A Manden Myth in the Akan Forests of Gold

Abstract

Scholars have long assumed merchants from Bɛo-Nsɔko were Islamized Manding speakers, specifically Jula and Wangara. Since the advent of African history in European and North American universities in the 1960s, writers have promoted a Manden cultural diffusion myth that attributed to Jula and Wangara people, and to Islam, a fictitious influential role in commercial and cultural exchanges with Akan societies. This article argues against a Manden cultural diffusion myth related to trade and gold to reveal the earliest forms of Akan gold and monetary practices across varied ecologies in West Africa’s deep history. It shows this Manden myth can finally be laid to rest.