Copper, Trade and Polities: Exchange Networks in Southern Central Africa in the 2nd Millennium CE

Abstract

A rare, scattered resource in Central Africa, copper was produced in the Copperbelt since the 4th–7th centuries CE and traded over large distances from the 9th to the 19th centuries. It was exchanged mainly in the form of cross-shaped ingots, also called croisettes, varying in form and size over time and space. In this article, we explore and compare the spatial distribution of these ingots over time. This approach offers an opportunity to study pre-colonial trade. Indeed, during the 2nd millennium CE, the use of the same type of ingots is attested in distant regions, from the Great Zimbabwe area to the Upemba depression (north Katanga, Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC]). Over the centuries, changes in geographic distribution patterns and styles indicate shifts in contacts and the appearance of new boundaries. These variations reflect changes in the regional distribution networks and suggest areas of exclusive political influence. Historical information available for the 19th century shows that it is possible to link the diffusion of copper with political entities, a hypothesis supported by evidence related to other kinds of production, such as ceramics and salt. For remote periods, confrontation of the croisettes’ distribution with other aspects of material culture suggests that such links between socio-political spaces and copper distribution may also have occurred in the distant past.

Keywords:

• Copperbelt
• copper ingots
• croisettes
• precolonial trade
• exchange networks
• socio-political boundaries
• social spaces

Acknowledgements

This article is partly based on the results of an MA dissertation (N. Nikis, ‘La métallurgie ancienne du cuivre dans le Copperbelt. Synthèse des données archéologiques et anthropologiques’, Université libre de Bruxelles, 2012). Earlier versions have been presented as a talk at the 14th Congress of the Pan African Archaeological Association of Prehistory and Related Studies (14–18 July 2014, Johannesburg, South Africa) and at the Review of African Political Economy, Southern African Institute for Policy and Research, and Journal of Southern African Studies conference, ‘Southern Africa beyond the West: Political, Economic and Cultural Relationships with the BRICS Countries and the Global South’ (7–11 August 2015, Livingstone, Zambia). Thanks are owed to the staff of the Heritage Studies Unit of the Royal Museum for Central Africa; to Noémie Arazi, Laurence Garenne Marot, Sam Nixon, Pierre de Maret, Olivier Gosselain, Renaud Zeebroek; to the anonymous reviewers, for their useful advice and help; and to Edward Pollard from the BIEA and Lyn Schumaker from JSAS for the opportunity to present and publish these results.

We would like to dedicate this contribution to the memory of the late Renaud Zeebroek, a brilliant and deeply human scientist.

Notes

¹ Copper has been extracted almost all over the world. A recent world overview on copper production can be found in B.W. Roberts and C.P. Thornton (eds), Archaeometallurgy in Global Perspective: Methods and Syntheses (New York, Springer, 2014).

² See, for example, A. Harding, ‘Trade and Exchange’, in H. Fokkens and A. Harding (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 370–81.

³ V.L. Cameron, Across Africa (New York, Harpers & Brothers, 1877), p. 470; E. Herbert, Red Gold of Africa: Copper in Precolonial History and Culture (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1984), p. xx.

⁴ Herbert, Red Gold of Africa, pp. 113, 123ff; P.M. Martin, The External Trade of the Loango Coast, 1576–1870 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1972), pp. 48–52 and passim.

⁵ Among others: D.M. Gordon, ‘Wearing Cloth, Wielding Guns: Consumption, Trade, and Politics in the South Central African Interior during the Nineteenth Century’, in R. Ross, M. Hinfelaar and I. Peša (eds), The Objects of Life in Central Africa: The History of Consumption and Social Change, 1840–1980 (Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2013), p. 18; A. Wilson, ‘Long Distance Trade and the Luba Lomami Empire’, Journal of African History, 13, 4 (1972), pp. 575–89; T.Q. Reefe, The Rainbow and the Kings: A History of the Luba Empire to 1891 (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1981); J. Vansina, ‘Long-Distance Trade Routes in Central Africa’, Journal of African History, 3, 2 (1962), pp. 375–90.

⁶ G. Macola, The Kingdom of Kazembe: History and Politics in North-Eastern Zambia and Katanga to 1950 (Hamburg, Lit Verlag, 2002), p. 44.

⁷ H. Legros, Chasseurs d'ivoire: une histoire du royaume Yeke du Shaba (Zaïre) (Bruxelles, Éditions de l’Université libre de Bruxelles, 1996), p. 34.

