Akori beads
Akori pearls are jewel-like, ancient and very valuable jewelry items of the peoples of the coastal and coastal hinterland of the West African ivory , gold and slave coast .
Almost all Europeans who have left us with historical reports about these stretches of coast mention Akori pearls, which were very popular with the locals and which could be reckoned with to the maximum of what embodied value in pre-colonial Africa. The early Portuguese report that they mainly trade cotton goods , animal skins and Akori pearls through their trading post established in 1487 in Gwato , the main port of the old Benin Empire . Akori pearls were highly regarded on the Gold Coast, among other places, and were accordingly paid dearly here. For the European jewelry industry, however, the Portuguese did not consider the Akoris beautiful enough to be worth exporting to Europe on a large scale. In addition, you could do much better business with them on the Gold Coast, so that they were mainly bought in Benin to sell again on the Gold Coast.
Shape and shape
Akori pearls have an elongated, cylindrical shape with an oval cross-section the width of a little finger and the length of a phalanx. They have a central, continuous opening in the longitudinal direction. Its surface is mostly masterfully decorated with ornaments from ancient times are still Akoris exist, with a kind of mosaic of a kind of tortoiseshell were occupied or other material, and this in a technique that is normally only of the ancient Egypt 's been known . Römer mentions that at the time (1760s) they came in four to five colors: red, green, blue, yellow and white, and that their coloring was flamed or striped.
material
The pearls known as Akoris have always posed the greatest mystery to Europeans, especially with regard to the material from which the pearls are made and, above all, its origin. Even today, opinions differ about the material and its origin.
However, everyone agrees that these are not corals , or rather, their former homes. A comparison with actual coral material shows that the Akori material is much harder and finer structured and is more reminiscent of glass or ceramic than limestone in the form of aragonite , from which coral shells consist for the most part. At the time, Römer called the fabric porcelain .
If one summarizes the previous and present material theories, two main trends emerge: One faction favors an organic origin, the other an inorganic one.
Theory of Inorganic Origin
Among the proponents of the “inorganic theory”, some suspect that Akori pearls are glass pearls of Mediterranean, possibly Venetian origin, which the ancestors of today's Akan on the Gold Coast brought back from the old kingdom of Gana, where they were a kind of commodity embodied, if not an equivalent, in the trans-Saharan gold trade. Some even speak of a Carthaginian origin, where industrial production, however, if it really existed, disappeared with the fall of Carthage. Other authors, however, suspect ancient India or ancient China as the place of origin of an artificially produced material.
Theory of Organic Origin
The proponents of "organic theory" on the other hand take the relationship between Akori and Kauri as a starting point. It could be the same word, as spellings such as Cory , Aigri , Agrie , Aggrey etc. appeared in the past . From today's perspective it is not entirely clear whether these spelling variants really meant cowrie shells or Akori pearls, especially since there was also a clear distinction between the two. If you disregard the Canary Islands in the Atlantic , there are only cowries in the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean . However, the material of the cowrie shell is a completely different material than that of the Akori pearl, if only in appearance. But it also seems quite possible that it is some kind of creature living in the sea, whether coral, mussel, snail or whatever, whose existence or knowledge about it has unfortunately been lost in the course of time.
Raymond Mauny suspects that the material could possibly come from Allopora subviolacea , but this is bluish-purple, but in this context this could only be interpreted as a certain variety of those marine life from whose remains Akoris were made.
Theory of an Asian Origin
Regardless of whether it is of natural or artificial origin, it is reasonable to assume that the equivalent of Akori pearl could have served as a substitute for the equivalent of cowrie shell or vice versa. Who has served whom as a substitute, however, has to remain open and may also depend on whether one postulates a natural or artificial origin of the Akori pearls. Also, both names, Akori or Kauri , could be the linguistic remnant of the name of an ancient currency in the Indian coastal area, as the components or substitute for which the Akori pearls and the cowrie shells once served. In addition, the Asian region seems to be more likely to be the place of origin than Venice or Carthage, although it should not be ignored that the ancient trans-Saharan trade also had ties to India and China, a connection that only began with the Islamic conquest of North Africa , but at the latest with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 finally came to a standstill.
In connection with the Kisra legend , some authors report that the Yoruba brought Akoris with them when they immigrated to Africa from the Arabian Peninsula from the time of the early Islamic conquests. For example B. some specific Akori pearls, all of which are said to be red in color, as one of the insignia of the pre-Islamic, old Arab royal dignity and, according to tradition, were once owned by Oduduwa , the founder of Ile-Ife (and descendants of an old Arab, pre-Islamic royal family) 6. Grandson Olu-Popo was given for safekeeping when he divided up his newly created empire among his grandchildren. The province of Popo, later named after Olu-Popo, was the westernmost outer province of the Kingdom of Oyo with Kétou as its capital. Later, however, they moved across the Ouémé and settled new areas east of the Mono River with the city of Tado as the new residence of the King of Popo. Nothing is officially known about the whereabouts of these royal pearls today. If this is actually the case, then these red Akoris will not have been the only ones that the ancestors of the Yoruba had brought with them back then.
