Chapter IIIc: A History of West Africa
Wherein we indulge our nostalgia
(and myself a bit)
Part One
In times long lost to the ages, the Sahara was not the dry waste that it is today. Indeed, it was suitable for grazing, with monsoon seasons and bodies of water. Humans left some of their first marks on the landscape of the planet here - a stonehenge in miniature stands in the middle of the desert today, and people first began to erect monuments, bury their kings, and make markings on rocks. Meanwhile, far to the north, the vast ice sheets that once covered the northern half of Europe had gradually receded, and tenacious descendants of that small group of wanderers who had left Africa long ago went about colonizing Europe systematically.
Then, as they always do, things changed. A massive shift in the ocean currents brought less moisture to North Africa, grazing had weakened the roots of grass and reduced the great lakes. The planet warmed in general, the ice sheets in the north receded yet more and the monsoons moved south. Fleeing the all-to familiar problem of the advancing desert, our ancestors by and large took to the coasts, only a small number staying behind. They fled to the last remnants of what the Sahara once was: Lake Chad (though chad just means lake!), the banks of the Nile and the Niger, and the rain shadow of the Atlas mountains along the coast of the Mediterranean.
The pace of change would start to pick up for the whole of humankind, as more and more plants began to be domesticated. So began the Neolithic Revolution - and things would never be the same. Agriculture was invented independently (probably) in Sub-Saharan Africa, along the Sahel - however today no one is certain exactly where or when.
But the site for the oldest West African settlement is a little easier to determine. See Dhar Tichitt, in what is now Mauretania, a site (or rather group of sites) which dates to 2000 BC. In those times the Sahara had not yet grown to its present size, and the Sahel extended somewhat further north. It was here where a small community of people built settlements out of stone and others out of clay. The reason for this architecture was of course the climate. The dry, heavy stone structures served well in ancient Mauretania's rainy season, while the others, of which little remnant survives today, were lower in elevation and closer to where watering holes would be during the dry season.
The people who built Dhar Tichitt were largely pastoral peoples, but they also cultivated millet, which is an important crop throughout all of Africa. Unfortunately, their settlement would not last long. The Sahara, as it always does, advanced and made their area uninhabitable within their means.
Whether it began in Mauretania or elsewhere along the Sahel, soon the agricultural revolution was underway in Africa. But it was a different sort of agriculture, and it had come late. African soil was often coarse and dry, and African crops (aside from millets. especially pearl millet) were less efficient as food staples than grains and rice. Take yams, for example, a (minor) food staple in some parts of Africa for thousands of years. It is extremely labor intensive to harvest, spoils easily and often, and has lower nutritional value than cereals. Yams do have one advantage though: they can grow year-round, making them an ideal food to have around in case of emergency.
Regardless of its relative efficiency, the combination of agriculture and domestication of draft animals creates a necessity and demand for metallurgy - and necessity is the mother of innovation. Ironworking would be developed independently of the rest of the world in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1st millenium BC (though possibly earlier), and in fact the Haya people of Tanzania were among the first in the world to forge steel. (Tanzania is of course, not West Africa, but it deserves an honorable mention) Before too long sophisticated cultures and states were forming in Africa as the pace of change advanced faster still.
Among the oldest of these civilizations would be the Nok culture of Nigeria, emerging in 1000 BC, which are most known for making masterful terra cotta sculptures, figures of men and animals, highly stylized. Because of the material they were made from, relatively few survive today, however they were made in such large numbers that a few have stood the test of time. Little else survives of the Nok besides the furnaces they used to forge iron tools, and the remnants of those tools. Their culture vanishes abruptly around 500 AD.
Another such civilization would be the Sao, a people who originated in the Nile valley (as many West African peoples do - there was a migration from the Sudan in ancient times. The migration is related in various cultures' oral traditions, and in most cases has been confirmed by later DNA testing.) The Sao were not a central kingdom or empire however, instead divided into many city states around what is now Chad and Cameroon. They were skilled metalworkers and like the Nok, made figures out of terracotta. Also like the Nok, their culture would vanish - but instead its city states split into more than half a dozen new cultures that eventually would form a big part of the Borno Empire.
