"Cloth is also a marketable commodity and has been the subject of extensive trade within and beyond the continent of Africa. In some places one range of cloths is woven for local consumption and another, quite different, for trade with other peoples.(...) Cloths have also been woven specifically for use as currency, as in Zaire; and in Sierra Leone at one time cloth of a particular size could be used for paying court fines. (Rif. Picton J. and Mack J., 1989, "African Textiles" p. 17, British Museum, London).