Glass beads from pre-European contact sub-Saharan Africa: Peter Francis's work revisited and updated

Sub-Saharan Africa was not an area of prime focus for Peter Francis Jr. However his observations about the glass beads found there, although not copious, are both insightful and ready for update. Beginning with astute observations, he correctly noted that ruby red beads, which were found at the important entrepôt site of Kilwa in southern Tanzania, were colored with copper and that their origins were Chinese. He believed that many Indo-Pacific beads found in East Africa were made in Mantai, Sri Lanka. Such beads have only recently been recognized from two archeological sites on Zanzibar, they are likely the earliest glass beads yet recorded in East Africa. On the other hand, Francis tended to suggest that most drawn beads in most of sub-Saharan Africa were probably Indo-Pacific with origins in South Asia. This included ‘nila’ beads from Mali and thousands of beads from Igbo-Ukwu in the Niger Delta. Recent chemical analysis of the glasses used to make these beads has shown that most of them, which date mainly from the 8th to mid-10th century, are made of glass produced in the Middle East.A wide variety of glass beads from 7th to 17th century southern, eastern and western Africa – and results of chemical analysis of the glass used to make them – is discussed. Beads from southern Africa are compared to those in East Africa, highlighting the probability that trading circuits to the two regions frequently differed. On the western side of the continent beads from numerous sites, including al-Basra, Gao, Kissi, Essouk, Tegdaoust, Koumbi Saleh and Igbo-Ukwu are compared and possible trade connections discussed.