West Africa: Notable Groups

Songhay (All Facts)

• Tribe / society which emerged in modern-day Mali and Niger that conquered the kingdom of Gao on the bank of the Niger River

Songhay (Economy)

• Slaves played a vital role in the namesake empire’s economy in western Sudan

• Royal slaves were even appointed as commissioners overseeing local rulers in the provinces, many of whom were the king’s hostages

• With no shortage of good fertile land, the need is for manpower to provide the produce essential for the local chiefs to maintain their courts, so slaves were a premium in the namesake society

• Slave settlements were often given by the ruler as gifts to his favorites

Songhay (Military)

• Slaves served as bowmen in the army

• Freed slaves made up the cavalry

• With horses fetching huge prices in the namesake society, it was not uncommon for slaves to be exchanged for them

700 - 1902 - Kanem-Bornu Empire (All Facts)

• Empire based around Lake Chad that once ruled modern-day Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Libya, Algeria, Sudan, and Chad

• Empire which was sustained by the prosperous trans-Saharan trade

• It was one of the oldest and longest-lived empires in world history and the longest-lived empire in African history

• In 1500, Sheikh Mafarma ben Uthman wrote “a history of Bornu” (modern-day Nigeria, Niger, and Chad)

Nupe (All Facts)

• Defeated the Yoruba of the Oyo Kingdom in 1550

Yoruba (All Facts)

• Were defeated by the Nupe of the Oyo Kingdom in 1550

Manes (All Facts)

• Invaded the area of Sierra Leone in 1550

Goree Island (All Facts)

• Bought by the Dutch from the natives near Cape Verde

Gambia River Peoples (All Facts)

• In 1652, English royalists destroyed an English republican settlement located on the namesake lands