The first millenium AD picks up the pace of change in West Africa yet again. Many things happen at once. In West Africa, the empire of Wagadu - known more commonly as Ghana - emerges. Tribes in Nigeria begin a centuries-long migration to colonize and conquer the rest of the continent: the Bantu Migration. New crops are introduced and new ideas come from far away places - but also new challenges. At last strong centralized states begin to appear at a scale never before seen in Africa.
Of these Ghana must be discussed, and may its primacy reflect its importance to West African history, because Ghana (henceforth Wagadu) changed the region forever. One of the big ways it did this was through domestication of the camel in the region. Though it was not Wagadu that did it, they would come to exploit it. With camels it became possible to cross the vast desert - and so began the perilous but lucrative Trans-Saharan trade routes - the lifeline of commerce upon which many a West African king depended upon and fought to protect and strengthen. Hundreds and even thousands of camels at a time would dare to cross the Sahara in grand expeditions, seeking the aid of Berber and Tuareg guides (whose kinsmen often served as waylayers) to lead the party through, following pre-planned paths along oases. Eventually they would reach the cities of North Africa, the westernmost expansion of the Islamic faith, and they would barter.
West African exports included dozens of goods, but most important among them were gold, ivory, kola nuts, and slaves. In exchange West Africa "imported" Islam, and with it, to some extent, the Islamic Golden Age, as well as textiles, salt, and mercenaries.
The spread of Islam in West Africa strengthened the Trans-Saharan trade, and ties between the kings of West Africa and the sultans of North Africa and the various caliphates - but these ties would come to weaken Wagadu, which was not an Islamic country since its foundation. In the 11th century the Almohads seized the city Aoudagoust - the most important West African city for the Trans-Saharan trade - but new gold deposits found in Bure in tandem with the turmoil caused by the Almohad wars drove trade southwards towards the Mandinka in the city of Niani, as well as eastward toward Lake Chad.
But the fall of Wagadu would lead to the Golden Age of Western Africa.
The power vacuum caused by the weakening of Wagadu and the drive of trade south caused the rise of the Sosso Empire, which conquered Bure and Niani and repelled the Almohads. They even captured the former capital of Wagadu - Koumbi Saleh - along with much of what Wagadu once controlled, and then some.
The Sosso Empire would not last forever. The Sosso had briefly taken control of what would someday be the Mali Empire, during the reign of King Sumanguru, but these gains would be quickly reversed during the Battle of Kirina in 1235, during which the Mandinka prince Sundjata Keita soundly routed the Sosso and marched onto their capital, proceeding to burn the city to the ground, and usher in the Mali Empire - perhaps the most familiar name in West African history.
(Note: there are many ways to render the names Sumanguru and Sundjata.)
Soon it was Mali that controlled the trade routes, and grew immensely wealthy from it. Malian trade was privileged, as Mali was an Islamic empire from the outset. So inconceivably legendarily rich was Mali that Musa Keita, also known as Mansa Musa, embarked on the Hajj - the pilgrimmage to Mecca that each Muslim promises to make at least once in his life. He set across the Sahara with an expedition of more than 10,000 camels (and supposedly 60,000 men, including slaves, but I have my doubts). He paid for everything in the expedition out of his own pocket, and his journey is well documented by eyewitness accounts of those who were in complete awe of his wealth. A pious man, along the way to Mecca, he built mosques (supposedly, funding one a week) and donated money to the needy, and even met with the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt. His generosity inadvertently damaged the economies of North Africa however, as the influx of large amounts of wealth in a short time space devalued the currency and shot up the prices of wares. A single man perhaps has not had so much wealth in the history of humankind, save perhaps for Crassus, the Roman senator. But of course, it is hard to get a good fix on the exact extent of Musa's riches.
