The items in the Trans-Saharan trade could be categorized into two different groups.
The first group was the one that played a very important role in the maintenance of political, social and economic structures of the concerned states. Examples of such items were horses, weapons, salt, gold, cowries, slaves among others.
However; the second group connotes the luxury goods such as books and papers, beads, cloths, ivory, peppers, kola nuts, Ostrich feathers, sugar, glasswares, leather products, etc.