The Sudanic Golden Age.

In honor of Black History Month im gonna let you know about a group of empires that don't recieve pages in text books, though most of the information are from them. Then i'll have a bunch of articles and shit for the non lazy man to read.









^mood music.

Ghana
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...ords/Ghana.png

Ghana is not the country we know today as Ghana. The country is actually named after the first of the 4 great Sudanic empires of West Africa (the word Sudan is arabic for land of the blacks, and isn't talking about the country btw).
The Ghana rose during the time of the Omayyad(Islamic) empire domination of the mediterranian, which in that time meant the world. This was also during the beginning of Europe's dark ages. Ghana was able to become powerful because for the first time, that innovation of using a camel as a means of transport became popular, thus connecting the isolated west african sub region to the rest of the world, and most notably the islamic world to the north. In due time Ghana became immensely rich and powerful, and begun to conquer it's neighbors. It was said by travelers to the empire that the king was so wealthy he was able to pave the roads leading to his empire with gold.


The empire was so rich that it a Moorish nobleman who lived in Spain by the name of Al-Bakri in the 11th century and wrote that the king:

[He] Gives an audience to his people, in order to listen to their complaints and set them right…he sits in a pavilion around which stand 10 horses with gold embodied trappings. Behind the king stand 10 pages holding shields and gold mounted swords; on his right are the sons of princes of his empire, splendidly clad and with gold plaited in their hair. Before him sits the high priest, and behind the high priest sit the other priests…The door of the pavilion is guarded by dogs of an excellent breed who almost never leave the king's presence and who wear collars of gold and silver studded with bells of the same material



With was also a noted custom that social order was so strong that trade was able to be conducted in the following manner. A set of items for sale will be left on the side of the road unattended. From there, a purchaser leaves his amount of money next to the item and leaves, If he came back and his money was gone, he took the item, if not, he took his money and the saler waited for a high bid. This was able to be conducted without thief (a level of civility the west haven't even achieved).




What made Ghana the first great Sudanic empire was it's ability to conquer all known major routes to gold and salt for the purpose of trade using a calvary of over 200,000 (big nigga numbers for that time). It soon became a powerful cosmopolitan empire




Decline and Conquest
The empire began struggling after reaching its apex in the early 11th century. By 1059, the population density around the empire's leading cities was seriously overtaxing the region. The Sahara desert was expanding southward, threatening food supplies. While imported food was sufficient to support the population when income from trade was high, when trade faltered, this system also broke down. The growing power of the Almoravids soon led them to launch a war against Ghana in 1062 under Abu Bakr Ibu Umar to gain control of the coveted Saharan trade routes. The war was justified as an act of conversion through military arms . The Almoravids fought the Ghana empire for five years before reaching and laying siege to the capital city in 1067. For ten more years, under the leadership of Ghana Bassi and his successor Ghana Tunka Manin, the empire resisted. Finally, in 1076, General Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar captured the capital and ended the state as an empire while converting many to Islam.




Ghana relevance to the scheme of things lines in the fact that it was to the Sudan (desert west africa) what Greece was to the west. It layed to foundations in government, law, culture, and civilization for it's successor state, one that often over shadows Ghana's place in history, the Empire of Mali

Mali
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...cords/Mali.png

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ako/pbc-34.jpg

Every watch the lion king? Did you know that was a true story? Crazy part is having it about black people is not in the Walt Disney manifesto, so Lions did the trick.



But in truth Simba was actually a man named Sundiata Keita. Sundiata was born a Mandinka man (Mandinka's an ethnicity around the area of Mali and senegal.


It all started with Maghan the Handsome was a Mandinka king who one day received a divine hunter at his court. The hunter predicted that if Konaté married an ugly woman, she would give him a son who would one day be a mighty king. Naré Maghann Konaté was already married to Sassouma Berté and had a son by her, Dankaran Toumani Keïta. However, when two Traoré hunters from the Do kingdom presented him an ugly, hunchbacked woman named Sogolon, he remembered the prophecy and married her. She soon gave birth to a son, Sundiata Keita, who was unable to walk throughout his childhood. Despite his physical weakness, the king still granted Sundiata his own griot (an african philosopher, teacher, historian, and entertainer, represented in the Lion King as the monkey Baboo) at young age; this was in order to have them grow together and provide constant consultation as was custom.



