Manilas, Bracelets-money

In traditional societies of western and central Africa, metal bracelets were used both as jewelry and decorative accessories and as exchange currency or dowry money. They represent one of the most ancient forms of pre-monetary systems that have been widely documented across the African continent. Already used as money by European merchants in the 15 th century and eventually produced on an industrial scale in France and Britain, for over three centuries, manilas were one of main forms of currency used in the slave trade and the commerce of monocrop materials (such as palm oil). When industrial production ceased in the first half of the 1900s, old manilas were recycled as scrap metal both by small artisans and by the big factories of the European metallurgy industry. The close to 700 bracelets housed at the MUDEC are what was salvaged by Enrico Pezzoli from a huge cargo destined to Milan’s Metallindustria foundries.