The African ivory trade has had a profound and devastating impact on elephant populations for centuries. The allure of ivory, a material prized for its beauty and versatility, has fueled a relentless pursuit that has decimated elephant populations and disrupted ecosystems across the continent. This article delves into the history of the ivory trade in Africa, exploring its origins, its impact on local societies and elephant populations, and the ongoing efforts to combat this destructive practice.
What is Ivory?
Ivory is the hard, white material from the tusks and teeth of elephants, hippopotami, walruses, warthogs, sperm whales, and narwhals, as well as now extinct mammoths and mastodons. Elephant tusks are incisor teeth that connect to the elephant’s upper jaw and protrude even when the mouth is closed. Tusks grow throughout an elephant’s life. Dentine layers are produced annually, similar to the growth of tree rings.
African elephant tusks can be up to 10 feet long (three meters) and weigh up to 200 pounds (90 kilograms), although most tusks of elephants living today are smaller.
Elephant ivory has been considered a valued luxury material across cultures and continents for millennia. Prized for its beauty and usefulness, ivory is durable, relatively easy to carve in fine detail, and has a smooth, lustrous appearance. Ivory can be sawed, carved, engraved, turned on a lathe, and polished to a high shine. It can also be bleached, stained with dyes and colorants, or painted. Ivory’s creamy white, semi-translucent appearance develops a yellowed patina as it ages.
Historical Use of Ivory
Ivory artifacts have been found on archaeological sites in Africa, Asia, and Europe, providing evidence of widespread trading. Within NMAfA’s collection, ivory is found in the forms of exquisitely carved figures, containers, jewelry, musical instruments, tools, and weapons. It is important to note that this historical use of ivory in Africa was limited, generally reserved for individuals of high status and did not put elephant populations at risk. These animals were seen as powerful and dangerous, and owning ivory was a status marker.
Read also: West African Food in Gainesville
Ivory topped staffs, such as those made by Kongo (86-2-1) and Attie (2005-6-62) carvers, were carried as symbols of authority and wealth. Before the widespread use of guns and electric carving tools, elephant hunting and ivory carving were specialized occupations.
Ivory was traded widely from the 15th through the 19th centuries and was prized as a luxury item not only in Africa but throughout Europe and other parts of the world. Ivory carvings were also commissioned by foreign kings. Ivory was also exported as a raw material, and became popular for mass-produced objects such as piano keys, billiard balls, knife handles, jewelry, and other novelties.
Beginning in the 20th century, the quality and applications of plastics replaced many of the utilitarian functions of ivory. However, the international demand for ivory has continued to increase.
The Rise of the Ivory Trade in Africa
The ivory trade began with the colonization of Africa, dating back to the 14th century. In the second half of the 19th century, the northern border of Central Africa was suddenly opened up to the impact of an intense new trade in ivory. Rapid prosperity in both Europe and North America had led to an increase in demand for ivory to make piano keys, billiard balls, knife handles, and ornamental carvings.
The first immigrants were long-distance traders from the Nyamwezi kingdom founded by Mirambo, who arrived in search of copper. They set up their own trading kingdom under Msiri and developed a large army of followers equipped with lances and bows. Msiri also trained a military elite of 2,000 men, whom he armed with guns bought on the east coast in exchange for ivory.
Read also: Upcoming Match: Zambia vs. Cote d'Ivoire
In this field, however, Msiri had a powerful rival in the Swahili trade community, which had reached Central Africa from Zanzibar. The Swahili traders and their Arab allies were involved with both the slave trade and the ivory trade. Their slaves were put to work on the spice plantations of Zanzibar or sold as pearl divers and domestic servants in the Arabian and Persian gulfs. The ivory went to the United States to buy calico, which was in great demand in the eastern Congo basin.
One of the traders took the nickname “Americani” because his American calico was so famed. An even better-known Swahili merchant prince was Tippu Tib, who became the effective ruler of the Swahili towns on the upper reaches of the Congo River. The first European ruler of the Congo, the Belgian king Leopold, appointed Tippu Tib his governor and gave him command of the east in recognition of his military and commercial achievements.
The Impact of the Ivory Trade
The victims of the trading and hunting raids not only were used in the heavily armed and fortified ivory camps but also were taken away to be sold as slave girls in the harems of Constantinople or as water carriers in the streets of Cairo. The ivory trade thus disrupted the east as effectively as it disrupted the north. Worse still, the pattern of exploitation was one that was soon adopted by the first Europeans to enter the region. They also used capture and ransom to extract wealth from their victims.
The agents in the south were Chokwe hunters from Angola. They penetrated the heartland of the Lunda empire in the 1880s and destroyed the court. Their victims were sold on the Atlantic coast and were the last European-owned slaves on the old plantations of São Tomé. Their ivory went to the Portuguese after the crown had abandoned its restrictive monopoly on tusks and allowed private entrepreneurs to benefit from market forces.
The transatlantic slave trade and the colonial exploitation of Africa, along with the development of automatic weaponry and the growth of industrialisation, facilitated the mass slaughter of Africa’s elephants.
Read also: A Look at Ghana-Côte d'Ivoire Football History
The great 19th-century scramble for ivory also brought disruption to Central Africa from the south in the years immediately preceding the colonial partition.
