3.1

3.1 The Roots of African Trade

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  • By the end of this section, you will be able to:

    • Identify the main trade routes across the Sahara in the sixteenth century

    • Analyze the ways in which Islam facilitated the development of trans-Saharan trade

    • Identify the factors that contributed to the decline of the Mali Empire

Overview of Trans-Saharan Trade

  • Trans-Saharan trade routes connected markets across North and West Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, facilitating commerce and cultural exchanges.

  • Key trading centers included:

    • Awdaghost

    • Sijilmasa

    • Djenné

  • These centers allowed for the distribution of both raw materials and finished products, promoting cultural diffusion, including religion.

Development of Saharan Trade Routes

  • 3.2 The Songhai Empire

    LEARNING OBJECTIVES

    By the end of this section, you will be able to:

    • Describe the characteristics that defined imperial Songhai

    • Discuss the ways in which internal conflict led to the decline of theSonghai Empire

    The Sudanic kingdom of Songhai was the largest fifteenth-century African state in West Africa. At its height, it

    Access for free at openstax.org3.2 • The Songhai Empire 85

    stretched from Senegal-Gambia on the Atlantic coast in the west all the way to Kano in the Hausaland region of

    present-day Nigeria in the southeast, and to the salt-mining trade center of Taghaza in the north. Founded by

    Sunni Ali in the late fifteenth century, Songhai reached its imperial height under the founder of the Askia

    dynasty, Muhammad Ture, a general and provisional governor who overthrew Sunni Ali’s legitimate successor.

    The Rise of Imperial Songhai

    The earliest dynasty of kings of the Songhai state was the Za , which tradition and later historical records

    suggest ruled the kingdom during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Tradition also holds that the first

    fourteen rulers of the Songhai state, which was initially centered on Kukiya, approximately eighty miles

    southeast of Gao, werejahiliyyah(“ignorant of God”);jahiliyyahis a word used by Muslims to describe the

    ignorance of people before gaining knowledge of Islam. Sometime in the 1000s, the dynasty converted to

    Islam, possibly under Za Kusay. It was also at some point during this period that the political focus of the

    kingdom shifted from Kukiya toGao.

    As kola nuts, dates, ivory, salt, leather, enslaved people, and gold passed through the capital, traders and

    merchants prospered. While a boon locally, the prosperity of Gao drew the attention of the new and

    expansionistic West African kingdom of Mali, which annexed Gao around 1325. This was the heyday of

    imperial Mali, and for the next century, its rulers profited from Gao’s trade and collected taxes from its kings.

    LINK TO LEARNING

    To learn more about the Songhai Empire, watchThe Songhai Empire: Africa’s Age of Gold

    (https://openstax.org/l/77AgeofGold)and consider why it is called a cosmopolitan empire. What was unique

    about Timbuktu?

    The annexation of Gao greatly expanded the Malian Empire, but it did not last. Periodic rebellions by the

    peoples of Timbuktu, Takedda, and Gao, coupled with invasions from the north, civil war, and a struggling

    economy, caused Gao’s Malian rulers to withdraw from the region in the 1430s. The leader of the Songhai

    rebels at Gao,Sunni Ali, became the first king of the newSonghai Empire. From his capital at Gao, Sunni Ali

    engaged in a war of conquest against his Muslim neighbors. Marshalling his massive cavalry and fleet of war

    canoes, the king extended his empire into the desert in the north and as far as Djenné in the southwest. In the

    late fifteenth century, his army pushed southward beyond the Niger and raided deep into the Volta River Basin,

    encroaching on the territory of the Mossi, multiple linguistic groups whose cultures differed but who were

    loosely connected politically.

    In 1468, Sunni Ali sackedTimbuktu. He drove its Amazigh governor from the city, killed many of its scholars,

    and forced others into exile. Sunni Ali’s conquest of Timbuktu earned him a reputation as a butcher and a

    tyrant. “He perpetuated terrible wickedness in the city, putting it to flame, sacking it, and killing large numbers

    of people,” one chronicler from Timbuktu recorded. Sunni Ali’s assault on the scholarly community at

    Timbuktu prompted the survivors’ exodus to Oualata, leading to a significant decline in Islamic scholarship at

    Timbuktu. Many of the merchants who had thrived under the city’s Tuareg overlords also fled. As a result, the

    city slipped into a period of economic decline and did not recover until after Sunni Ali’s death.