⁸ J.A.E. Nenquin, Excavations at Sanga 1957: The Protohistoric Necropolis (Tervuren, Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale, 1963); P. de Maret, Fouilles archéologiques dans la vallée du Haut-Lualaba, Zaïre. II: Sanga et Katongo, 1974 (Tervuren, Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale, 1985) ; P. de Maret, Fouilles archéologiques dans la vallée du Haut-Lualaba, Zaïre. III: Kamilamba, Kikulu, et Malemba Nkulu, 1975 (Tervuren, Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale, 1992); B. Fagan, ‘Excavation at Ingombe Ilede, 1960–62’, in B.M. Fagan, P.D.W. and S.G.H. Daniels (eds), Iron Age Culture in Zambia (London, Chatto and Windus,1969), pp. 55–161.

⁹ M.S. Bisson, ‘Precolonial Copper Metallurgy: Sociopolitical Context’, in M.S. Bisson, S.T. Childs, P. de Barros and A.F.C. Holl (eds), Ancient African Metallurgy: The Sociocultural Context (Walnut Creek, AltaMira Press, 2000), p. 124; P. de Maret, ‘Recent Farming Communities and States in the Congo Basin and its Environs’, in P. Mitchell and P. Lane (eds), The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013), p. 881.

¹⁰ Herbert, Red Gold of Africa; A. von Oppen, Terms of Trade and Terms of Trust: The History and Contexts of Pre-Colonial Market Production around the Upper Zambezi and Kasai (Munster and Hamburg, Lit Verlag, 1993), p. 152.

¹¹ When referring to the Copperbelt without any other context, we are talking about the geological region.

¹² With the new 2006 Constitution in the DRC, the Katanga province has been divided into four new entities: Haut Katanga, Lualaba, Haut-Lomami and Tanganyika.

¹³ R.F. Burton, The Lands of Cazembe: Lacerda’s Journey to Cazembe in 1798 (London, John Murray, 1873); J.A. Bancroft, Mining in Northern Rhodesia (London, British South Africa Company, 1961), p. 36.

¹⁴ E. Anciaux de Faveaux and P. de Maret, ‘Premières datations pour la fonte du cuivre au Shaba (Zaïre)’, Bulletin de la Société royale belge d’Anthropologie et de Préhistoire, 95 (1984), pp. 5–20; M.S. Bisson, ‘The Prehistoric Copper-Mines of Zambia’, (PhD thesis, University of California, 1976).

¹⁵ K.R. Robinson, ‘Further Excavations in the Iron Age Deposits at the Tunnel Site, Gokomere Hill, Southern Rhodesia’, South African Archaeological Bulletin, 18, 72 (1963), pp. 155–71; L.M. Swan, ‘Economic and Ideological Roles of Copper Ingots in Prehistoric Zimbabwe’, Antiquity, 81, 314 (2007), pp. 999–1012.

¹⁶ D.W. Phillipson, The Later Prehistory of Eastern and Southern Africa (London and New York, Africana Publishing Company, 1977), p. 150; Herbert, Red Gold of Africa, p. 25.

¹⁷ P. de Maret, ‘Histoires de croisettes’, in L. de Heusch (ed.), Objets-signes d’Afrique (Tervuren, Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale, 1995), pp. 133–45; N. Raes, ‘Les croisettes de cuivre en Afrique centrale: approche archéologique, historique et ethnographique’ (Mémoire de Licence, Université libre de Bruxelles, 1987); Swan, ‘Economic and Ideological Roles of Copper Ingots’.

¹⁸ Anciaux de Faveaux, ‘Premières datations’; Bisson, ‘The Prehistoric Copper-Mines of Zambia’.

¹⁹ J.O. Vogel, Kumadzolo: An Early Iron Age Site in Southern Zambia (London and Lusaka, Oxford University Press, 1972); E.A.C. Mills and N.T. Filmer, ‘Chondwe Iron Age Site, Ndola, Zambia’, Azania, 7, 1(1972), pp. 129–45.

²⁰ Herbert, Red Gold of Africa, p. 104.

²¹ Bisson, ‘Precolonial Copper Metallurgy’, pp. 115–18.

²² Bisson, ‘The Prehistoric Copper-Mines of Zambia’.

²³ De Maret, ‘Histoires de croisettes’, p. 143.

