Page 127 - A People Called Afrika

Restoring The Honor Code

next person would be, meant that – in the environment of
trade – one would not stoop to the level of conning another or
wanting to harm them through the quality of goods on offer, the
price at which they were made available or the fulfillment of a
‘transaction’ with respect to items that were to be delivered at a
later date in the case of the promise of a harvest of a certain na-
ture or the processing of commodities e.g. ore into iron tools.

In other words, there was an honor code by which Afrikans
conducted all their affairs. They were aware that the things
that they did had an impact on their reputation, their fami-
ly name, their king or their community as a whole and that
this reputation was important to maintain. It impacted their
longevity not only as traders but even as a society, by pre-
venting repercussions such as war or raids from taking place.

The common practice that the world now has of trading in
substandard goods (including planned obsolescence) or over-
charging for services in the name of profit was not common
practice. This is not an attempt to pretend that there weren’t
those who deviated from the norm out of greed or other social
ills. The intention, at this point, is to demonstrate that Afrikan
trade, which existed in pre-colonial times, was carried out on
the basis of honor and with the intention of supplying as per
the agreement established between two parties. Orders were
made and commitments were fulfilled according to the spec-
ifications required. This is what allowed for there to be the
existence of a thriving long-distance trade across different re-
gions in Afrika. The reputation of one kingdom’s production
of one commodity was assurance enough for the people of
another kingdom to travel for months in order to procure it.

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