Cowrie Shells
The Currency of Africa

Cowrie shells were the most popular currency within Africa. Pictures of cowrie shells adorned cave walls. The Egyptians considered them to be magical agents and also used them as currency in foreign exchange transactions. Archaeologists have excavated millions of them in the tombs of the Pharaohs.

In the thirteenth century, cowrie shells were brought to Africa from the Maldives in the Indian Ocean by Arab traders. They first came to Egypt, then across the Sahara to the western Sudan region. Later, they were brought in by Dutch and English traders through the Guinea Coast ports of West Africa.

The Europeans were astonished that the Africans preferred cowrie shells to gold coin and in places where gold was the international unit of foreign exchange, cowrie shells were used to purchase small necessities.

Cowries were used in many other ways. One use was as special-purpose currency: bridewealth, payments for fines, divination ("the money of Ifa"), funerals, initiation into secret societies. Another was as decoration: on clothing, drums, divining chains, headdresses, ritual masks and furniture, and in games and in computation.

Money Cowry

This small shell embody every component of animism, its mystic quality, valued for their durability, symbolizing fertility, used as burial Offering, fortune telling, talisman in rite of Passage.

The most popular currency within Africa. Pictures of cowrie’s shells drawn by the Paleolithic African appear on cave walls. The ancient Egyptians considered the cowries shells a magic agent, a talisman of fertility and in some cases used it as currency in foreign exchange .Archaeologist have excavated millions of them in the toms of the pharaohs.

Numbers

The Akin of Ghana associates the Queen mother with three and the king with four. They consider the odd numbers 3, 5, and 7 to be favorable in divination. When a person is in trouble he is likely to seek advice from the diviner. The diviner equipment included four cowries shell in which he rolls out the shells and examines their positions. If four land with the open down, the prediction is most favorable

Barter

In some societies barter was the bass for trade, while in others the currency became standardized in the form of beads, bracelets, iron, metals items, etc. the materials used as currency usually connected witch Nyama, The cowries shell was mostly accepted for barter or currency.

How were cowries shell handled? Cowries were counted out in groups of five, while along the coast they were pierced and threaded, generally in strings of forty. In area where cowries were not strung, their use depended upon a rapid method of grouping them in successively higher units. In Nigeria trade was carried on by both men and women.

Counting Cowries

Some system of reckoning were expanded because of the demands of cowries counting often a special system of numeration wasused just for cowries shell arithmetic. In quick counting, the Ewe removed twenty times three cowries and added ten which give (20X3) +10=70 cowries. The Igbo people had a unique system of cowry equivalents with a special nomenclature First the shells were counted out by six and then ten groups of six were combined to form piles of sixty cowries.

Government records

The fabulous gold wealth of the Asante kingdom belonged to the monarch and his subordinate were required to report their transaction. The Asantehenes and his treasurers kept accurateaccounts balancing and every twenty days with the aid of cowries shell to tally their sums.

Game Of Chance

Market day recreation game, from two to a dozen might participate in the version. The player squat in a circle, each with a stack of cowries in front of him to serve as his bank. The challenger tosses his handful so that the shell spread as they fall .Winning or losing depended upon the combination of cowries falling with the opening up or down

Yoruba of Nigeria, the cowries’ shells surround the face of the dancer symbolize the affluence and power of the lineage that the masquerade honor and it also signifies prosperity. The most important thing on the Yoruba crowns of the 18th century was cover with cowries shell.Also among the Yoruba, particular ceremonial occasions required cowries shell payments such as funerals and initiation into securest societies along with certain fines as adornment, cowries shell is everywhere on clothing, drums, divider chains headdresses, ritual masks and furniture, also among the Yoruba certain ceremonial occasions required cowries shell payments such as funerals and initiation into securest societies along with certain fines, as adornment, cowries are everywhere on clothing, drums, divining chains headdresses, ritual masks and furniture.

The Cameroon

Cowries were used as a sign of wealth and prestige, especially on royal thrones, adornment, crowns, beadwork and musical instruments.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo

Cowries shell are featured in beadworks, because of the white color witch is an indicator of wealth, cowries are used extensively on clothing and luxury objects, only the king is allowed to wear cowries in bulk.

Taboos

There were some African cultures that the counting of African and domestic animals and valuable possessions would lead to their destruction, to circumvent the taboo, counting was done indirectly, example in the kingdom of Benin a massage would be sent by the chief announce that the Nyama threatened disaster, to the crops and livestock, unless the people did as he asks. Every man and woman was to bring to the place a cowry shell for each animal he or she owned. First he or she must touch the animal with the cowry shell, to transfer the danger to the shell and the shell deposit in separate piles for sheep’s, goats and cattle’s.

The Dogon of Mali

Central to the Dogon cosmology is the number eight in the beginning were the four sets of twines representing the eight ancestors, the eight elders as the original of mankind and the eight men, the eight seeds and the eight joints. In the outline of the African’s Nyama, made at every birth by the Nummo’s Nyama, eight cowries shell are put in place of each hand and foot

Depreciation of the cowry shell currency

European was able to manipulate the value of the cowries by bringing large quantities of the shells into Africa at small cost to themselves. Beginning in the sixteenth century as cowries depreciated in value, it became too expensive to transport them from one market to the next. Prices might still be quoted in terms of cowries, but the actual transitions for high-valued items were carried out in gold dusk, kola nuts, salt, iron, copper, brass, livestock, etc.

Cowries in the twentieth century

By no means did cowries shells disappear after the British government introduced coinage. Cowries were an integral part of daily life in many regions of Africa for use as tool of Nyama and special purpose currency. In the 1920’s the Igbo people kept them in circulation, particularly in the inland areas. In the Yoruba and Nupa territory they reappeared during the severe depression of the 1930’s. In 1942 payment in some parts of Nigeria were express in cowries, rater than in coinage. Although the use of cowries as ordinary currency has been discouraged or outlawed these small shells have a function as special-propose money as bride wealth and for various ceremonial payments.

Today the cowry shell is used in perhaps the same ways as our ancestor have used them, they can be found in contemporary jewelry, clothing, hairstyles, contemporary art, etc.