Gold in Cape Town – Part 5

This extract is from ‘Travel Tales from Exotic Places like Salford’

By 1600AD gold dust was being used as currency in Ghana. Portuguese traders were now selling objects of worked gold to the Wolof tribe in Senegal and also sharing their tools too, which enabled the local goldsmiths to produce similar pieces. The Portuguese were here because they were convinced that they would find the fountain of youth in Africa. There was also a fascination with the elixir of life, which was meant to cure all known ailments and grant immortality. This elixir comprised pure water and liquid gold; it’s believed that the desire for this elixir also fuelled the feverish search for gold in Africa.

In the 18th century the Ashanti’s kingdom and economy grew, fuelled by war and conquest, booty and some trade. This was largely because the Ashanti bought guns using gold and were then able to increase their influence and expand their resources. Gold was first discovered in South Africa on the Witwatersrand reef near Johannesburg in 1886.