As a young boy, Sundiata exprienced a harsh ruler take over the Mali. He devoted his life to building an army to overthrow the cruel king and taking back his home land for freedom. When he was older and had a strong army, Sundiata did overthrow the king and became king of the Mali. He understood that if he were to have a kingdom, he'd need it to be prosperous as to keep strong. He had crops such as beans and rice, grown and soon introduced cotton. With the crops selling, the Mali Empire became very wealthy.
Sundiata supported religion and soon took the title Mansa. Mansa showed the religious authority Sundiata had. After he died, many rulers also took the title mansa, to show their role and authority in society.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o...8/Timbuktu.jpg
Thus the Mali Empire was born.
The Mali Empire grew out of an area referred to by its contemporary inhabitants as Manden.Manden, named for its inhabitants the Mandinka (initially Manden’ka with “ka” meaning people of), comprised most of present-day northern and southern. The empire was originally established as a federation of Mandinka tribes called the Manden Kurufa (literally Manden Federation), but it later became an empire ruling millions of people from almost every ethnic group imaginable in West Africa.

Mali, like Ghana, an empire it later conquered, grew rich of trade of gold salt and slaves to the islamic world. Only Mali differed from Ghana in several ways. For instance, Ghana worked as a middle man between gold mining tribes to its south and the rest of the world. Mali, on the other hand conquered the tribes to the south, the trade routes, making it, at it's height, controller of half of the worlds wealth and thus making it's Emperors, or Mansa, the richest men of all time.



Mali was also different from Ghana in religion. Ghana had been a traditionalist society from top the bottom, wear as Mali has a muslim nobility and pagan citizenry due to prolonged exposure to the islamic world. Mali's nobility saw the spread of Islam as fundamental to establishing a just society and therefore introduced a numerous number of Madrasas (islamic universities). Mali's universities were heralded as the best in the world, and Mali became known as an empire of the wise men. People from across the world flooded to cities like Timbuktu and Djenne (the Oxford and Cambridges) of their time. The system became so influential that todays universities still bear hints of Malian influence
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...i_Timbuktu.jpg
for instance, ever wonder what a the graduation gown is all about?
The gown was designed by medival europeans because in that time to be educated was to be muslim, moorish, or in turn Malian. Therefore, they designed customs to resemble an "educated" man, and based it off the dress style of the elite scholars of Mali.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y26...s/0f095866.jpg

The Malian dress style also influenced the rest of west africa, which explains with african traditional outfits for dignified men, look like this..
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d8..._/nigerian.jpg

The tradition of throwing hats in the air when you graduate is also a Mandinka tradition that is still practiced today. Hats are thrown when a group of men achieve a common goal to symbolize brotherhood.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/h...s/IMG_0550.jpg
It was also reported that Mali's universities had become so vast that it held the largest collection of books in the ancient world outside of the Great Library Of Alexander Egypt, and the number of people that flocked there to study was so large that books were worth more in their weight then gold.


Mali's scriptures are still intact, though many were stolen during french occupation, but they are so numerous that less then half of them have been translated.


Economy
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/h...s/IMG_0563.jpg
The Mali Empire flourished because of trade above all else. It contained three immense gold mines within its borders unlike the Ghana Empire, which was only a transit point for gold. The empire taxed every ounce of gold or salt that entered its borders. By the beginning of the 14th century, Mali was the source of almost half the world's gold. There was no standard currency throughout the realm, but several forms were prominent by region including gold dinars, copper, and salt.
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p...y/source2a.jpg
The Mali empire also flourished from the abominable trade of slaves. Slavery has been in africa before Egypt, and has been capitalised on for centuries.


Government
The Government of Mali is one that is beyond amazing. The empire was far to vast to run as a center strong monarcy like Ghana, and many of the empires of it's time. This is why Mali developed a constitutional republic.

