Cowry Art Studio

A Little Bit of History: Cowry Shells by Alexis B. Tengan, St. John's International School.

Cowry Shells, Currency in Africa, before its modern history, has always implied the use of a variety of precious and scarce objects as mediums of exchange both in the relations of commerce and in the symbolic domain of gift exchange. 'Well before 1400, such precious objects as gold dust, ivory, salt, beads, parts of iron's lingots, cowry shells and cloth competed as differem forms of currency for populations living in the various regions of Africa. Since many of these metallic objects and items had intrinsic, utilitarian, and aesthetic value in and of themselves, their use as currency was only an additional property that added to their scarcity and value. Thus, none of them developed to become money capable of being used soldy as currency. As early as the 13th century, the proliferation of the cowry shells as a dominant currency had already taken place, mainly because of their import into Africa from different areas. First, Arab traders imported Cowry shells from areas around the Maldives islands and the Indian Ocean into north Africa; from there they spread across the Sahara into west Africa and later into other parts of Africa. The practice of importing cowries increased dramatically when the Atlantic slave trade route became open and European traders, especially the English and the Dutch, shipped 100 each. During the period between 1400 and 1900, cowry groups spanning west Africa and west-central Africa. shells became the most common currency among cultural Cowry shells used for currency were fastened together in strings of 40 Dahomey large quantities of cowries from south Asia and east Asia into much of Africa via the slave coast of west Africa. For the Europeans, the cowry was a commodity to be sold, whereas for Africans, throughout the period between 1400 and 1900, it became the most common currency for the different populations and cultural groups across the wide region of west Africa and west-central Africa. It is very difficult to say to what extent, if at all, the increase in the quantity of cowries shipped into Africa during this period affected their intrinsic, utilitarian, and aesthetic values. It can be argued that the shipment of large quantities of cowries into Africa during this period meant that cowries lost some of their utilitarian and intrinsic value as material objects' In this case, this probably made it possible for cowries to be used as a common currency and as a medium of cultural exchange. In other words, the proliferation of the cowry trade and the dramatic increase in the amount of cowries available made it possible for them to be used mainly as money and not as a commodity lating the value of different types of goods and services were developed. There came to exist significant numbers and figures that represented the symbolic value of many cultural goods and services that were considered too sacred to carry a commercial price. For example, in northwest Ghana, it is still the case that the total value of goods and services that can be transferred. as bride price among the Dagara is fixed at 60,000 cowries. This amount is viewed as a sacred divine figure that cannot be changed. It is clear that by the beginning of the 20th century, when direct colonial rule was being introduced, cowry currency had become an intricate part of African culture. Indeed, it was seen as one of the cultural institutions that colonizers found difficult to handle in their attempt to build a colonial economy. The cowry currency competed very strongly with European currencies introduced into the African colonies with the beginning of colonization, and it continues to exist in some parts of Africa today as stable currency for specific forms of cultural in themselves. As can be observed in such societies as the Dagara and the Lobi in west Africa where the cowry is still used as currency and as a medium for sociocultural exchange, the cowry currency had become what most African peoples would call "white money;' or open exchange. Money, available for all transactions and forms of exchange. By the 19th century, only a few ofthe traditional items such as gold survived as mediums of exchange, and only for very specific occasions. These were labeled as "red money" because they were associated with secret transactions. The use of cowry currency during this period seems to have been greatly responsible for the different systems of exchange models now found in many African societies today.