificial rise in price, which they maintain until their agent signals the approach of caravan or fleet. They also buy large quantities of karita, kola nuts, onions, and other stores, which are sold by children and slaves in the markets and streets.

Falsification and fraud, as well as speculation, have long been known and practised in Timbuctoo. An old writing of the time of Askia the Great devotes several pages to the denunciation of false weights and measures, the admixture of copper with virgin gold, the aëration of meat, and the baptism of milk, etc.

It is sufficiently obvious that the great firms of Morocco, Tuat, and Ghadames would, like Jenne and Sansanding, seek to relieve themselves of the onerous intervention of the native broker. All these towns, in fact, possessed property in Timbuctoo, and their representative, a relative or confidential slave, was installed there, the heads of the firm paying an annual visit in order to verify accounts and control the inventory. Occasionally the merchants of north and south would establish themselves in the city, returning to their native country as soon as their fortunes were made. All these people bought and sold directly from the caravan.

The Arabian traders formerly constituted the most numerous, enterprising, and richest element of the city. They introduced a system of banking, and the traveller could procure from them letters of credit for the whole of northern Africa. They also gave credit to the _dioulas_, or travelling negro merchant. All this required considerable courage, for there are no police in the Sudan, and two or three years had often elapsed before they saw their debtors again. Frequently they never reappeared at all, owing not so much to intentional dishonesty, as to the numerous wars and the frequent insecurity of the different routes. The quarters occupied by the Arabs were called the Baghinde, and the population, natives of Morocco, Tuat, and Tripoli, formerly numbered about three hundred. They formed a colony which was known by the name of ‘the community of white men,’ and was analogous to the European colonies of Eastern cities. They had a deputy at their head, occupying a similar position to our consul, who was called ‘head of the whites,’ and who was always a member of the town council. On our entry into Timbuctoo, our officers found the ‘head of the whites’ to be a Tripolitan named Milad. He was a man of exceptional intelligence, and having had intercourse with Europeans in his own country, he was enabled, by his advice and other good offices, to give material assistance to our occupation.

Like the native population, this Arabian colony fell to pieces under the unbearable tyranny of the Touaregs; but for all that it would be a mistake to suppose that Timbuctoo was ever a very populous city. I should calculate the town to have possessed a population of only forty or fifty thousand inhabitants, even at the time of its greatest splendour. The absence and impracticability of any local industry explains a figure so inconsiderable when compared with other great places of Mussulman commerce, such as Cairo and Damascus, but sufficiently important when we realise that the entire population lived by, and was occupied with, commerce alone.

Seen in this light, the following figures will not be surprising. In January 1895 the statistics show a turnover of 460,000 francs, and at the time these figures were stated to me those who computed them assured me that they hardly represented a third of the actual sum. No serious effort has ever been made to obtain an accurate knowledge of such things. The captain of the port of Timbuctoo has not even an interpreter at his service. One has to be satisfied with the voluntary declarations made by the merchants to the military authorities and the native police superintendents of Kabara and Timbuctoo. Even less than his European _confrère_ does the African merchant like to let the whole world into the secrets of his affairs.

It is necessary to mention the markets that since our occupation have been established by the timid or intractable upon the Lower Niger. Two of these markets, viz. Keirago and Bamba, now possess a traffic and population almost as important as those of Timbuctoo itself. All these causes of fluctuation must be taken into account before we can accurately estimate the capabilities of Timbuctoo. I believe it will not be long before the city will increase her annual commerce by twenty millions, that is to say, double the amount computed in 1893 for the entire colony of the French Congo.

Not only was Timbuctoo the great commercial centre, it also represented a city of pleasure to the whole of western Africa, and especially to the Arabs.

I talked at Senegal with one of those Moorish traders who form a very active and wealthy colony at St. Louis. Being _en route_ for Timbuctoo, I naturally did not forget to ask him what he knew, or rather had heard, of the city, for he had never visited it. ‘Ah! you are going to Timbuctoo!’ he cried, with sparkling eyes. ‘Oh! at Timbuctoo there are ladies, very many and very beautiful!’ To his mind the city seemed to represent a gallant life rather than business. After gold, ivory, and ostrich feathers, the principal attractions of Timbuctoo for the people of the north are undoubtedly the easy manners prevailing in the Sudan. This is also confirmed by ancient geographers.

Léon the African contents himself with saying, ‘The inhabitants of Timbuctoo have gay natures, and dancing goes on every evening until an advanced hour.’ He was writing for the Vatican, which may explain his reserve. Ibn Batouta is more explicit. He observes on his arrival in the Sudan that ‘these people have very singular manners. The men are not in the least jealous concerning their women-folk. The latter are not at all embarrassed in the presence of a man; and although they are very devout in their prayers, they go about with unveiled faces. They have friends and companions among the men, and the men on their side have friends among the women. Thus it often happens that a man, on returning home, finds his wife entertaining a friend. Having received permission from the kaid of Oualata to visit him, I presented myself at his house one day, and found him with a woman who was young and beautiful. I was about to retire upon seeing her, when, without showing the least shame, she went into fits of laughter at my embarrassment. “Do not go,” said the kaid. “It is only a good friend of mine.” I was thunderstruck at seeing a jurisconsult, a scholar, and a man who had made a pilgrimage to Mecca, behaving in such a manner. I learned later that he had applied to the sultan for permission to make the pilgrimage that same year in company with his good friend! Upon another occasion I visited a man, and found him seated on a rug while his wife occupied a chair and was conversing with a man who was sitting beside her. “Who is that woman?” I asked. “She is my wife,” he replied. “And who is the man sitting beside her?” “That is a friend of hers.” “How can you suffer such a thing?” I indignantly asked; “you who have lived in our countries of the north, and know the rules of the Koran.” “With us,” he replied, “women have friendships that are in every way honourable, and no suspicion is ever aroused, for our women are not like those of your country.” I was so disgusted by his folly that I instantly quitted his house, and have never set foot in it again.’

