When my parents died I was sold to rich merchants. I went with the merchants to Timbuktu. In Timbuktu they traded their goods in the busy markets.
We spent many days crossing the Sahara Desert. The merchants rode on camels. I would lead my master’s camel. They used the camels to carry all the goods they would trade later in the market.
At night we would rest. It was my job to give the merchants a drink of water mixed with millet and a little honey. We would collect the water during the day at water hole in the desert.Look carefully at this page and find the pot I used to carry water. Click on it to see if your right!I fed the camels with the other servants. Sometimes the camels were sick. Blood sucking flys used to spread a fever in the camels.
When we got to Timbuktu I used to unload the goods from the camels. The merchants brought salts from the salt-mines in Taghaza. They brought beautiful perfumes, cloths and many fine books. I would help take the goods to the market.
At the market place my master traded his goods for other goods.Other merchants, from other parts of Africa, would give him gold,kola nuts, ostrich feathers and cowrie shells. He would give them the goods he had brought.They would swap one thing for another.This was called trading.
Corrie shells