Bruce S. Hall is an associate history professor at the University of California Berkeley whose lecture about capitalism in 19th-century Timbuktu is sponsored by the prestigious Fusco Distinguished Lecture Series. According to the website for the Fusco Disktinguished Lecture Series, “Since 1999, the Edmund J. Fusco, Sr. Fund for Excellence in History has provided generous support to bring accomplished scholars to lecture at the University of Connecticut campus.” These lectures are once a year. This lecture was held at the Dodd Center’s Konover Auditorium.
According to his webpage with the University of California Berkeley, Hall published “A History of Race in Muslim West Africa, 1600-1960” in cooperation with Cambridge University Press, along with multiple other articles centered around Islamic West Africa. He is currently working on his second book, titled “The Bonds of Trade: Letters, Social hierarchy and the ethics of connectivity in Timbuktu, 1846-1918.”
The formal title of the lecture is “Timbuktu, the ‘end of the world’ and the work of commercial capitalism in 19th century Africa” as shown on the first slide of the presentation.
Mark Healey, associate professor and history department head, gave a short speech where he went over housekeeping and what the Fusco Distinguished Lecture Series means. Fiona Vernal then gave a speech introducing Hall. Vernal noted how Hall’s first book won the Martin Klein Prize from the American Historical Association.
Hall began by clarifying that the lecture will not be about his upcoming book, but rather some of the additional research he did. There was another talk that occurred from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27 where he delved deeper into more of the letters written in Arabic sent to and from Timbuktu and clarified the topics covered in the lecture. The goal of Hall’s lecture was to use African sources to tell African history instead of relying on European sources.
“Timbuktu is a famously hard place to reach,” Hall noted as he explained how there was a lack of roads to Timbuktu with a map of Mali. Timbuktu was viewed as a site of origin for West African gold, Hall remarked while showing an artistic depiction of Mansa Musa and Timbuktu. Many Europeans died trying to go to and from Timbuktu, but René Caillié was the first European to reach Timbuktu and then return to Europe. During the scramble for Africa, colonial France occupied Mali in 1894.
Hall then shifted the focus onto the rich culture of Timbuktu. He raised the point that the city is home to many Arabic manuscripts. “Manuscripts are evidence of the importance of Timbuktu,” Hall stated. The manuscripts were mostly created in the 19th and 20th centuries as a result of declining paper costs and increased trade.
Hall then introduced the concept of a “land of disorder.” “The so-called ‘land of disorder’ was an idea used by Muslim scholars and merchants to describe West Africa and the Sahara. What they meant by this term was that Islamic law was not in operation or enforced, even if most people might be Muslim,” he said in a later text interview. Calling the Sahara a land of disorder was used “as a framing for the institution,” Hall explained. He then showed one of many letters translated into English with the original in Arabic.
The remainder of the lecture surrounded Timbuktu’s many trading routes. Though the documentation of the trades was messy, Hall pieced together some of the trade routes and elaborated on them for the audience.
The first trade route examined was between Timbuktu and Taoudenni, where salt is sent southernly to Timbuktu in exchange for grain. Hall shared that “azalai” referred to the Sahara salt caravan which occurs twice yearly.
The second was between Timbuktu and Sansanding, where Timbuktu sent salt, textiles and more for enslaved people, gold and grain in return. Hall noted that slavery was easier to live in than to escape and how the institution of slavery was not unique to 19th-century Africa. As shown in a later document written for the enslaved Sanbu to read, enslaved people were a part of the social structure and could act and engage in trade as if they weren’t enslaved.
The third was between Timbuktu and Ghadames, where enslaved people and gold were exported from Timbuktu for textiles.
The final trade analyzed was between Timbuktu and Tripoli, where Timbuktu traded ostrich feathers for textiles. Mali initiated a slaughter of ostriches where they amassed “$57 million in today’s value” of ostrich feather sales in 1880 in the name of fashion that the ostrich feather industry endorsed.
There was then a Q&A session during which audience members asked if there was inflation or deflation in the economy due to trading. Additionally, there was discussion on the word “modernity” in terms of European culture and what it means in terms of Africa and modes of African production among other topics.
I didn’t know much about Timbuktu, so this lecture was extremely helpful in helping me understand more of its history. Hall was pressed for time, but I wouldn’t mind taking a course on Timbuktu, West Africa or the Sahara as African history is often overlooked. If you’re on the fence about attending one of these lectures, please note that there is free food provided in addition to the invaluable free knowledge.