    It was not enough for Sunni Ali to capture Timbuktu. Securing the vital corridor of trade along the growing

    Songhai Empire’s western frontier also required capturing the southern trading center ofDjenné, a long-

    standing point of exchange for caravans carrying salt, gold, and enslaved Africans bound for the Atlantic or

    trans-Saharan slave trades. Sunni Ali attempted to capture Djenné for several years, but the fact that the city

    was surrounded by water during the annual flooding of the Bani River made the task impossible. Only after a

    seven-month siege was he finally able to subdue the city, which surrendered in 1473.

    In contrast to his harsh actions at Timbuktu, Sunni Ali accommodated the community of Muslim scholars at

    Djenné, where they remained great preservers of Islamic learning and continued to produce work on Islamic86 3 • Early Modern Africa and the Wider World

    philosophy and the sciences through the seventeenth century. The mosque and university had thousands of

    teachers and students who mastered a wide range of subjects, including Islamic law, astronomy, math, and

    philosophy (Figure 3.10).

    FIGURE3.10The Great Mosque at Djenné.The earliest version of the Great Mosque at Djenné was built in the

    thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Founded as a center of religious learning and scholarship, the Great Mosque

    continues to serve these functions today, although it is now at least the third version of the structure. (credit: “Great

    Mosque of Djenné” by JM/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

    The Reign of Askia the Great

    On the death of Sunni Ali in 1492, his son Sonni Baru came to the throne but reigned less than a year.

    Muhammad Ture, one of Sunni Ali’s generals and provincial governors, challenged Sonni Baru, and when the

    two met in battle in April 1493, Sonni Baru was defeated. Muhammad Ture then usurped the throne and took

    power as Askia Muhammad, later known asAskia the Great. His reign marked the beginning of the Askia

    dynasty.

    Askia the Great strengthened theSonghai Empireand made it the largest in West Africa’s history by adding

    tributary lands to the east and to the west. At its height, the Songhai Empire stretched from Kano in Hausaland

    in the southeast (present-day Nigeria) to Taghaza with its valuable salt mines in the north, and modern-day

    Senegal on the Atlantic coast (Figure 3.11). One of Askia’s primary objectives was to control access to the major

    trade routes across the Sahara. His success in doing so was rapid: by 1512, it is chronicled that even themansa

    of Mali was paying tribute to Askia.

    Access for free at openstax.org3.2 • The Songhai Empire 87

    FIGURE3.11West Africa's Early Empires.This map shows the different polities of medieval West Africa. The

    Songhai Empire was the largest and wealthiest of the three great Sudanic empires; the other two were Ghana and

    Mali. (attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY 4.0 license)

    Askia the Great also transformed the nature of Songhai rulership. Under Sunni Ali, Songhai administration at

    the provincial level had been left in the hands of traditional rulers. Askia abandoned this model in favor of

    designating royal family members or trusted servants. As appointees of the king, these provincial governors

    were entirely dependent on the ruler and had to remain in his favor. The governors were invested with a great

    deal of authority, however; they could, for example, raise their own armies to collect local taxes. Abandoning

    the use of traditional rulers had the effect of strengthening the centralizing tendency of the state under Sunni

    Ali. Whereas before such provincial officials might take advantage of dynastic struggles to assert their

    authority and form a breakaway region or state, the placement of royally appointed officials closely aligned

    with the king dramatically curtailed this risk. That the state remained intact despite frequent dynastic

    struggles during Askia’s later reign speaks to the success of this policy.

    Islamwas crucial to Askia the Great’s consolidation of control. Not ethnically Songhai and thus unable to rely

    on traditional institutions and rituals to legitimate his rule, Askia instead based his authority on Islam and

    quickly set out to establish Songhai as a Muslim kingdom. In 1498, he declared a holy war against the non-

    Muslim Mossi to justify his incursions into their territory. He also recognized the importance of Islam to trans-

    Saharan trade and used his post-accession pilgrimage to Mecca to advertise his concern for the faith. During

    his stopover in Cairo, Askia convinced Egypt’scaliph, its spiritual and secular leader, to recognize him as

    caliph of the whole of Sudan. While in Mecca he spent lavishly, contributing some 100,000 gold pieces to

    charity and related almsgiving programs. He did not force his subjects to convert, however, and most retained

    their traditional religious beliefs.

    DUELING VOICES

    The Great Ruler of Songhai: Askia Muhammad

    The following sources were written by observers of the Songhai Empire. The first, called theEpic of Askia

    Muhammad, is a written rendition of a tale told by a griot (a West African oral historian, poet, musician,

    storyteller, and praise-singer) and describes how Askia the Great established his empire. In the excerpt, Askia

    Muhammed is told how he can repent for having killed his uncle. The second excerpt is from Leo Africanus’s

    Description of Africa, which he wrote in the sixteenth century and describes the city of Gao and the tactics of

    Askia Muhammad.88 3 • Early Modern Africa and the Wider World

    Go home and start a holy war,

    So that you can make them submit until you reach the Red Sea. [. . .]