Musa's travels brought the tales of West African kingdoms through the Islamic World and beyond. The word 'Timbuktu' to this very day is more familiar than Mali itself. Its connotation is that of a mythical, unknown place at the edge of the world, and disgustingly wealthy. But fewer people know that Timbuktu is a very real place. Over the course of the golden age of West Africa, Timbuktu changed hands from empire to empire and kingdom to kingdom, but eventually it found itself in the hands of the Songhai, during the reign of king Askia the Great. More on that soon.
Mali's achievements culminated in more than just wealth. Malian engineering worked to fight against the threat of the ever-encroaching Sahara desert. Techniques were developed to reclaim the desert and make it productive farmland again. And of course, the military prowess of Mali cannot be ignored - the kings of Mali were capable of raising tens of thousands of soldiers including cavalry.
Such might was necessary, as Mali was far from alone. In addition to the aforementioned Songhai there were Berber slave traders launching raids from the north, Mossi cavalry raiders from Burkina Faso, regional powers like the Wolof Confederation, the Hausa states, the Fulani kingdoms, and other smaller kingdoms. With the 14th century Mali declined in power (relatively) while Songhai rose to even greater prominence. The two powers, along with Kanem Bornu to the east and to a lesser extent Benin along the coast, would remain locked in a power struggle until about 1600, with the other minor kingdoms and tribes in the area forming alliances with one or the other. Whenever these conflicts disrupted trade in the west, it would move east towards Lake Chad, but as the Ngazargamu-Tripoli was the less efficient route for trade across the Sahara, the west was preferred, and would recover each time.
As West African kings grew strong and wealthy off of the Trans-Saharan trade and through their extensive contact with the Islamic world, Songhai (pronounced as Songay) began to establish its West African hegemony, conquering much of Mali, strong-arming the Hausa states into submission, and establishing control over the key points of the trade going north. Soon came the reign of Askia the Great, one among very few African kings to receive such a title in English. And of course, Askia deserved it. He was a gifted administrator, creating an effective bureaucracy for the Songhai kingdom, but he was also a strong general and expanded his cavalry arm. But these things are not uncommon for kings. What made Askia great was the flowering of culture that occurred under his reign and the escalation of trade with Europe and Asia. It was also a time for learning. The legacy of Askia lives strong today: there are estimated to be literally hundreds of thousands of medieval manuscripts contained in the libraries of Timbuktu, most of which have not been studied. And this despite thousands being burned by Tuareg rebels in 2012 (A tragedy I'm sure many of you aren't aware of). The most notable such library was the University of Sankore. Its existence predates Askia, but Askia's reign made it a world-class institution, and it collected knowledge from all over the world. Scholars at Sankore wrote books on Islamic law which still see some use today, as well as chronicles about Africa, which are indispensable to us today.
In addition, Askia encouraged trade by initiating a systematic policing and consolidation of trade routes, making the journey less risky. A standardized system of measurement was also made, and the tax system was reformed: spearheaded by a bureaucratic system that was formed on a pragmatic rather than purely Islamic basis. All of this was made possible by Askia's personal friendship with Songhai's scholars and artists - many of the most prominent in his empire had a close relationship with their king. All while going on a warpath that created the largest empire in West African history. Eventually, after a nearly thirty-year reign, Askia was unfortunately overthrown by his son.
Askia's reign was cut short, and so too would the power of Songhai, and with it, the Golden Age of Medieval West Africa. For once again, as they always do, things were changing.
Crisis gripped the North African coast. War, desertification, and other minor factors contributed to the weakening of North African sultans, and in turn weakening the profitability of the Trans-Saharan trade, when the North side of things had always been stable and reliable. But in addition to this, Europeans, specifically the Portuguese, arrived in force. The Portuguese were much wealthier than sultans of the Maghreb, and had more interesting things to offer - essentially, they would pay much more for West African gold and other goods (like slaves eventually), and would still be able to provide the salt that the people needed. The presence of Portuguese feitorias such as those at Elmina and Fernando Po drove trade away from the Sahara and towards the coast.