The Mali Empire covered a larger area for a longer period of time than any other West African state before or since (as large as all of europe excluding Russia, in it's time it was only rivaled by Ghenghis Khans Mongul empire.). What made this possible was the decentralized nature of administration throughout the state. According to Joseph Ki-, the farther a person traveled from Niani, the more decentralized the mansa’s power became. Nevertheless, the mansa managed to keep tax money and nominal control over the area without agitating his subjects into revolt. At the local level (village, town, city), kun-tiguis elected a dougou-tigui (village-master) from a bloodline descended from that locality’s semi-mythical founder. The county level administrators called kafo-tigui (county-master) were appointed by the governor of the province from within his own circle.Only when we get to the state or province level is there any palpable interference from the central authority in Niani. Provinces picked their own governors via their own custom (election, inheritance, etc). Regardless of their title in the province, they were recognized as dyamani-tigui (province master) by the mansa.Dyamani-tiguis had to be approved by the mansa and were subject to his oversight. If the mansa didn’t believe the dyamani-tigui was capable or trustworthy, a farba might be installed to oversee the province or administer it outright.





Constitution
Contrary to Western belief, Africans had developed constitutions prior to the renassiance, and the west it's self.

Mali's constitution was a set of laws known as theKouroukan Fouga. It formally established the federation of mandinka tribes under one government, outlined how it would operate and established the laws which the people would live by. Mansa (Emperor) Sundiata Keita presented the document at a plain near the town of Ka-ba, and it has survived through oral tradition passed down by generations of groits.

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t...and/Djenne.jpg
THE KOUROUKAN FOUGA

(im going to bold all parts that were revolutionary for it's time)

Social Organization

• Article 1: The Great Mande Society is divided into sixteen clans of quiver carriers, five clans ofmarabouts, four groups of “nyamakalas” and one group of slaves. Each one has a specificactivity and role.

• Article 2: The “nyamakalas” have to devote themselves to tell the truth to the chiefs, to be their counsellors and to defend by the speech the established rulers and the order upon the wholeterritory.

• Article 3: The five clans of marabouts are our teachers and our educators in Islam. Everyone has to hold them in respect and consideration.

• Article 4: The society is divided into age groups. Belong to the some age-group the people (men or women) who are born during a period of three years in succession.The members of the intermediary class between young and old people, should be invited to takepart in taking important decisions concerning the society.

• Article 5: Every body has a right to life and to the preservation of its physical integrity. Accordingly,any attempt to deprive one’s fellow being of life is punished with death.

• Article 6: To win the battle of prosperity, the general system of supervision has been established in orderto fight against laziness and idleness.

• Article 7: It has been established among the Mandenkas, the sanankunya (joking relationship) and the tanamannyonya (blood pact). Consequently any contention that occurs among these groups should not degenerate, the respect for one another being the rule. Between brothers-in-low and sisters-in-law, between grandparents and grandchildren,tolerance and rag should be the principle.

• Article 8: The Keïta family is nominated reigning family upon the empire.

• Article 9: The children’s education behoves the entire society. The paternal authority in consequence falls to everyone.

• Article 10: We should offer condolences mutually.

• Article 11: When your wife or your child runs away stop running after her/him in the neighbour’s house.

• Article 12: The succession being patrilineary, do never give up the power to a son when one of his fathersis still alive. Do never give up the power to a minor just because he has goods.

• Article 13: Do never offend the Nyaras (the talented).

• Article 14: Do never offend women, our mothers.

• Article 15: Do never beat a married woman before having her husband interfere unsuccessfully.

• Article 16: Women, apart from their everyday occupations, should be associated with all our managements.

• Article 17: Lies that have lived for 40 years should be considered like truths. (lol)

• Article 18: We should respect the law of primogeniture.

• Article 19: Any man has two parents-in-law: the parents of the girl we failed to have and the speech we deliver without any constraint. We have to hold them in respect and consideration.

• Article 20: Do not ill treat the slaves. We are the master of the slave but not of the bag he carries.

• Article 21: Do not follow up with your constant attentions the wives of the chief, of the neighbour, of the marabout, of the priest, of the friend and of the partner.

