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Chapter 4: The Juula and the Expansion of Islam into the Forest
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CHAPTER 4 The Juula al1~ tl1e txpal1siol1 of Islam il1to tl1e forest T1,e Juula (Of' Dl.jula) defY easy identification. The Mandekan word juula is of doubtful etymology, but has come to mean "trader" in many dialects.l The Juula of this chapter are those who, over several centuries, established networks of trade in the savannah country between the Middle Niger in the north and the forests of the Guinea Coast in the south, and who had a major involvement in the marketing of gold and kola. Their settlements are to be found scattered across the land between the valley of the White Bandama to the west and that of the Oti to the east. Beyond the Bandama, the Juula networks gave way to those of the Jakhanke; and beyond the Oti, to those of the Hausa. Historically, the origins of the Juula are to be found in the Wangara trading communities ofthe medieval western Sudan, to which the earliest known reference is that by Abu Ubayd 'Abd Allah al-Bakri of Cordoba, in 1068 A.D. He wrote of Yarasna, a town "inhabited by Muslims surrounded by pagans." The former were black, traded in gold, spoke ajam, and were called the "Banu Naghmarata." A minor correction ofthe Arabic yields "Banu Wanghmarata," presumably to be read as "Banu Wangharata"-the tribe of the Wangara.2 Al-Bakri's eleventh-century account presciently describes the Juula of the subsequent dispersion. They were and are Muslim, spoke and speak a dialect of Mandekan, and still commonly refer to themselves as "Wangara." They remained deeply involved in the gold (and kola) trades until the beginning ofthe twentieth century, when they were able to take advantage ofthe new colonial economies vastly to expand the range oftheir entrepreneurial activities. In medieval and early modern times there was an unfailing global demand for gold, and West Mrica was a major source of supply. The earliest of its goldfields to 94 be intensively exploited was undoubtedly that of Bambuhu (Bambuk), lying in the region of the headwaters of the Senegal between the Faleme and Bafing Rivers. It is clear from al-Bakri that Bambuhu gold was then entering the world market through Ghana's great Sahelian port, the (excavated) site of which is at Kumbi Saleh. Yarasna, however, was located too far south to have been a center for this trade. It lay on the frontier of the Manden kingdom of Do, and therefore proximate to the Houre goldfields between the Niger and the upper reaches ofthe Bakhoy.3 It seems, then, that the eleventh-century Wangara ofYarasna are to be associated not with the older Bambuhu trade, but rather with a developing Boure one. In this context it is significant that the Juula of the southern dispersion universally refer their origins to "Mande Kaba"; that is, the ancient Manden ritual center of Kangaba lying on the eastern fringes ofBoure. They also continue to use distinctively Manden patronymics: Bamba, Bagayogo, Jabagate, Kamagate, Tarawiri (Traore), Watara, and so forth. The Boure goldfields of Manden should, then, be regarded as the location within which a distinctive Juula identity emerged. The history of the early dispersion ofWangara from the heartlands ofMali is at the same time that of the development of new centers of gold production. Settlements were established in the auriferous valley ofthe upper Black Volta,4 and, probably in the early fifteenth century, the Juula established a highly lucrative trade with the Akan of the forest country.5 They obtained supplies ofgold from the producers, who washed the rivers and sank pits into the alluvia and lodes. The Juula became, then, the first link in a vast distributive network that extended northward from the goldfields to the greater entrep6ts of the western Sudan and Sahel, thence across the Sahara by caravan trails to the Mediterranean littoral, and so into Europe, the Middle East, and beyond. Their activities took them far beyond the outermost fringes of the Muslim world, for the gold producers with whom they did business were kuffar, unbelievers. The Juula settled, most commonly, among 'stateless' peoples, those having systems of authority that seldom extended beyond the level of the village or cluster of villages: among, for example, those broadly referred to as the Hobo, Dagara, Gurensi, Kulango, Lobi, and Senufo. They commonly took wives from the host community and so, in addition to their own Juula dialect of Mandekan, also came to speak its language. The Juula have thus tended to develop secondary identities, as...