    [Askiya Muhammed] went home to Gao.

    It is at this time he gathered together all the horses.

    He took all the horses.

    He began by the west. [. . .]

    Early in the morning, they pillage and they go on to the next village . . .

    The cavalryman who goes there,

    He traces on the ground for the people the plan for the mosque. . . .

    The people build the mosque.

    It is at that time,

    Mamar Kassaye [Askiya Muhammed] comes to dismount from his horse.

    He makes the people—

    They teach them verses from the Koran relating to prayer.

    They teach them prayers from the Koran.

    Any villages that refuse, he destroys the village, burns it, and moves on. [. . .]

    Until that day [. . .] he arrived at the Red Sea.

    —Nouhou Malio, “The Epic of Askia Mohammed”

    The Town and Kingdom [Songhay] of Gao

    Here are very rich merchants and to here journey continually large numbers of blacks who purchase

    here cloth from Barbary [North Africa] and Europe. . . . Here also is a certain place where slaves are sold,

    especially upon those days when merchants assemble. A young slave of fifteen years of age is sold for

    six ducats [gold coins] and children are also sold.

    The king of this region has a certain private palace in which he keeps a large number of concubines and

    slaves, who are watched by eunuchs. To guard his person he maintains a sufficient troop of horsemen

    and foot soldiers. Between the first gate of the palace and the inner part, there is a walled enclosure

    wherein the king personally decides all of his subjects' controversies. Although the king is most diligent

    in this regard and conducts all business in these matters, he has in his company counsellors and such

    other officers as his secretaries, treasurers, stewards and auditors.

    It is a wonder to see the quality of merchandise that is daily brought here and how costly and

    sumptuous everything is. . . .

    The rest of this kingdom contains nothing but villages and hamlets inhabited by herdsmen and

    shepherds, who in winter cover their bodies with the skins of animals, but in summer they go naked,

    save for their private parts. . . . They are continually burdened by heavy taxes; to the point that they

    scarcely have anything left on which to live.

    Of the Province of Kano

    The great province of Kano stands eastward of the river Niger almost five hundred miles . . . . [Their king]

    had mighty troops of horsemen at his command; but he has since been constrained to pay tribute unto

    the kings of Zegzeg and Casena. Afterward Askiya the king of Timbuktu [Songhay] feigning friendship

    treacherously slew them both. And then he waged war against the king of Kano, whom after a long siege

    he took, and compelled him to marry one of his daughters, restoring him again to his kingdom,

    conditionally that he should pay unto him the third part of all his tribute [taxes]: and the said king of

    Timbuktu has some of his courtiers perpetually residing at Kano for the receit [receiving] thereof.

    —Leo Africanus,Description of Africa (1550)

    Access for free at openstax.org3.2 • The Songhai Empire 89

    • How do the two accounts differ in their description of Askia the Great?

    • According to these accounts, how did Askia establish and maintain power in his empire?

    • Would you consider Askia the Great to have been a strong ruler? Would you consider him to have been a

    benevolent ruler? Why or why not?

    Askia the Greatextended his territory deeper into the desert through military conquest. The advance of

    Songhai’s army forced the Tuareg nomads to flee, which allowed the Songhai to capture the salt-producing

    center of Taghaza in the north. Askia did more to regulate trans-Saharan trade than any of his predecessors.

    He not only introduced the use of standardized weights and measures but also employed trade inspectors at

    each of the empire’s major trade centers. The Hausaland kingdoms recognized the revival of trade under the

    Songhai and its benefits and so came into the orbit of the Songhai Empire’s broader trading network.

    The primary sources of the Songhai Empire’s wealth continued to be agricultural production centered on the

    Niger floodplain and taxes on trade goods, especially gold and salt, both of which had also been key to the

    economy of the Mali Empire. Salt remained Songhai’s currency for external trade, whilecowrie shellswere

    used for internal trade (Figure 3.12). Cowrie shells were imported from the Indian Ocean. They were thus

    relatively scarce and could not be counterfeited. Gold remained the primary good transported along the trans-

    Saharan trade routes, but enslaved captives and kola nuts were also exported. The empire imported a variety

    of goods, including Saharansalt, luxury goods, horses, and cloth.

