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three days. Traditionally, i t is one of the functions of a landlordto guarantee that tho buyer, who usually buys on credit, ^ will payup within a certain period - up tc 4- weeks in Ibadan, In Kunasi thistraditional system has collapsed and dealers partially f i l l the gap.It was interesting to note that the def.lor who assisted me, who wasan operator in a rather snail way of business, was sometimes addressedby his butcher-customers as "mai-gida 1 *.Unfortunately, I ascertained l i t t l e of the history of the collapseof the traditional credit-guaranteeing system, which seems to havefinally occurred less than ten years ago when the new cattle marketand slaughter house were opened in the outskirts of Kumasi. However,i t would seem that as Kumasi cattle market grew in importance as thesource from which most of the population in southern Ghana, outsideAccra, drew its meat supplies, the traditional system was bound tosuffer great strain. Nowadays only about a quarter of a l l the cattlewhich pass through the market are slaughtered in Kumasi and most of thebuyers (they are mainly butchers, but also traders who resell to butchers)are from elsewhere. Dr. Cohen describes how the Ibadan landlords areobliged to employ boys to observe, as it wore, every financial movementof their butcher-customers. Given the number of strange buj'ing-faces,this would not, nowadays, be practicable in Kumasi,Then, there is the general question of tho relationship betweenlandlords and butchers in the market. While the fact that most butchers35 1are strangers would preclude them from taking concerted hostile actionagainst the landlords (such as that which occurred in the Abeokuta cattlemarket in 1963^), yet the two groups do not trust each other. Also theothnic heterogeneity of the Kumasi landlords, considered as a group,would make i t very difficult for them to co-operate with each other inrisk-taking as do the Ibadan landlords.So far as I could ascertain, most dealers in Kumasi market areindividually related to their customers - two dealers may work witheach other, but there is not even that slight general element ofcorporateness that exists with landlords. Dealers deal mainly, butnot exclusively, with regular buying customers. They grant credit, forup to several weeks, to such of their customers whom they know and trust33« Credit-sales are common under the landlord system, whatever themerchandise involved.34. He was also regarded, jokingly, as my mai-gida. The friendly taunt"Where is your mai-gida?" welcomed me on several occasions as,rather forlornly, I entered this large, boisterous market.35. See below, page 12.36. Cohen, footnote 2, p.l6.
- 10 -who require i t . If the customer fails to p'.y up then, though mostreluctantly, they nay resort to the courts.^ They ore very volatilefinanciers, sometimes buying and then reselling in the twinkling ofan eye. They are so numerous and competitive that I can only presume,as other general evidence also suggests, that their trading marginsere usually rather reasonable.But I judge the activities of dealers to be generally of peripheralimportance. They are, to change the metaphor, s safety v.lve whichprevents the market from exploding when too many cattle arrive. Ithink that a considerable proportion of the cattle are bought directlyfrom the bringers by largo butchers and traders whousually, thoughnot invariably, pay cash - unfortunately this statement, which is basedon observation and conversation, cannot possibly be substantiated,there being no means by which a research worker can record the detailsof many transactions which occur simultaneously. If this is correct,the collapse of the traditional risk-taking system is closely associatedwith the increased prosperity enjoyed by a minority of butchers duringthe last decade.The landlords are concerned only with transactions involving theirbringers and do not intervene when dealers arc reselling. That thela'ada(or commission) is a mere witness fee is borne out by tho factthat dealers, like landlords, receive this fee from the buyer whenreselling, thus reclaiming what they had originally paid to the landlord.West African markets are, traditionally, places which anyone(stranger or native) may enter for direct selling purposes and thistradition survives. Perhaps, this being so, I should not have beenso surprised as I was by the sight of a group of six Gao bringers who,I was told, habitually sold directly to butchers, without the interventionof any landlord. There arc many Gao in Kumasi, and thesefrugal traders prefer, like so many of their countrymen, to crowd intoa permanently hired room for cattle men, rather than wasting theirmoney (and theirtime) on landlords.While bringers, like these six Gao, sometimes combine together for39the practical purpose of meeting the expenses of the journey, I think37. Unlike the Ibadan landlords, Cohen, p.1838. Thus a special section for "villagers" who are not regular tradersbut who wish to retail their produce directly, was opened recentlyat Kumasi Central Market.39. Sharing drovers and other expenses.
Page 2 and 3: (QUjiiwciili) of ( $k« m
Page 4 and 5: jjandlords and Brokers: A West Afri
Page 6 and 7: One's interest in this ancient syst
Page 8 and 9: - 5 -which in Ghana and Nigeria is
Page 10 and 11: landlord altogether - he who, a? it
Page 14 and 15: -11 -that nost of thorn arc individ
Page 16 and 17: Of the remaining 22 butchers, 15 ar
Page 18: - 15 -9. Flayers, who a: j;t xho bu

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