Final answer:
The coast of Africa was rich with trade goods like gold, iron, copper, salt, valuable hardwoods, ivory, tortoise shells, and animal hides that were obtained from the African interior. They were either used locally or resold in foreign markets like Arabia, Persia, India, or even as far as Southeast Asia or China. The Swahili coast, with its numerous city states, played a crucial role in these exchanges.
Step-by-step explanation:
The coast of Africa was vastly wealthy with a variety of products that were largely traded in cities along the Swahili coast, such as gold, iron, copper, salt, valuable hardwoods, ivory, tortoise shells, and animal hides. Traded goods were brought from the African interior through vast inland trade routes in empires and kingdoms, such as Ghana and Mali in West Africa, and Great Zimbabwe in southern Africa, and were then either locally used or resold elsewhere in Africa, Arabia, Persia, and India, continuing to Southeast Asia or China. Luxury goods from these overseas markets were imported by these coastal African city centers. The trade of enslaved people also complicated and diversified the coastal economy.
In addition to natural resources, local artisans contributed pottery and woven cloth to the volume of trade. Control over these trade commodities greatly contributed to the wealth and power of their respective regions. In West Africa, trade networks extended across North Africa, eastward into Ethiopia, connecting it to the Mediterranean world, Europe, the Near East, southwest Asia, and beyond. Southern African economies connected with the coastal civilization of the Swahili peoples through a network of inland waterways like the Limpopo and Zambezi Rivers.
Learn more about Trade in Africa