Every decade or so, dating back to the 1970s, there is an upsurge of media interest in the slaughter of elephants for their ivory, and the implications for wildlife conservation. Here, Keith Somerville a senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICWS), who is currently researching ivory poaching in Africa, provides an account of the current state of the illicit industry that is threatening to wipe out elephants and other species

More ominously, in the eyes of Western governments, Elephant Action League’s (a conservation advocacy group) investigations show the Somali Islamist Al Shabab movement earning between $200,000 and $600,000 a month from ivory poaching and smuggling. Some Western security sources and President Kenyatta of Kenya have also said the Al Shabab raid on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in which 67 people were killed, was funded by ivory smuggling.

First, discussions of long-distance trade focus almost entirely on the slave trade, even when authors say they are going to discuss the ivory trade.

Fourth, several important works on the ivory trade assume that there was no demand for ivory within Africa. The trade was therefore entirely driven by demand outside the continent.

The issue of policital leaders is covered extensively in the literature, so I will simply highlight a few key issues. First, ivory had important and widespread political meanings as a sign of authority and an item of tribute. This was frequently expressed in terms of rights to the "ground tusk:' the tusk from the side of the dead elephant that lay on the ground. Ivory had corresponding uses in regalia and displays of power, both material and ritual. Second, like the slave trade, the ivory trade strengthened some political leaders and systems, but more often and more significantly it provided new avenues to power and wealth for those lower in the political hierarchies or outside them altogether. In some of these new political arrangements, a complete monopoly on ivory was substituted for the older, partial one.

But it was in the nineteenth century that the great development of the East African ivory trade took place. An increased demand for ivory in America and Europe coincided with the opening up of East Africa by Arab traders and European explorers, and this led to the intensive exploitation of the ivory resources of the interior. Throughout

Until the early nineteenth century, ivory was obtained in sufficient quantity from the coast to meet demand, but, writing in the i84os, the missionary Krapf observed that, although the elephant was still found in some areas near the coast, ivory caravans were now making regular trips into Usagara, Masailand and the Kikuyu countries. Krapf was surprised to see an elephant tusk from Kikuyuland so large that it required three stalwart Akamba tribesmen to carry it.

It was the ivory trade which evoked from Krapf the cry: 'How many slaves, how many women, how much palm-wine, how many objects for the gratification of lust and vanity are purchased by the Galla, Wanika, Wakamba and Swahili with the ivory which they bring to the coast.'4