• Article 22: Vanity is the sign of the weakness and humility the sign of the greatness.

• Article 23: Do never betray one another. Respect your word of honour.

• Article 24: In Manden, do not maltreat the foreigners.

• Article 25: The ambassador does not risk anything in Manden.

• Article 26: The bull confided to your care should not lead the cattle-pen.

• Article 27: A girl can be given in marriage as soon as she is pubescent without age determination.

• Article 28: A young man can marry at age 20.

• Article 29: The dowery is fixed at 3 cows: one for the girl, two for the father and mother. (Believe it or not this is huge in women's rights, women from the beginning of society to the 50s were property, and a dowery, or bride price, was essential what the name says..a price. Fixing the price made the institution a ritual and not a purchase)

• Article 30: In Mande, the divorce is tolerated for one of the following reasons: the impotence of the husband, the madness of one of the spouses, the husband’s incapability of assuming theo bligations due to the marriage. The divorce should occur out of the village.

• Article 31: We should help those who are in need.

Of Goods

• Article 32: There are five ways to acquire the property: the buying, the donation, the exchange, the work and the inheriting. Any other form without convincing testimony is doubtful.

• Article 33: Any object found without known owner becomes common property only after four years.

• Article 34: The fourth bringing forth of a heifer confided is the property of the guardian. One egg out of four is the property of the guardian of the laying hen.

• Article 35: One bovine should be exchanged for four sheep or four goats.

• Article 36: To satisfy one’s hunger is not a robbery if you don’t take away anything in your bag or your pocket. (an islamic tenenant, basically arguing a hungry man cannot be punished for having to eat cause that doesn't make him a thief and you as a person have a higher obligation to his survival as opposed to your foods survival..which is the concept in the west.)

Preservation of the Nature (this whole section is revolutionary, first constitutional stance on environmentalism)

• Article 37: Fakombè is nominated chief of hunters.

• Article 38: Before setting fire to the bush, don’t look at the ground, rise your head in the direction of the top of the trees to see if they don’t bear fruits or flowers.

• Article 39: Domestic animals should be tied during cultivation moment and freed after the harvest. Thedog, the cat, the duck and the poultry are not bound by the measure.

Final Disposals

• Article 40: Respect the kinship, the marriage and the neighbourhood.

• Article 41: You can kill the enemy, but not humiliate him.

• Article 42: In big assemblies, be satisfied with your lawful representatives.

• Article 43: Balla Fassèkè Kouyaté is nominated big chief of ceremonies and main mediator in Manden. He is allowed to joke with all groups, in priority with the royal family.

• Article 44: All those who will transgress these rules will be punished. Everyone is bound to make effective their implementation.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/h...s/IMG_0622.jpg

The Mali Imperial constitution was a landmark achievement in the history of Africa and the world for several reasons. As far as global significance, the document is one of the earliest declarations of human rights. Its importance to Africa is demontrated in three main achievements. First, it established uniform laws and regulations over a significant portion of West Africa for the first time in recorded history. Second, it afforded uniform rights for all citizens including women and slaves, unheard of in many parts of the world. Third, it is uniquely African in that it does not directly borrow from any existing law documents as opposed to the Ethiopian Fetha Negest. The prominence of the Mandinka in West Africa allowed the ideas and values within the Kouroukan Fouga to spread far beyond the borders of the Mali Empire. Many peoples related to the Mande still abide by its traditions.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...4/IMGP3212.jpg








http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/j...n/P4090560.jpg











http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/j...30834_6683.jpg






Significant People
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...Mansa_Musa.jpg
Mansa Mali

Mansa Mali was known best for his legendary pilgrimage to Mecca. Mansa Mali (who's true name is Mansa Kakhan Musa, Mansa Mali means King of Mali), set to show the world the splendors of his empire, as well as his piety and devotion to Islam and it's teachings.

Mansa Musa was accompanied by a caravan consisting of 60,000 men including a personal retinue of 12,000 slaves. The emperor himself rode on horseback and was directly preceded by 500 slaves, each carrying a 6 pound staff of solid gold.


