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Which area or polity do you reckon Bornu for example was getting its gold from? Since account's from the 1500s (Leo Africanus) 1600s (Evliya Celebi) & 1700s (Ben Alli) give us the idea that they had a gold supply which they used to craft different objects & produce gold dust.

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Hard to say, there arent many sources of gold in the lake chad region, so it may have been obtained through re-export from the Hausalands, whose traders were active in the Volta region since the 15th century.

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