²⁴ N. Arazi, A. Livingstone Smith and D. Muya Wa Bitanko, Tenke Fungurume Cultural Heritage Specialist Study, Report (Bruxelles, Heritage Management Services, 2012), p. 37; Anciaux de Faveaux, ‘Premières datations’; Bisson, ‘The Prehistoric Copper-Mines of Zambia’; J.T. Bent, The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland (London, Longmans, Green and Co., 1892); R.N. Hall, Great Zimbabwe, Mashonaland, Rhodesia (London, Methuen and Co., 1907).

²⁵ Swan, ‘Economic and Ideological Roles of Copper Ingots’; P.S. Garlake, ‘Iron Age Sites in the Urungwe District of Rhodesia’, South African Archaeological Bulletin, 25, 97 (1970), pp. 25–39; Bisson, ‘The Prehistoric Copper-Mines of Zambia’.

²⁶ De Maret, Fouilles archéologiques. II: Sanga et Katongo; de Maret, Fouilles archéologiques. III: Kamilamba, Kikulu, et Malemba Nkulu.

²⁷ De Maret, ‘Histoires de croisettes’, pp. 140–41.

²⁸ Swan, ‘Economic and Ideological Roles of Copper Ingots’, p. 1008.

²⁹ Raes, ‘Les croisettes de cuivre’, p. 48; M. Hall and W.G. Neal, The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia (Monomotapae Imperium) (London, Methuen and Co., 1904), p. 233; Bisson, ‘The Prehistoric Copper-Mines of Zambia’, p. 386.

³⁰ Even though some ingots may still have been in use later in the Upemba depression from 14th to 15th centuries.

³¹ P. de Maret, ‘L'évolution monétaire du Shaba central entre le 7e et le 18e siècle’, African Economic History, 10 (1981), p. 138; Raes, ‘Les croisettes de cuivre en Afrique centrale’, p. 48; de Maret, ‘Histoires de croisettes’, p. 140.

³² De Maret, ‘L’évolution monétaire du Shaba central’, p. 133.

³³ Ibid.; Raes, ‘Les croisettes de cuivre’, p. 48 ; unpublished HH ingots hoard conserved in Royal Museum for Central Africa, inv. PO.2010.1.1.

³⁴ De Maret, ‘L’évolution monétaire du Shaba central’, p. 143.

³⁵ G. de Plaen, ‘La préhistoire de l’Afrique centrale’, Etudes scientifiques (1978), pp. 3–41; J. Hiernaux, E. de Longree and J. De Buyst, Fouilles archéologiques dans la Vallée du Haut-Lualaba (Tervuren, Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale, 1971), p. 56; Arazi et al., Tenke Fungurume, p. 38.

³⁶ D. Cahen, Le site archéologique de la Kamoa (Région du Shaba, République du Zaïre) de l’Âge de la pierre ancien à l’âge du fer (Tervuren, Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale, 1975), p. 200; unpublished HH ingots conserved in Royal Museum for Central Africa, inv. PO.0.0.32185 and PO.0.0.33800.

³⁷ Raes, ‘Les croisettes de cuivre’, p. 47.

³⁸ De Maret, ‘Histoires de croisettes’, p. 141; Swan, ‘Economic and Ideological Roles of Copper Ingots’, p. 1003.

³⁹ Bisson, ‘The Prehistoric Copper-Mines of Zambia’, p. 428; Anciaux de Faveaux, ‘Premières datations’.

⁴⁰ L. Schumaker’s interviews with elderly informants and observation of a traditional ceremony at the shrine on Chishi Island provide evidence that most of these croisettes are still on the island. Some of the missing ingots, perhaps the ones mentioned by Vogel, could have been taken by Bisa people during a period of conflict in the lake region during the 19th century, though it is also possible that Vogel erred in thinking the Ng’umbo royal relics were those of the Bisa (Lyn Schumaker, pers. comm);Vogel cited by M.S. Bisson, ‘Copper Currency in Central Africa: The Archaeological Evidence’, World Archaeology, 6, 3 (1975), pp. 276–92.

⁴¹ Fagan, ‘Excavation at Ingombe Ilede’, pp. 65, 102–3; Garlake, ‘Iron Age Sites in the Urungwe District’.

⁴² Swan, ‘Economic and Ideological Roles of Copper Ingots’, p. 1005.