Mansa Musa's prodigious generosity and piety, as well as the fine clothes and exemplary behaviour of his followers, did not fail to create a most favourable impression. The Cairo that Mansa Musa visited was ruled over by Al-Malik an-Nasir. The emperor's great civility notwithstanding, the meeting between the two rulers might have ended in a serious diplomatic incident, for so absorbed was Mansa Musa in his religious observances that he was only with difficulty persuaded to pay a formal visit to the sultan because he was not focused on politics but instead learning and faith. The historian al-'Umari, who visited Cairo 12 years after the emperor's visit, found the inhabitants of this city, with a population estimated at one million, still singing the praises of Mansa Musa. So lavish was the emperor in his spending that he flooded the Cairo market with gold, thereby causing such a decline in its value that, some 12 years later, the market had still not fully recovered.


Upon his return he brought back several architechs from all over the islamic world to help a massive building campaign in his own country.
Mansa's trip was so legendary, maps of that era featured his picture holding a nugget of gold in the area that is Mali
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...9mansamusa.jpg











Abubakari II

Abubakari is probably the most controversial emperors of the Sudanic empires. Abubakari was a man more concerned with sailing then statesmanship. Upon observing the Niger River, and comparing it to the Atlantic Ocean, Abubakari begun to ask his scholars whether, like the river, the atlantic had another side to it. (This was over 100 years before columbus).

Almost all that is known about Abubukari outside of oral tradition is from Musa Mali himself. Musa (who came after Abubakari) explained to an audience in Cairo, that he had become king after the king before him had left the throne and did not comeback.


He explained that first, in 1310, the emperor financed the building of 200 vessels of men and another 200 of supplies to explore the limits of the sea that served as empire's western frontier. The mission was inconclusive, and the only information available on its fate came from a single sailor who refused to follow the other ships once they reached a "river in the sea" and a whirlpool. According to Musa I, his predecessor was undeterred and launched another fleet with himself at the helm. In 1311, the previous ruler temporarily ceded power to Musa, then serving as his kankoro-sigui, or viceroy, and departed with a thousand vessels of men and a like number of supplies. After the emperor failed to return, Musa became emperor.



The Mansa's exact words as written by Ibn Fadlullah al-Umari (1300-1348),

The ruler who preceded me did not believe that it was impossible to reach the extremity of the ocean that encircles the earth (meaning the Atlantic): he wanted to reach that (end) and was determined to pursue his plan. So he equipped two hundred boats full of men, and many others full of gold, water and provisions sufficient for several years. He ordered the captain not to return until they had reached the other end of the ocean, or until he had exhausted the provisions and water. So they set out on their journey. They were absent for a long period, and, at last just one boat returned. When questioned the captain replied: 'O Prince, we navigated for a long period, until we saw in the midst of the ocean a great river which flowing massively. My boat was the last one; others were ahead of me, and they were drowned in the great whirlpool and never came out again. I sailed back to escape this current.' But the Sultan would not believe him. He ordered two thousand boats to be equipped for him and his men, and one thousand more for water and provisions. Then he conferred the regency on me for the term of his absence, and departed with his men, never to return nor to give a sign of life.





And this was true. Abubakari left his throne to join a fleet of 2000 ships headed for the new world after a previous 200 he has sent sunk due to what historians record as a hurricane (proof as to how far into the western atlantic the first fleet had reached).

The preparation for the journey included carpenters, smiths, navigators, merchants, potters, jewelers, weavers, magicians, diviners, thinkers, and all branches of the mandinka military. Every vessel tugged a supply-boat with food for two years, dried meat, grain, preserved fruit in ceramic jars, and gold for trade. Key Ships would communicate with drummers, all communications were coordinated from the leading ship of the fleet


There are numerous amounts of proof indicating that though Abubukari's fleet did not return, many of it's ships had reached the new world.
Lopez de Gomara and Peter Martyr d'Anghier give accounts of the presence of Blacks, looking like those of Africa, in Central America in the early 16th century.The Garifuna are alleged to claim that their African ancestors came to the Americas before Columbus. It was also found that a tribe on the coast of brazil had used spears tipped with gold. When the gold was examined, it was reported to have originated from the coast of Gambia in west africa, a then part of the Mali Empire.

