Religious plurality and economic sustainability: Muslim merchants in the colonial economy of nineteenth century Freetown

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Periodical article

Title:	Religious plurality and economic sustainability: Muslim merchants in the colonial economy of nineteenth century Freetown
Author:	Cole, Gibril R.
Year:	2008
Periodical:	African Economic History (ISSN 0145-2258)
Volume:	36
Pages:	79-93
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Sierra Leone
Subjects:	colonial economy Islam traders Krio
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/41501703
Abstract:	This article examines the role of Islam and Islamic values in the development of trade relations between the British colony of Freetown (Sierra Leone) and the interior Muslim states in the 19th century. The focus is on the social interactions between Krio merchants and their trade counterparts in the interior and the points of negotiation and contestation between groups representing diverse cultural and religious world views. The Islamic faith not only facilitated the successful expansion of Krio commercial influences into the interior, but Islam also ensured the survival and viability of the colonial economy as a result of the development of fraternal networks among Muslim Krio and their co-religionists in the hinterland. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]