I would be weary of citing Robin Law's literature on this topic, as he seemed to be more informed by his preconceived biases, than primary sources that made things clear, that he was just obfuscating trying to casts doubts so he could downplay a great deal, the maritime capabilities of Gold coast mariners & outrightly dismiss Barbots claims. Robin law ironically has a journal article arguing why Barbot is a good source for the "slave coast"
If one reads Barbots "Descriptions".., you can easily tell that he had analytical approach to what he was relating & was even correcting earlier narratives that had errors. Barbot also spent a great deal of time at the Gold coast & apart from praising gold coast mariners, he noted that the watercrafts they used for trans-regional voyages were made at Axiom & Takoradi (towns in the western part of contemporary Ghana) he also noted "they carry eight, rarely twelve tuns of weighty goods besides the crew, & this vessels made at Axim & Takoradi by gold coast locals "serve either whites or blacks to transport any sort of goods & cattle from place to place over bars & breaking waters"
Also, he also noted something interesting on when the wind direction does not favour their voyages
"The Mina men.. the most skilful.. in rowing over dangerous bars..&..waters venture to sail in the largest of all their canoe's all about Guinea & to Angola..they navigate them with masts & sails & with paddles & oars when the wind proves contrary or in calm"
yeah, his analysis is limited by his focus on only west Africa, because if he considered Dutch sources from Loango coast he'd contend that the gold coast canoemen weren't just limited to the Bight of Benin. (the small boats linked elmina to kakongo for example, without using Sao Tome)
Jean Barbot's description clearly indicates that the entire stretch of the Atlantic from ghana to angola was throughouly exploited by sea-going canoe groups (he's the one who mentions the Mpongwe going to Cameroon), and these groups would have doubtlessly linked the different regional systems to each other, and possibly sailed the entire length of the coast.
I would be weary of citing Robin Law's literature on this topic, as he seemed to be more informed by his preconceived biases, than primary sources that made things clear, that he was just obfuscating trying to casts doubts so he could downplay a great deal, the maritime capabilities of Gold coast mariners & outrightly dismiss Barbots claims. Robin law ironically has a journal article arguing why Barbot is a good source for the "slave coast"
If one reads Barbots "Descriptions".., you can easily tell that he had analytical approach to what he was relating & was even correcting earlier narratives that had errors. Barbot also spent a great deal of time at the Gold coast & apart from praising gold coast mariners, he noted that the watercrafts they used for trans-regional voyages were made at Axiom & Takoradi (towns in the western part of contemporary Ghana) he also noted "they carry eight, rarely twelve tuns of weighty goods besides the crew, & this vessels made at Axim & Takoradi by gold coast locals "serve either whites or blacks to transport any sort of goods & cattle from place to place over bars & breaking waters"
Also, he also noted something interesting on when the wind direction does not favour their voyages
"The Mina men.. the most skilful.. in rowing over dangerous bars..&..waters venture to sail in the largest of all their canoe's all about Guinea & to Angola..they navigate them with masts & sails & with paddles & oars when the wind proves contrary or in calm"
yeah, his analysis is limited by his focus on only west Africa, because if he considered Dutch sources from Loango coast he'd contend that the gold coast canoemen weren't just limited to the Bight of Benin. (the small boats linked elmina to kakongo for example, without using Sao Tome)
Jean Barbot's description clearly indicates that the entire stretch of the Atlantic from ghana to angola was throughouly exploited by sea-going canoe groups (he's the one who mentions the Mpongwe going to Cameroon), and these groups would have doubtlessly linked the different regional systems to each other, and possibly sailed the entire length of the coast.