Nautical feasiblity
In 1969, Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian adventurer crossed the Atlantic ocean from the North African port of Safi, arriving in Barbados, West Indies. His craft was made by local Africans of indigenous papyrus. For his journey he relied on the southbound Canary Current off the coast of the Iberian peninsula and the western coast of Africa, and the Northeast Tradewinds that blow westward towards the Caribbean region. The voyage has been suggested to indicate that it was technically possible to cross the Atlantic in medieval western Africa


The story, until recent times hand been kept under wraps be modern day Mandinka themselves because the believed it was disgraceful for a king to abandon his throne.




Mali's decline was triggered by a lineage of poor leaders after Musa Mali. The empire also begun to fracture as once conquered areas had become strong enough to demand independance. While the empire fought several civil wars, hordes of nomadic arab tribes from the north begun to invade the empire leading it to dwindle to the size of modern day Mali. The former empire was so, as was the fate of Ghana before it, conquered by a new West African power, Songhai.

good looking out. very informative and level-headed. i always bigged up the West African polities.

That was your most usefull post ever tsa, good lookin out for the lost african empires...interesting stuff....

SONGHAI
1375-1592
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...06/songhai.png

The Songhai Empire was the largest pre colonial african empire of all time, and rose in the late 15th century, spanning until the 16th, though it had existed as a smaller state since the 1tth century under the rule of Mali in the Malian province of Gao. When the Mali empire had fell, the Songhai ethnic group declared independance and created and empire the would eventually envelope it's former master.

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/SonniAli.jpg

Leader and Military commander, Sonni Ali took advantage of the decline of the Mali empire, leading his armies on a series of conquests. His empire expanded to eventually eclipse Mali, covering a kingdom that encompassed more landmass than all of western Europe and, to date, was the largest empire that Africa has ever seen.




Sonni was also an efficient warrior who, in the 1460s, conquered many of the Songhai's neighboring states, including what remained of the Mali Empire. With his control of critical trade routes and cities such as Timbuktu, Sonni Ali brought great wealth to the Songhai Empire, which at its height would surpass the wealth of Mali.

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...onniAliGOD.jpg

Ali did not impose Islamic policy on non-Islamic peoples and instead, allowed and acknowledged the observance of traditional African religion and practices as well. Mainly due to his violent sack of Timbuktu, in many Islamic accounts, he was described as an intolerant tyrant. Islamic historian, Al-Sa'df expresses this sentiment in describing his incursion on Timbuktu:

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...nghaiwomen.jpg

Sonni Ali entered Timbuktu, committed gross iniquity, burned and destroyed the town, and brutally tortured many people there. When Akilu heard of the coming of Sonni Ali, he brought a thousand camels to carry the fugahd' of Sankore and went with them to Walata..... The Godless tyrant was engaged in slaughtering those who remained in Timbuktu and humiliated them.

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...onniAliGOD.jpg

In Oral tradition, he is often known as a powerful magician. Whatever the case may have been, Sonni's legend consists of him being a fearless conqueror who united a great empire, sparking a legacy that is still intact today. Under his reign, Djenne and Timbuktu were on their way to becoming the greatest centers of learning in the ancient world.

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/Songhai2.jpg

When Sonni Ali passed away, his son, Sonni Baru, took the throne. People worried because Sonni Baru had made it very clear that he was not Muslim, or Islamic. This worried the people because they feared that he would cut off all of the trade with Muslim Islands. Askia Muhammad Toure, the leader of a rebellion against Sonni Baru, over threw Sonni Ali's son. When he took the crown, he changed his name to Askia the Great. Under Askia the Great's rule, education in the Songhai Empire, especially Timbuktu, flourished. He built a university in Timbuktu for students. Djenn‘e also became a center of learning.



