Landlords and Strangers

"The period 1000 to 1630 was the most dynamic era in the history of the Mande- and West Atlantic-speaking peoples living between the bend of the Niger River and the Atlantic littoral. Many of the economic, social, and cultural patterns that evolved during those centuries remain of fundamental importance." "This study delineates historical processes in the context of climate change, expanding trade networks, and widespread state-building. The long dry period, c. 1100-c. 1500, impelled Mande-speaking traders and blacksmiths to move progressively southward and westward, founding chapters of Mande "power associations" among host communities. Smiths and traders were followed by horse warriors who founded conquest states and imposed a tripartite social stratification. During the brief c. 1500-c. 1630 wet period, the southward movement of horse warriors was temporarily checked, but Europeans and Eur-Africans promoted an expanding trade in slaves that ravaged the peoples of western Africa during the centuries following." "Landlords and Strangers provides a comprehensive synthesis of documentary and oral data and includes numerous extracts from contemporaneous sources to vividly portray the peoples and lands of western Africa."--BOOK JACKET.