Trade is, arguably, the most powerful force in human history - it causes wars, changes cultures and languages, spreads technology, and causes shifts in the balance of power. With the coasts taking on pre-eminence as the centers of trade, soon it was the coastal kingdoms, which had long been second-rate by comparison to the likes of Mali or Songhai, that were the power centers of West Africa. Among the many states that emerged along the coast, perhaps the most notable was Benin (pronounced Beh-neen). To learn of Benin we must return to Nigeria, but along the way you will hit a wall. Literally. The Walls of Benin were built over the course of several centuries, and probably reached their maximum extent around the year 1500. In terms of length, it is longer than the Great Wall of China (because it zig-zags) but it is much shorter in terms of height, and constructed out of earthworks, not stone. Some of the walls still stand today, however they were ravaged by the British in colonial times.
Speaking of walls it is worth mentioning that many larger cities (and some smaller ones) in West Africa were indeed fortified. Many settlements were chosen purely for their defensiveness: take the Dogon people, who built their old cities atop plateaus and in cliffs, because they got tired of Berber slave traders. And take the remnants of these walls around the Hausa city-state of Kano, one of the most powerful in its time:
In 1579, the Portuguese king Manuel I lead an army on campaign into Morocco. The campaign was a disaster, and Manuel himself was slain at the Battle of Alcacer-Quibir, and the Portuguese army annihilated. The succession crisis in Portugal allowed Philip II of Spain to form what is now known as the Iberian Union, merging the empires of Portugal and Spain and creating one of the single largest maritime empires in human history - and one whose influence stretched across the entire African coast. In the 1580s, the Moroccan sultan, Ahmad al-Mansur, of the Saadi dynasty (a very interesting era in Moroccan history, by the way) found himself broke after the war with Portugal. He knew there was lots of gold in West Africa - he also knew that West African kings had neglected to take advantage of new military technologies, for one reason or another. He also knew that the Trans-Saharan trade had declined to the point that camel caravans were far smaller than in the past, and only occasionally seen. Well, okay, who can say for sure what he knew or didn't know. The end result is that Sultan Al-Mansur sent an army across the Sahara to attack the West Africans and pillage their stuff. The army was relatively small - only 5,000 men, but it was a modern army with guns and cannons.
The West Africans knew of guns - they had traded for some with the Portuguese (as well as North African sultans) but underestimated their capabilities - and anyway were not self-sufficient enough to make proper, en masse use of them. That would change, but only after the Africans got a solid demonstration of the power of firearms, a demonstration the Moroccans were keen to give them. After a 6-month trek across the desert, the Moroccan army looted the salt mines of Taghaza and caught the attention of the king of Songhai. The Songhai mustered ~25,000 men to defeat the Moroccans.
The two armies met near Tondibi, a cattle pasture. The Songhai no longer had the military genius of Askia and in general had declined since that time, and so their battle plan was poorly thought out - or at least it was in hindsight. It seems like a reasonable plan if you've never seen an army of arquebusiers before. The Songhai planned to drive the local cattle in a stampede towards the enemy army, and when the Moroccans were sufficiently scattered, the Songhai's infantry would cut them down and the cavalry would pursue any who fled.
The plan backfired. The Moroccans' loud, thunderous guns scared the cattle stampede into changing direction - changing direction straight into the Songhai army. Instead it was the Songhai who were scattered and unorganized - but the charge was ordered anyway. The infantry were cut down by Moroccan gunfire and repulsed after several charge attempts. The infantry arm of Songhai's army fled and dispersed - the Moroccans had won. But there was still the matter of Songhai cavalry to deal with. The Moroccans nonetheless advanced onto Timbuktu, Djenne, and Gao, the three largest cities of the Niger and the Songhai Empire at that time. They occupied each of them and ransacked the cities. For quite some time, those cities remained distant territories of Morocco, which sucked the wealth of West Africa northwards through them, but eventually it became too logistically difficult (read: impossible) to maintain enough control over areas so distant and across so hostile a climate, and eventually the Moroccans withdrew on their own.