Economy
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...iMerchants.jpg
Safe economic trade existed throughout the Empire, due to the standing army stationed in the provinces. Central to the regional economy were the gold fields of the Niger River. The Songhai Empire would trade with these nearby but independent gold fields; salt was so precious in the region that the people of West Africa would sometimes be prepared to trade gold for equal quantities of salt. 80 percent of the people lived on small, family-owned farms no more than 10 acres large. The trans-Saharan trade consisted primarily of gold, salt, and slaves. The Julla (merchants) would form partnerships, and the state would protect these merchants, and the port cities on the Niger. It was a very strong trading kingdom, known for its production of practical crafts as well as religious artifacts.

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f...ds/songhai.jpg
The Songhai economy was based on a traditional caste system. The clan a person belonged to ultimately decided their occupation. The most common castes were metalworkers, fishermen, and carpenters. Lower caste participants consisted of mostly non-farm working slaves, who at times were provided special privileges and held high positions in society. At the top were nobleman and direct descendants of the original Songhai people, followed by freemen and traders. At the bottom were war captives and slaves obligated to labor, especially in farming. James Olson describes the labor system as resembling modern day unions, with the empire possessing craft guilds that consisted of various mechanics and artisans

Unlike Mali, Songhai, had established a national currency and reasources were not the sole property of the ruler.


LAW
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Mud_Mosque.jpg
Criminal justice in Songhai was based mainly, if not entirely, on Islamic principles, especially during the rule of Muhammad Ture. Ture appointed various ministerial positions, notably the minister of foreign relations, who was responsible for the well being of the Korei-Farma, or "white minorities".

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p.../whitedude.jpg
(tho "white minorities" probably referred to Jews, arabs, and light skinned africans from the north)

Cadis worked at the local level and were positioned in important trading towns. The Assara-munidios, or "enforcers" worked along the lines of a police commissioner whose sole duty was to execute sentencing. Jurists were mainly composed of those representing the academic community; professors were often noted as taking administrative positions within the empire and many aspired to be Cadis

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ople-Niger.jpg
Upper classes in society converted to Islam while lower classes often continued to follow traditional religions. Sermons emphasized obedience to the king. Timbuktu was the educational capital. Sonni Ali established a system of government under the royal court, later to be expanded by Askia Muhammad, which appointed governors and mayors to preside over local tributary states, situated around the Niger valley. Local chiefs were still granted authority over their respective domains as long as they did not undermine Songhai policy.




Tax was imposed onto peripheral chiefdoms and provinces to ensure the dominance of Songhai, and in return these provinces were given almost complete autonomy. Songhai rulers only intervened in the affairs of these neighboring states when a situation became volatile, usually an isolated incident. Each town was represented by government officials, holding positions and responsibilities similar to today's central bureaucrats.
Under Askia Muhammad, the empire saw increased centralization.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g5...s/DSCF0344.jpg
He encouraged learning in Timbuktu by rewarding its professors with larger pensions as an incentive. He also established an order of precedence and protocol and was noted as a noble man who gave back generously to the poor. Under his Islamic policies, Muhammad brought much stability to Songhai and great attestations of this noted organization is still preserved in the works of north african writers such as Leo Africanus.





By the time Songhai was nearing the end of it's Zenith, coastal africans had begun increased contact with europeans, mainly the portugese. It is noted by historians that at that time, no european power was strong enough to overpower the Songhai empire, and in dividing zones of influence, the domain of Songhai was purposely left untouched.

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/f.../Song-euro.jpg
(lol at Negroland)

Songhai, more then any other Sudanic state, represented a buracratic and complexed modern state. Songhai was militarily more powerful the Mali, more organized, modern, and also more wealthy. Unfortunately the state of Songhai fell into turmoil when king Askia Dauoud died and failed to leave a successor. This incited a civil war for the throne. Seizing on the oppurtunity left by the strife, King Mansaur of Morocco commenced an invasion of the vast empire. The Moroccans, armed with superior guns and canons, were able to ransack Songhai (and by inheritance, Mali's) greatest centers of learning Gao, Timbuktu, and Djenné. Governing so vast an empire proved too much for the Moroccans, and they soon relinquished control of the region, letting it splinter into dozens of smaller kingdoms.