    FIGURE3.12Cowrie Shell.Cowrie shells were used as currency and to adorn religious objects in several African

    societies. Cowrie shells served a similar function in South Asia and East Asia. This shell was found with an Egyptian

    mummy from the fourth century BCE. (credit: modification of work “Cowrie shell” by Metropolitan Museum of Art/

    Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0)

    Timbuktu, which had been destroyed by Sunni Ali, revived during the rule of Askia the Great. Leo Africanus

    observed that the city was a prosperous one filled with artisans and wealthy merchants as well as many

    enslaved people. According to his sixteenth-century account, in Timbuktu there were “great numbers of

    religious teachers, judges, scholars and other learned persons, who are bountifully maintained at the king’s

    expense. Here too are brought various manuscripts or written books from Barbary, which are sold for more

    money than any other merchandise.” By the mid-sixteenth century, public libraries had been established, and

    scribes and calligraphers had been hired to copy books (Figure 3.13). As Islamic scholarship once again

    flourished at Timbuktu, so too did higher learning. Students engaged in multiple tutorials in various fields of

    study with Islamic scholars and, when they achieved mastery of these subjects, went on to become teachers90 3 • Early Modern Africa and the Wider World

    themselves.

    FIGURE3.13A Revival of Learning in Timbuktu.Handwritten and illuminated (containing painted decoration)

    manuscripts preserved at Timbuktu are among the great cultural treasures of Islam. Many thousands of these

    graced the shelves of the mosques and private libraries throughout the revitalized Timbuktu of the sixteenth

    century. (credit: “Timbuktu manuscripts” by EurAstro/Elias Altmimi/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

    LINK TO LEARNING

    Learn about and see pictures of thetomb of Askia the Great(https://openstax.org/l/77AskiaTomb)in Gao, Mali.

    You can follow links on the same page to learn about other items of historical interest in Mali.

    The Decline of Songhai

    Under Askia the Great, the Songhai Empire flourished. Religious scholars and poets flocked to cities like

    Timbuktu and Djenné. Islam became more widely practiced. The state embarked on an ambitious

    infrastructure development scheme, including the construction of canals to enhance agricultural production.

    Trans-Saharan trade thrived. However, as Askia grew older, his personal power declined, and he relied heavily

    on his palace officials to manage the affairs of the empire. This alienated his family members, who grew

    resentful of the power of Askia’s head chamberlain, Ali Fulan.

    In 1528 Askia’s sons revolted, deposed him, and declared one of the brothers, Musa, king. Askia Musa’s

    accession was not smooth, however, and civil war erupted. AsAskia Musawaged battle against his kin to retain

    his position, dozens of his relatives were killed. Musa himself fell victim to this strife and was killed by his

    brothers in 1531, deepening the crisis and further destabilizing the state. As successive rulers’ attempts at

    governing the empire failed, political chaos consumed the ruling class and military as they vied for control.

    Without effective administration from the center, Songhai weakened, and external groups began eyeing an

    opportunity to intervene and seize control of the lucrative trans-Saharan trade in salt and gold. This was

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    particularly the case for the Saadi dynasty ofMorocco.

    In 1578, theSaadihad repulsed an invasion by the Portuguese, but only at an enormous cost, draining the

    imperial coffers. To stave off bankruptcy, Sultan Ahmad I al-Mansur Saadi cast about for new resources. All this

    unfolded just as a sense of stability and calm had returned to Songhai under the reign ofAskia Ishaq II, which

    began in 1588. However, this revival of Songhai’s fortunes proved short-lived; the Saadi invaded in 1591.

    Although it was greatly outnumbered by the forces of Songhai, the Saadi army had an insurmountable

    advantage: a stockpile of guns, ammunition, and cannon supplied by Queen Elizabeth I of England, who hoped

    to make Morocco an ally against Spain. The Saadi army also contained many Spanish Muslims. In 1502, the

    Spanish monarchs had ordered all Muslims in Spain to convert to Christianity, and many Muslims had fled the

    country. Outmatched, the larger Songhai army was defeated at the Battle of Tondibi, and Askia Ishaq II was

    killed.

    Following their victory on the battlefield, the commander of the Saadi army, an enslaved Spanish eunuch

    named Judar Pasha, moved on the key cities and trading centers of the empire. The Saadi sacked and pillaged

    Djenné,Gao, andTimbuktu, burning them to the ground. To seal their victory, the invaders filled in water wells

    and destroyed fields of crops. They spared few, not even women and children. The Songhai Empire’s power

    was rendered ineffective after the looting and destruction of these cities. A decade later, the empire was

    shattered, its provinces divided into several smaller kingdoms and territories.


     caravans began traversing the Sahara in antiquity (BCE).

  • The peak of trade occurred from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries CE, characterized by extensive networks transporting goods:

    • Goods transported included:

      • Copper

      • Salt

      • Ivory

      • Enslaved people

      • Textiles

      • Gold

  • Trade patterns were linked to the following regions:

    • Northward to the