A dry, dusty wind that blows from the Sahara Desert across West Africa toward the Atlantic Ocean, typically from November to March.
From Twi (West African Akan language) harmattan. The word entered English through merchant contact with West Africa in the 17th century.
The harmattan is so consistent that pre-modern West African traders used it like a calendar—they could schedule trans-Saharan journeys by it—and the wind carries Sahara dust all the way to the Caribbean, making it a climate agent that literally connects Africa to the Americas.
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