These smaller states were therefore easy pray when for when the europeans divided Africa and begun full colonization. Since the Dutch, British, and Portugese had made no claims to Songhai due to it's size and difficulty to conquer and govern, claims to the former Songhai empire when to the french, which renamed the region "French West Africa".
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...nialafrica.jpg

Post colonial africa saw the single Sudanic Empire concept all but vanish as members of the former french colony splintered and formed the new states of Mali (named after the empire) Maurtanian(home of the Moors-or Maurs-that ruled spain), Niger, Gambia, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...rica_small.jpg

The Fulani would be the 4th, but they're technically not considered.

They're a lot like the mongols, meaning they didn't really have a uniformed "empire" they took lands and became the ruling class of various tribes in the area as well as spread Islam, but they would adapt to the tribe they were in and were never really a "civilization", just nomads that can kick ass and dug Allah.



Today in Nigeria the president is Fulani. The Fulani took over the Hausa(another noteable west african empire, second largest collection of books in the ancient world after the Library of Alexander was burnt down and Timbuktu was the only competitor)


Today the Hausa are the underclass and the Fulani are the upperclass in North Nigeria, as well as the other places they're at. The Emir of Kano (hausa) capital is Fulani (though it's an hausa city) and so forth.


Being Igbo i have beef with those homos also.

lazy faggots.


Im not fond on the Songhai either, they just kinda came in and achieved G.O.D status cause Mali had already set it up for them. Kinda like the Vatican coming in and achieving G.O.D status on what roman had established for them.

nevertheless Sonni Ali > Caeser.

eurotrash typically think that they have a long history of colonial rule in Africa, but with the Council of Berlin, they only held it down for a handful of decades, and mostly they held the coastal areas and cities - scared stiff to invade elsewhere. they ruled through the existing political frameworks rather than truly colonizing the continent. they only completely colonized Africa on paper.

also they're bitches.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by "...."

eurotrash typically think that they have a long history of colonial rule in Africa, but with the Council of Berlin, they only held it down for a handful of decades, and mostly they held the coastal areas and cities - scared stiff to invade elsewhere. they ruled through the existing political frameworks rather than truly colonizing the continent. they only completely colonized Africa on paper.

also they're bitches.

---

thats how the euro colonial empires worked. they jus sucked all of africa's resources from them. there was never a reason to take a large army into the middle of a desert to fight a battle they would probably lose.

nice thread tsa, always good to kno about empires and their actual impact on the world.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by "...."

eurotrash typically think that they have a long history of colonial rule in Africa, but with the Council of Berlin, they only held it down for a handful of decades, and mostly they held the coastal areas and cities - scared stiff to invade elsewhere. they ruled through the existing political frameworks rather than truly colonizing the continent. they only completely colonized Africa on paper.

also they're bitches.

---

AHAHHAHAHAHAH!

VERY true actually. Until the council of Berlin Europe really had no power what so ever in africa outside of south africa. It was militarily impossible for europe to have conquered africa up until the point of WWII, and by they then were too busy with Hitler.


Also, the climate is unbarrable for europeans, they tried establishing "european quaters" in countries like Nigeria, but they would die young because the people there had an immunity to malaria that europeans didn't.


Also, it's not taught, but most of the "colonization" was established as trade deals and were nothing but that. For instance, the europeans with tell the africans supply us with gold and well build schools and roads, that that's what happened. They would just tell the rest of the world that they "owned" those territories.

it was in WWII, when African found out that they Europeans didn't consider then soverign that the massive move of independance started, and when it did europeans couldn't really do anything about it because they had no real military control of africa(which is impossible to do). That's why if you look at when countries achieved independance, the vast bulk of them, infact almost all of them did it in the 60s and 70s.

but still, "colonization" was really a system of trade deals, when actual military attempts were tried, a lot of them failed such as the british war with the Ashante, italys with Ethiopia, and so forth.

is basically europe took africa on a date, made out, then the next day told everyone he got the skinz

then when african found out, it was over.

bump, this thread is like U-God, it doesn't get the respect it deserves

Very informative. Gratitude to you, TSA.

http://img29.picoodle.com/data/img29...1m_fdb39c7.jpg