The contemporary demand for ivory has been compared to that of diamonds, in that they are both natural materials with little inherent value but their culturally constructed value, as a status symbol, is high. Similarly, the demand for both materials in wealthy parts of the world causes violence and destruction in the areas where these natural materials are found.
The African ivory trade has wiped out millions of elephants.
The Origins of The Ivory Trade and Its Effect on African Elephant Populations
The International Ban and Current Regulations
After many failed attempts to control the trade, CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) instituted an international ivory ban in 1989. A worldwide ban on ivory sales in 1989 led to a rebound in the population, to about a million. But in 1999 and 2008, due to pressure from countries in Asia and southern Africa, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) allowed two sanctioned sales of ivory.
In 1990, an international ban on the trade and sale of ivory went into effect among participating governments of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known as CITES.
In 2016, the United States enacted a nationwide near-total ban on the sale of ivory, with exceptions such as antiques at least 100 years old and items containing small amounts of ivory, like musical instruments, furniture, and firearms. Several states, including California, New York, and Hawaii, have also passed legislation to ban ivory trading within their borders. Great Britain, China, and some other countries are also following suit by increasing regulations on the trade of ivory.
The Ongoing Threat of Poaching
Poaching is no longer a small issue; it’s linked to organized crime and terrorist groups. By buying recently created ivory products, consumers are contributing to this web of criminal activity that adversely affects local communities near elephant habitats and along international trade/smuggling routes. Ivory consumption also has a human cost. While rangers have the challenging job of protecting animals, they also face personal risk and may be estranged from their communities for carrying out their duties.
Despite awareness campaigns, online purchasing remains easy and anonymous. According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, at least 18,590 animal-related items were for sale online in the country at the beginning of last year.
Currently the country with the highest demand for ivory is China, followed by Japan, Thailand, and the United States.
Elephant Population Decline
African elephants are likely to become endangered and face a high risk of extinction in the future. The World Wildlife Fund estimates there are approximately 415,000 African elephants in the wild today, compared to three to five million during the 19th century. During the 1980s African elephant populations decreased by almost 50 percent.
Since monitoring began approximately 30 years ago, 2011 has been the worst year on record, with the largest amount of illegal ivory confiscated worldwide. It has been estimated that 35,000 elephants are illegally killed each year for their ivory. The Wildlife Conservation Society’s 96 Elephants campaign emphasizes the unfortunate fact that 96 elephants are killed in Africa each day-that is one elephant every 15 minutes.
Conservation Efforts and Solutions
African elephants and their habitats are protected in national parks, private parks, and game reserves across the continent. Trained rangers in these parts, such as Kruger National Park in South Africa. Trained rangers in these parks are the first line of defense against poachers. Additionally, many wildlife protection organizations such as the FWS African Elephant Conservation Fund, World Wildlife Fund, and Wildlife Conservation Society, partner with local agencies and communities in Africa to support elephant conservation initiatives. These activities include monitoring elephant populations, protecting habitats, implementing anti-poaching tactics, tracking illegal trade, and increasing education. Elephant populations in some protected areas, such as in Kenya and Tanzania have stabilized or increased due to these conservation methods.
To end elephant poaching and the trade of ivory, we must break every link in the trade chain, from poaching to trafficking to demand. IFAW works to do this in a variety of ways.
We need to encourage more countries to pass and implement tighter restrictions on ivory, along with dissuasive penalties. Although the Ivory Act was a step in the right direction, more still needs to be done.
Identifying Ivory and Substitutes
A range of natural and synthetic materials have been used to replicate ivory, especially in recent centuries as ivory has become rarer and more expensive. Elephant ivory can be identified by its characteristic cross-hatched or engine-turned pattern, known as Schreger lines, named after the scientist who first described them. These arcs are only apparent in cross-sectional views of ivory and are an optical effect resulting from the grown pattern of the tusk.
Visual examination with magnification and a trained eye can aid in identifying different types of ivory and ivory substitutes. For more definitive identification, certain analytical tools may be used however, these tests are destructive, requiring a small sample be removed from the object. DNA analysis can more definitively identify the animal source, including identification within species and more specific geographic origin (such as forest and savannah elephants). African and Asian elephant ivory can only be distinguished with DNA analysis. Stable isotope analysis is another forensic method applied to ivory that provides information about the habitat in which the elephant lived.
Preserving Historic Ivories
Ivory is porous and vulnerable to changes in the environment; it is particularly reactive to humidity and temperature fluctuations. In low relative humidity (RH) ivory can lose moisture, shrink, crack, and delaminate (or separates into layers), while at a high RH ivory is susceptible to swelling and warping. Similar dimensional changes occur when ivory is exposed to temperature fluctuations, with rapid and extreme changes causing the most damage.
Ivory naturally darkens or develops a “patina” as it ages. Exposure to light, however, can cause bleaching. Because ivory is so porous, it is susceptible to staining, which may be caused by contact with oils from skin, dust, dirt, previously applied coatings (such as shellac that has yellowed), corroding metals (such as copper with green corrosion), and other colored materials.
Ivory should be stored in a stable environment with moderate temperature and humidity (ideally 70°F and 45-55% RH). Protection from light, dust, and dirt is also advised. Materials used to store the ivory should be chemically stable; for example, avoid rubber-based materials which can yellow and stain ivory.
