Political Economy of Textiles in the Atlantic Slave Trade Page 1 of 23 Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, African History. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: OUP-Reference Gratis Access; date: 05 August 2024 Political Economy of Textiles in the Atlantic Slave Trade Kazuo Kobayashi, Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.1446 Published online: 27 February 2024 Summary Textile production was among the most important manufacturing sectors in precolonial West and West-Central Africa, enabled by the availability of local sources of fibers. Although the origins of this manufacturing are difficult to trace, the spread of cloth production was linked to Islam and consumer politics, followed by specialization of cloth production within the region over time. Textile production was usually based on the household division of labor: women were responsible for the primary activities of carding and spinning in cotton textile production, while men were in charge of weaving and finishing processes, such as embroidery. Male weavers used narrow strip (or band) horizontal looms to manufacture textiles, but in some areas, female weavers used vertical looms to produce textiles from cotton or raffia mixed with cotton. Some weavers were professional, full-time workers, whereas part- time weavers engaged in cloth production in the non-agricultural, dry season. Cloth strips served not only as material for clothing and interior decorations of houses and palaces but also as a currency in the regional economy. From the 15th century, the Portuguese came to West Africa and joined the coastal trade as middlemen who would be trading locally woven textiles from one place to another along the Atlantic coast. The Atlantic slave trade brought in increasing amounts of textiles from overseas, and in the 18th century, Indian cotton textiles became the flagship commodity whose quality met consumer preference. The impact of the influx of textiles from overseas on local cloth production remains a topic of debate. Although the dependency theorists claimed a negative impact, there is no evidence to support such a claim. Keywords: textiles, cotton, weaving, dyeing, textile production, Atlantic slave trade, slavery Subjects: Central Africa, Economic History, Slavery and Slave Trade, West Africa Textiles in Precolonial West and West-Central Africa Textile production was arguably the most significant manufacturing sector in precolonial West and West-Central Africa. 1 Although tracing its origins in the region (given the scarcity of sources, particularly written records) has been challenging, archaeological research has shed light on this subject. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Institute of Human Biology at Utrecht University excavated Mali’s Bandiagara escarpment, where the earliest textile fragments, later known as Tellem textiles, were found among human burial remains. These textiles were made mainly of cotton and could be dated back to the 8th century (Figure 1). 2 Another evidence suggests that, in what was later called Nigeria, cloth was produced in the 9th or 10th century. 3 West and West-Central Africa had a range of fiber sources, which enabled the production of a variety of textiles—from high-end to lower-quality ones. Cotton was a major vegetable fiber available in West Africa, and tree leaves and barks were also sources of textile production. In Kazuo Kobayashi, Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University 1 2 3