Were the Maghribi Ibadiyya Contributors to West African Food Production? An Evaluation of the Evidence

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Periodical article

Title:	Were the Maghribi Ibadiyya Contributors to West African Food Production? An Evaluation of the Evidence
Author:	Perinbam, B. Marie
Year:	1987
Periodical:	Maghreb Review
Volume:	12
Issue:	3-4
Period:	May-August
Pages:	66-77
Language:	English
Geographic term:	West Africa
Subjects:	Islamic culture agricultural history food production History and Exploration Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Religion and Witchcraft
Abstract:	While acknowledging that sub-Saharan Africa was the site of early food production, this paper evaluates the evidence that the production of some North African Mediterranean and Asian food crops was introduced into West Africa by the little known Ibadiyya - the oldest of all the Islamic sects - from Maghribian communities, possibly between the eighth and sixteenth centuries. In answering the question 'how' or 'by what process' Maghrib foods were diffused across the Sahara, the paper argues for the existence of Ibadi diasporas before the tenth century when trans-Saharan commercial networks first began to be organized, thereby fuelling important changes in the desert's political economy. Notes, ref.