⁴³ Garlake, ‘Iron Age Sites in the Urungwe District’, p. 42.

⁴⁴ De Maret, ‘Histoires de croisettes’, p. 139; Swan, ‘Economic and Ideological Roles of Copper Ingots’, p. 1001.

⁴⁵ Swan, ‘Economic and Ideological Roles of Copper Ingots’, p. 1007.

⁴⁶ Garlake, ‘Iron Age Sites in the Urungwe District’, pp. 42–4.

⁴⁷ De Maret, ‘Histoires de croisettes’, p. 139; Swan, ‘Economic and Ideological Roles of Copper Ingots’, p. 1008.

⁴⁸ De Maret, ‘Histoires de croisettes’, p. 135.

⁴⁹ Mgr. de Hemptinne, ‘Les Mangeurs de cuivre du Katanga’, Congo : Revue générale de la colonie belge, I, 3 (1926), pp. 371–403; G. Gutzeit, ‘La fonte de la monnaie (croisettes) chez les Baluba du territoire de Musonoï (Haut Katanga Ouest)’, Archives suisses d’anthropologie générale, VII, 1 (1934), pp. 73–81; T.A. Rickard, ‘Curious Methods Used by the Katanga Natives in Mining and Smelting Copper’, Engineering and Mining Journal Press, 123, 2 (1927), pp. 51–8.

⁵⁰ Reefe, The Rainbow and the Kings, p. 99.

⁵¹ De Maret, ‘Histoires de croisettes’, p. 137.

⁵² Cameron, Across Africa, p. 224.

⁵³ Vansina, ‘Long-Distance Trade Routes’; J.J. Monteiro, Angola and the River Congo (London, Macmillan and Co., 1875), p. 190.

⁵⁴ De Maret, ‘Histoires de croisettes’, p. 137 ; W.F.P. Burton, Luba Religion and Magic in Custom and Belief (Tervuren, Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale, 1961), p. 160. The bambudye secret society was intimately associated to the Luba state as ‘keeper’ of the genesis myth and, then playing a role in the politico-religious order of the Luba state. Its members were encouraged to engage in co-operation and mutual support when travelling, enhancing their trading relations (Reefe, The Rainbow and the Kings, pp. 46–7, 96).

⁵⁵ Raes, ‘Les croisettes de cuivre’, p. 87.

⁵⁶ Herbert, Red Gold of Africa, p. 157.

⁵⁷ Cameron, Across Africa, pp. 227, 393; Monteiro, Angola and the River Congo, pp. 190–1.

⁵⁸ Merchants from Cassange in Angola sent by the factories’ head to create a commercial route between Cassange and the mouth of the Zambezi (A. Verbeken and M. Walraet, La première traversée du Katanga en 1806: voyage des Pombeiros d’Angola aux Rios de Sena (Bruxelles, Institut royal colonial belge, 1953).

⁵⁹ Burton, The Lands of Cazembe, p. 222.

⁶⁰ Raes, ‘Les croisettes de cuivre’, pp. 79–80.

⁶¹ D. Livingstone, The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa (New York, Harper and Brothers, 1875), p. 214.

⁶² De Hemptinne, ‘Les Mangeurs de cuivre’; R. Marchal, ‘Renseignements historiques relatifs à l’exploitation des mines de cuivre par les indigènes de la région de Luishia’, Bulletin des juridictions indigènes et du droit coutumier congolais, 7, 1 (1939), pp. 10–17; Raes, ‘Les croisettes de cuivre, pp. 79–80.

⁶³ A.H. Quiggin, A Survey of Primitive Money: The Beginning of Currency (London, Methuen and Co., 1949), p. 104; Bisson, ‘The Prehistoric Copper-Mines of Zambia’, p. 134.

⁶⁴ Burton, The Lands of Cazembe, pp. 129, 228.

⁶⁵ D. and C. Livingstone, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries; and of the Discovery of the Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa. 1858–1864 (London, J. Murray, 1865), p. 389.

⁶⁶ De Hemptinne, ‘Les Mangeurs de cuivre’, p. 373.

⁶⁷ Mahieu, ‘Exploitation du cuivre par les indigènes du Katanga’, Congo, 2, 1 (1925), p. 113.

⁶⁸ A. Livingstone Smith, ‘Pottery and Politics: Making Sense of Pottery Traditions in Central Africa’, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 26, 3 (2016), pp. 471–91.