Now it would be criminal to go on without elaborating on the aforementioned Kanem Bornu Empire. The area of Lake Chad, the lifeline of Kanem Bornu, began to grow in pre-eminence again as the west fell into turmoil once more. The name itself is a bit of an anachronism - there was the Kanem and Borno empires, but they are largely just different stages of the same empire, both ruled by the Kanembu people. Lake Chad itself is one of the last enduring relics of what the Sahara once was. Coincidentally enough, the civilization that emerged around lake Chad - first the Sao, mentioned before - would be one of the most enduring in Africa, and indeed the world. Despite internal religious strife, constant declines and resurges of trade across the Sahara, desertification and war, Kanem Bornu was still strong.
What had previously been the heartland of West Africa was ravaged by Morocco and declining in wealth due to the transfer of trade towards the coastline. Although what remained of the Trans-Sahara trade would naturally move to the Ngazargamu (capital of Kanem Bornu) to Tripoli (in Libya) route, it was also the less optimal route across the Sahara. Cue the rise of Mai (Kanembu for king) Idris Aluma (Again, many ways to render his name).
During his reign, Kanem Bornu would rise to the very zenith of its power. Much like Askia the Great, the Mai was a gifted statesman but also an innovative military leader. One of his innovations were permanent, walled military camps, and the use of scorched earth tactics (not common in Africa). His army had long made use of armoured knights supported by Berber mercenary camelry - but perhaps most notably, the first proper introduction of firearms into an African army. This was made possible by the Mai's proactive approach to diplomacy with the other side of the Sahara trade route - Libya, which was controlled by the Ottomans in his time. The Ottomans in response sent a 200-man expedition from Cairo to seek an audience with Mai Aluma. They were welcomed to Ngazargamu, and left behind military advisers and gunsmiths. Soon Kanem Bornu's armed forces included iron-helmeted musketeers armed and trained in the Ottoman fashion.
But also like Askia, he did more than simply run his state well. He took an avid personal interest in trade and economic matters. His chronicler, Ahmad bin Fartuwa, gave the Mai credit for the construction of better roads, better boat designs for Lake Chad, as well as land reforms to help farmers and introducing standard measurements for grain. He did much of this in the spirit of Islam, and he was very pious. It was said his dream was that "a lone woman clad in gold might walk with none to fear but God." and to this end went to great lengths to improve security and ease of transit through the empire and make trade great again. Like Mansa Musa, Idris made a pilgrimmage to Mecca, and made arrangements so that pilgrims from Kanem Bornu might be better accommodated there.
Working tirelessly, Idris restored some small part of the Trans-Sahara trade, but unlike the empires of the Niger he did not have access to the seemingly infinite amounts of gold from Bure or Aoudaghost. Nonetheless many products were sent north: cotton, ivory, kola nuts, perfume, wax, elephant hides, ostrich feathers, and natron - a salt-like substance used to make Egyptian faience, and as a form of detergent and cooking aid (today many of these roles have been replaced by other sodium compounds). Perhaps the most profitable trade good however was slaves. In return, Kanem Bornu imported salt (naturally, as this was always in short supply in West Africa), horses, silk, glass, muskets, and copper.
Although Kanem Bornu was reaching the zenith of its power, becoming wealthy and strong, the Golden Age of West Africa was over. Songhai and Mali collapsed in the face of the Moroccans, and were succeeded by smaller states and kingdoms which were not their equal by any measurement.
But of course, as is their wont to do, things change.
To be continued!
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