Sassandra River Mouth

The Sassandra River reaches the Atlantic through a forested stretch of the coast known to European traders for ivory. In the seventeenth century merchants at its mouth exported blue-and-white cotton cloth, also found in the inland trade handled by Jula merchants. Ivory reached ships at Sassandra and at Lahou farther east, where the Bandama offered another route through the forest. The river mouth thus belonged to a coast whose commerce drew on connections well beyond the shore.