A Cowrie's Life: The São Bento and Transoceanic Trade in the Sixteenth Century. Issue 4 (1st October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wintjes, Justine
• Is Part Of: Eastern African literary and cultural studies. Volume 6:Issue 4(2020)
• Page Start: 237
• Page End: 257
• Publication Date: 2020-10-01
• Subjects: Portuguese shipwreck -- São Bento -- money cowries (Monetaria moneta) -- KwaZulu-Natal Museum -- sixteenth-century Indian Ocean slave trade -- Maldivian reef fishery -- Yoruba -- Ori shrines -- object biography; African literature -- Periodicals; Arts -- Africa, Eastern -- Periodicals; Arts -- Africa, East -- Periodicals; Africa, Eastern -- Intellectual life -- Periodicals; Africa, East -- Intellectual life -- Periodicals; Africa, Eastern -- Civilization -- Periodicals; Africa, East -- Civilization -- Periodicals; 967.6005
• DOI: 10.1080/23277408.2020.1826849
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2327-7408

Abstract

ABSTRACT: A collection of money cowries ( Monetaria moneta ) was discovered in the early 1980s inside a bronze cannon salvaged from the wreck site of the São Bento (1554), at the mouth of the Mzikaba River, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Using an approach inspired by 'object biography', I consider the presence of these cowries in a museum, their possible Maldivian origin, their interrupted West African future and their wider social, economic and ecological entanglements as a global trade item circulating in a pre-industrial world. This exploration sheds some light on the slave trade linking the Indian Ocean and Atlantic in the sixteenth century and the intertwined itineraries of cowries and slaves.