⁶⁹ Legros, Chasseurs d’ivoire.

⁷⁰ Macola, The Kingdom of Kazembe, pp. 68–78.

⁷¹ Ibid., p. 48.

⁷² M.N. Roberts and A.F. Roberts, ‘Audacities of Memory’, in M.N. Roberts and A.F. Roberts (eds), Memory. Luba Art and the Making of History (New York, Museum of African Art, 1996), p. 28.

⁷³ Macola, The Kingdom of Kazembe, p. 78.

⁷⁴ De Hemptinne, ‘Les Mangeurs de cuivre’, pp. 372, 402.

⁷⁵ They were called Samba ya myambo, ‘Samba with the croisettes’ (Reefe, The Rainbow and the Kings, p. 101).

⁷⁶ Reefe, The Rainbow and the Kings, p. 102.

⁷⁷ Ibid., p. 96.

⁷⁸ The 19th-century long-distance trade has already been widely discussed. See J. Vansina, ‘Long-Distance Trade Routes’; A. Roberts, ‘Nyamwezi Trade’, in R. Gray and D. Birmingham (eds), Pre-Colonial African Trade (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1970), pp. 39–74; A. Roberts, ‘Pre-Colonial Trade in Zambia’, African Social Research, 10, (1970), pp. 715–46; C. St John, ‘Kazembe and the Tanganyika–Nyasa Corridor, 1800–1890’, in Gray and Birmingham (eds), Pre-Colonial African Trade, pp. 202–30; J-L. Vellut, ‘Notes sur le Lunda et la frontière luso-africaine (1700–1900)’, Etudes d’Histoire africaine, 3 (1972), pp. 61–166; E.A. Alpers, Ivory and Slaves: Changing Patterns of International Trade in East Central Africa to the Later Nineteenth Century (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1975).

⁷⁹ Roberts, ‘Pre-Colonial Trade in Zambia’; N. Sutherland-Harris, ‘Zambian Trade with Zumbo in the Eighteenth Century’, in Gray and Birmingham (eds), Pre-Colonial African Trade, p. 233; Macola, The Kingdom of Kazembe, p. 129.

⁸⁰ St John, ‘Kazembe and the Tanganyika–Nyasa Corridor’; Macola, The Kingdom of Kazembe, p. 129.

⁸¹ Legros, Chasseurs d’ivoire; Roberts, ‘Nyamwezi Trade’; Cameron, Across Africa.

⁸² Vellut, ‘Note sur le Lunda et la frontière luso-africaine’, pp. 89–91 and passim.

⁸³ P. Petit, Les sauniers de la savane orientale: approche ethnographie de l’industrie du sel chez les Luba, Bemba et populations apparentées (Congo, Zambie) (Bruxelles, Académie royale des sciences d’outre-mer, 2000), pp. 12, 81.

⁸⁴ Livingstone Smith, ‘Pottery and Politics’.

⁸⁵ De Maret, Fouilles archéologiques. III: Kamilamba, Kikulu, et Malemba Nkulu, p. 224.

⁸⁶ A. Livingstone Smith and A. Vysserias, ‘Shaping Kabambian Pottery: Identification and Definition of Technical Features’, Open Anthropology Journal, 3 (2010), pp. 124–41.

⁸⁷ De Maret, Fouilles archéologiques. III: Kamilamba, Kikulu, et Malemba Nkulu, p. 193.

⁸⁸ Reefe, The Rainbow and the Kings, p. 201.

⁸⁹ De Maret, Fouilles archéologiques. III: Kamilamba, Kikulu, et Malemba Nkulu, p. 224.

⁹⁰ Bisson, ‘Precolonial Copper Metallurgy’, p. 124; de Maret, ‘Recent Farming Communities’, p. 881.

⁹¹ D.W. Phillipson, ‘Iron Age History and Archaeology in Zambia’, Journal of African History, 15, 1 (1974), pp. 1–25.

⁹² De Maret, ‘Recent Farming Communities’, p. 881.

⁹³ Phillipson, ‘Iron Age History and Archaeology in Zambia’.

⁹⁴ De Maret, Fouilles archéologiques. III: Kamilamba, Kikulu, et Malemba Nkulu, p. 222.

⁹⁵ R. Zeebroek, ‘Perles et tissus. Les instruments monétaires au Katanga’, Afrique: Archéologie et Arts, 11 (2015), pp. 21–38.

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