This bracelet is a typical West African ornament made of elephant ivory. It is 101 mm in diameter, having been carved from a slice of elephant tusk. When the Portuguese and then other Europeans began trading in ivory it became linked to the slave trade. Captured Africans were used to carry ivory from the interior to the coast, where both would be sold. A tusk was worth two to three times the price of a slave.
With changing attitudes towards hunting and because African elephants are now in danger of extinction, the trade in ivory is now banned.
© Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives
Accession reference: Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives, E1463
Themes
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Trade and Commerce
Understand how the demand for luxury goods and the Industrial Revolution fuelled the transatlantic slave trade, and how the British…
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Africa before Transatlantic Enslavement
The history of Africa and African people does not begin nor end with transatlantic slavery. Understand what Africa was like and what the continent lost as a result of the trade.
Background Reading
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The Lost Libraries Of Timbuktu
Until recently, many commentators on Africa claimed that African societies had no tradition of writing. With the rediscovery of ancient manuscript collections, some dating back to the 8th century AD, this perception is changing.
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Introduction To Various African Kingdoms