Object Details
- Local Numbers
- EENG-VII-2, 3.
- General
- Title source: Index card based on photographer's notes.
- Local Note
- Typed index card reads, "R 1 Mal. Mali. Timbuctu. Loading salt slabs onto boats. 12/1970. EE. neg.no. VII-2, 3." The card was written in 1977-79 by Archives staff using source provided by photographer.
- Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Collection Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Place
- Africa
- Mali
- Topic
- Transportation
- Industries
- Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Culture
- Maure (African people)
- See more items in
- Eliot Elisofon Field collection
- Eliot Elisofon Field collection / Mali
- Extent
- 1 Negatives (photographic) (b&w, 35mm.)
- Date
- 1970
- Archival Repository
- Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
- Identifier
- EEPA.1973-001, Item EEPA EENG 04969
- Type
- Archival materials
- Negatives (photographic)
- Black-and-white negatives
- Negatives
- Collection Citation
- Eliot Elisofon Field Collection, EEPA 1973-001, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution
- Collection Rights
- Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
- Genre/Form
- Black-and-white negatives
- Negatives
- Scope and Contents
- "Salt from most sources in Africa requires preparation before it can be used or traded. Almost all the salt used by ordinary people in the last five centuries was obtained from local sources. Only the few, particularly rich sources were more intensively exploited and the product traded over distances of up to 1,000kilometers. The most famous deposits are in the deserts of Mauritania and Mali. After the destruction of Taghaza site (Mali), Taodeni (Mali) took its place and in 1975 was still producing several thousand tons of salt a year. From 16 square kilometers of salt pans, laborers, mainly convicts, mined the salt in 60-kilogram slabs from shallow trenches. Caravans still exported the slabs to Tombouctou." [Vogel J., 1997: Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa, Altamira Press]. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was on assignment for Westinghouse Film and traveled to Africa from October 26, 1970 to end of March 1971.
- Collection Restrictions
- Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
- Record ID
- ebl-1536870822481-1536871015053-2
