The Western Sudan Culture Area
It is difficult to demarcate the boundary of Western Sudan Culture Area though roughly it may be thought of as stretching from the forested belt along the coast,to the desert.It includes most of what was French West Africa except for the southern portions of the cote d'ivoire,Togo abd Benin,The Northern territories of Ghana and Nigeria.
There is great variation in its culture, a variation which is compounded by the social and political stratification resulting from its long history of conquest. In many respect,it resembles the Guinea Coast; in terms of the density of its population,the degre of its craft specialization,its large and complex political entities.But there are many differences.There is the presence of larger domesticated animals;houses that are round and not rectangular;the flowing robes and turbans of the men.The diversisty of basic economies in the area,according to Tauxier,included pure agriculturalists, herder agriculturalists,traders and pastoralists.He estimated that 54% of the subsistence products come from agricultre 20% from herding 10% from gathering of wild plants and fruits and the remainder from cultivated trees.
Unlike the East Africa,and except for the the so-called 'cattle Fulani' cattle are no more symbols of prestige than any other economic good in societies where rank and social position are correlated with wealth.Like all the domesticated animals,in which this area abounds,cattle are kept to be consumed and traded,but not to recieve adulation and respect.An economy of specialization and trade has been erected that even surpasses the one found in the central portion of the Guinea Coast Area.The markets of Kano,Sokoto,segon or timbuktu were singled out for their size and importance by all the earlier travelers.
These urban centres are still are termini of the Saharan caravan routes,which bring them into commercial contact with Arab north, and many of them ave become railheads and important centres of all traffic.all sorts of crafts are found in such towns; metal working of all kinds, weaving,pottery making, basketry,and leather working.Much of the red leather long known in Europe as "Morocco leather" was imported from western Sudan into Morocco and then re-exported to Europe.Non-crat specialists also abound in this area, including learned women and teachers,singers,drummers and dancers, and the members of the bureaucratic hierarchy.
The social organization is predominatly patrilineal.Tge influence of Islam, undoubtedly, discouraged the tendency to count descentin the mother's line.