Production centers and sites in West Africa
In pre-colonial West Africa there were at least two centers in which a secondary industry had developed specializing in the processing of Akori pearls: in the hinterland of the eastern Gold Coast and that of the Bay of Benin , although more such production centers have existed probably, because Akori pearls were well known far beyond these areas, such as B. in the kingdom of Mani-Congo or in areas of today's Cameroon . The Akori centers on the Gold Coast were primarily in the Accra hinterland and in the historic Akwamu Kingdom .
Both Römer and Isert report that Akori pearls have been found in the earth on the Gold Coast, heaped up in a very small area up to 60 pieces in one place. However, both authors assume that these are grave goods from graves from ancient times, which was also the opinion of the locals at the time.
Another center of a pearl industry existed in Ilorin in today's Nigeria . In view of the cheap pearls (glass pearls) of European origin, which are mainly imported via the Trans-Saharan trade, this craft has perished here.
Probably the most important Akoris site in West Africa is Sé, in the subdistrict of Achiémé in the region through which the current border between Togo and Benin runs. Another discovery site with Akoris is near Ouessé in the region around Savé in today's Benin , which is believed to be a necropolis from ancient times, of which "only a few Acorries" have been found. The same applies to a nearby site in the same region near Gogoro. Ancient jugs containing agries have also been found near Ilé-Tchin and Idigny in the north of the Kétou region. Excavations were also started under the direction of Jacques Bertho near the city of Grand-Popo in 1941, which Akoris brought to light, also by P.Thomassey near Soso-Egbé, about 2 km northwest of Comé. In addition, Leo Frobenius had found some fragments in the town of Ile-Ife around 1910 , which were interpreted as a melting pot for the production of these pearls, insofar as one assumes an inorganic origin of Akori pearls.
On the territory of today's Ivory Coast , Maurice Delafosse pointed out numerous tombs in 1900 , which are on the mountain Afré-Boka (other name: Ouoryé-Boka ) near Guiangomenou, about 30 km north of Toumodi . Numerous greenish-blue Akori stones ( pierres d'aigris ) were found in these tombs, which Delafosse at the time characterized as being of Egyptian or Phoenician origin. The mountain was therefore also called "Perlenberg" ( Montagne des perles ) by the French .
etymology
Regarding an etymology of the word "Akori", the name could perhaps go back to the ancient word "Al-Gorr", which means something like "divine stone". “'L” means in the ancient Canaanite consonant script : “divine” (cf. Arabic “Allah”) .
Footnotes
- ↑ What is meant is the historical kingdom of Ghana, which existed in Western Sudan until 1240.
- ↑ a b Kétou in today Benin at 7 ° 20 ' N , 2 ° 37' O
- ↑ a b Tado in today Togo at 7 ° 9 ' N , 1 ° 36' O . Tado was also known as the big bottom in the past. Klein-Popo, on the other hand, was the southwestern outer province of the Kingdom of Popo with the capital of the same name, Klein-Popo, today Aného .
- ↑ Ouessé in today Benin at 8 ° 29 ' N , 2 ° 26' O
- ↑ Gogoro, the former Adokémi at 8 ° 17 ' N , 2 ° 39' O
- ↑ Comé in today's Benin at 6 ° 25 ′ N , 1 ° 53 ′ E
- ↑ It could in this context also to confusion trade Soso-Egbe at 7 ° 26 ' N , 3 ° 26' O near Ibadan in today's Nigeria , which is located right in the historic settlement area of the Egba.
- ↑ Toumodi at today Ivory Coast at 6 ° 33 ' N , 5 ° 1' W .
Web links
Sources and literature
- Milan Kalous: A contribution to the problem of Akori beads. In: Journal of African History. 8 (1), 1966, pp. 61-66.
- JD Fage: Some remarks on beads and trade in Lower Guinea in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In: Journal of African History. 3 (2), 1962, pp. 343-347.
- Paul Erdmann Isert: New trip to Guinea and the Caribbean Islands in America in the years 1783 to 1787 along with news of the negro trade in Africa. Berlin / Leipzig 1790.
- Ludewig Ferdinand Römer: News from the Guinea coast. Copenhagen / Leipzig 1769.
- Peter Francis, Jr .: The Mysterious Aggrey Bead. In: Margaretologist. 3 (2) 1990, pp. 3-8.
- Peter Francis, Jr .: 1993 Where Beads Are Loved: Ghana, West Africa. Lapis Route Books, Lake Placid 1993, ISBN 0-910995-15-X . (Beads and People Series 2)