It was towards 1350 that Ibn Batouta was so scandalised by the manners of Oualata, and history has shown us that Timbuctoo was developed by the immigration thither of the people of the former town. Merchants and scholars would naturally import their manners as well as their commerce, wealth, and science.

In a chapter entitled, ‘All that I found of evil in the conduct of the blacks,’ the same author continues, ‘The slaves, male and female, and the young girls, appear in the streets quite nude. I saw a great number thus even in the month of Ramadan. It is the custom for all great personages to break their fast with the sultan, and for this purpose they send parties of twenty or more young slaves to carry the provisions to the palace. They appear before the sultan quite nude, and his own daughters do the same. The evening before Ramadan I saw several slaves with food leave the palace accompanied by two of the sultan’s daughters, and they likewise wore no clothes.’

Ibn Batouta was a highly cultured man, as pious as he was learned, and deeply imbued with the veiled manners of Islam. Such customs could but shock and move to wrath a mind thus educated, but their effect upon the vulgar, the merchants and their clerks and camel-drivers, would probably be different. Bred in the Arabian world, in which men and women lived absolutely separate lives, and in which the latter disguise not only their form but even their features under heavy draperies, the spectacle of such manners must have been to them both novel and curious. They would not experience the repulsion of the learned Ibn Batouta, but would mix with this life and enjoy the new customs that in their own countries would raise a blush to their cheeks. Timbuctoo would soon be surrounded by a halo in their minds as being, upon earth, one little corner of the paradise promised by Mahomet. Askia the Great, having observed the Mohammedan practices of Egypt, attempted several reforms. The women were compelled to drape themselves from head to foot and adopt the life of the harem. He also established a ‘body of men charged to exercise a constant surveillance, and to arrest and imprison any man found talking to a strange woman after nightfall.’ These measures fell into disuse under the sons of the great king, and the manners of the country relapsed into their accustomed freedom.

Ibn Batouta’s description of Timbuctoo being amply sufficient, I prefer to speak of the women of the city, that is to say, those of its aristocratic families. By reason of continual intermarriage with the Berber and Arab races, their features have become more regular and considerably refined. Although they are black in colour they approximate more to the Aryan type than the Negraic; the flatness of the nose and mouth is much less noticeable, and the whole face is pleasantly lighted by wonderful eyes, whose gentle, intelligent glance seems to enfold you.

These natural charms are supplemented by the arts of coquetry. Their foreheads are charmingly adorned with bands of pearls and sequins, and the most accomplished hairdressers arrange their tresses in wonderful top-knots interspersed with ornaments of golden filagree. Ear-rings of the same precious metal dangle from their ears, and necklaces of gold, coral, or amber are wound round their throats; they also embellish their nails with henna and darken their eyes with antimony. Above all, they know how to drape themselves tastefully in the various kinds of stuff which are to be found in Timbuctoo--European, Arabian, and native fabrics.

Unlike her negro sister, the woman of Timbuctoo plays the part of great lady. She transfers the household work and the care of her children to slaves, contenting herself with seeing that her orders are carried out. She employs her time in reading and playing upon the violin (whose sole string is made of camel’s hair), visiting her friends and--smoking pipes, for no one is perfect.

Over and above these _mondaines_, Timbuctoo possesses her _demi-mondaines_, who imitate the former in all things. The following is an account of fashionable life given me by one of its members:--

‘Business here allows of plenty of leisure; we have to wait until certain articles have arrived, or until others have diminished or risen in price. The stranger merchant, in order to amuse himself, gathers his friends together at mid-day, or in the evening by preference, and offers them a repast. They eat fat sheep, pigeons, kuss-kuss, dates, kola nuts, wheaten biscuits, and honey-cakes. They drink tea, and sometimes coffee. Marabuts (to whom some present has been made beforehand) are invited, and delight the assembly with their old-world histories. Each guest also tells some tale of his native country, and it is by these means we know so well, not only what is passing in Morocco, Tuat, and Tripoli, but all that is going on in Europe and France also. These little _fêtes_ have become less frequent in the present time of misfortune. Formerly one used to receive an invitation nearly every day. Many Arabs from the north lived in Timbuctoo then, and one might have built houses of lumps of sugar, such great quantities of it were brought here by the caravans. The people of Ghadames, Tunis, and Fez liked to live well. They taught their slaves the art of preparing very elaborate and varied dishes, pastries, and sweets; so much incense was burned and such great quantities of attar of roses were sprinkled about the houses that you were seized with headache on the doorstep.

‘The most costly _fêtes_ were those given to the women. The people of Jenne, Sansanding, and Bammaku rivalled the Arabs, but the people of Tuat were the most extravagant. On the other hand, the Mossi did not squander their money in this fashion, but left the town as soon as their business was concluded.

‘Those who had mistresses gave feasts which lasted many hours, much intoxicating liquid was consumed, and the men became as drunk as the idolatrous Bambaras. Musicians were sent for, dancing began and was prolonged through the night. Men would spend two or three hundred gold pieces in disputing a mistress with a rival. A merchant of Sansanding is said to have made his lady a present of five hundred blocks of salt. This man lived near the mosque, and having passed the night in feasting he wished to sleep during the day, and had the audacity to say to the muezzin who calls the faithful to the five daily prayers, “I am very tired, your voice will disturb me. If I do not hear you throughout the day, I will make a rich offering to the mosque.”

‘Many people who only came to stay a few weeks would prolong their visit for months and years, detained either by the agreeable life of the town or some passion; and many who arrived with a fortune returned home ruined.’