Songhai People - The journey of the Songhai People

Songhai People

     The Mali Empire is renowned worldwide, and most people have heard of their most famous and wealthy ruler, Mansa Musa. But when the Mali Empire fell in the 1460s, a new power began to rise: the Songhai Empire. The Songhai people established themselves around 800 CE before the Mali empire was founded. They settled both banks around the middle of the Niger River and centered their community around the city of Gao. Gao became their capital in the 11th century under the reign of Dia Kossoi, the first Dia – or King – to be recorded in history. 

Map of the Songhai empire

     Dia Kossoi converted the Songhai to Islam in 1010 CE, although historians theorize that this religious conversion was to aid relations with Berber traders. This speculation is based on evidence that non-Muslim customs were still prominent in Dia Kossoi's court after his commitment to Islam. After Kossoi died, the Songhai expanded their capital and cemented their control of the trans-Saharan trade route. The Songhai prospered and grew to such an extent that they caught the eye of the Mali Empire in 1325 when Mansa Musa led campaigns to take control of Gao and the Songhai's trade access. Ultimately, the Songhai Empire proved too large for the Mali empire to govern effectively. 

     In 1335, the line of Dia rulers ended and was replaced by the Sunni or Shi. The death of Mansa Musa in 1337 led to the decline in the influence of the Mali empire, which soon fell into civil wars. In the 1430s, Songhai gained independence from Mali. In 1464 CE, Sunni Ali came to power. The Songhai had expanded slowly up to this point, with small and sporadic raids on their enemies. Sunni Ali orchestrated a more organized campaign with the purpose of permanent expansion of the Songhai territory. His skills as a military leader and tactician united the Songhai and successfully protected their empire against invasions from the Tuareg in the north and the Mossi in the south. 

     Sunni Ali masterminded the army's reorganization, adding a fleet on the Niger River to supplement the ground forces. The land army included an elite cavalry who wore iron breastplates under their tunics and had a reputation for being fast and fearless. Foot soldiers were equipped with bows and arrows, spears, and shields made of either copper or leather. They captured the best men from their defeated enemy forces, who were then invited to join the Songhai army. 

    The Songhai army was the largest in western Sudan, totaling 30,000 infantry and 10,000 horsemen. They used strength and speed to overwhelm their enemies, quickly conquering the surrounding territories. Sunni Ali also used brutality to cement his rule, executing many subjects of the Fulbe tribe who were particularly resistant to his rule. The army brought Songhai great economic wealth with the trade points it captured, but it also brought in literal wealth by plundering those they overthrew. Sunni Ali supported the expansion of the Songhai with political marriages, strategic hostages, and control over the conquered tribes in the form of extracting tribute. 

     Under Sunni Ali, the Songhai empire prospered, becoming wealthy through successful military campaigns and control of trade routes. In 1468, Sunni Ali conquered Timbuktu, which was well known in the ancient world as an important trade point and center for learning. Its position on the Niger River made Timbuktu a valuable river port. Sunni Ali continued the empire's expansion, taking another popular trade port, Djenne, in 1473 and dominating the lake areas of the middle Niger, a region west of Timbuktu. He continued to repel the Massai, successfully defending Walata in 1480. Sunni Ali reigned for twenty-eight years and waged thirty-two wars, winning every one. 

     However, he was not solely concerned with warfare and did also improve the infrastructure by building many dykes to enhance irrigation and agricultural output. By this time, the Songhai had conquered most of the Mali kingdom, becoming the largest empire in West Africa. Sunni Ali used his image as a magician of the local pagan religions to inspire fear in his enemies. However, throughout his reign, he sought to appease the Muslim city dwellers – whose wealth and knowledge greatly enhanced the empire – as well as the pagan cattle farmers. 

    Despite trying to please all the religious factions, Sunni Ali only managed to alienate himself from them. The Songhai farmers felt he should prioritize the pagan religions of his people, and the Muslim scholars thought of him as "tyrannical, cruel, and impious." After Sunni Ali died in 1492, his son Baru succeeded him. Baru sided with the pastoralists, which upset the Muslim scholars. 

    As a result, he was deposed by Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr Ture. Muhammad may have descended from a Senegalese family that settled in Gao. Oral tradition holds that he was Sonni Ali's nephew, his sister's son, and a supernatural being called a jinni. In April 1493, Muhammad and his forces defeated Baru at the Battle of Anfao. Muhammad changed the title of Sunni to Askia – supposedly to ridicule the daughters of the Sunni who had said a si tyn – "he will not be." Unlike his warlike predecessor, Sunni Ali, Muhammad was more of a statesman. He divided the Songhai empire into provinces that were each overseen by a governor. He also created many official governmental positions, most of which his friends and family filled. 

    The new line of Askia royalty was based in Gao and assumed absolute power, and they wanted to show it in every way they could. Askia Muhammad sat on a platform surrounded by seven hundred eunuchs and only allowed people to approach him in a prostrated position. Unlike previous Songhai rulers who used some Muslim traditions to gain traction with traders and city-dwellers, Muhammad attempted to convert the Songhai to an Islamic state. He established Islam as the official religion of the nobles, but most of the rural Songhai people kept their traditional beliefs. 

     Most Songhai followed animist beliefs that everything in the natural world has a spirit, especially caves, trees, and prominent natural features. To the Songhai, the most important spirits to appease were Harake Diko – a spirit of the Niger River – and Dongo – a spirit of thunderstorms. It is not surprising that the Songhai revered these natural phenomena, as river trade and rain were essential to their livelihoods. Around this time, the Songhai empire was at its peak. Due to the 200,000-strong army stationed in the provinces, safe economic trade existed throughout the empire. Taxes were collected to ensure security for those under the Songhai, both inside and outside their territory. 

    The Songhai achieved domination over trans-Saharan trade, which solidified its influence and power in the region. The government was centralized by creating an elaborate bureaucracy, and standardizing the weights and measures ensured the homogeny of the Songhai culture. The financial stability of the Songhai empire was due to the goldfields of the Niger River, which provided a steady stream of gold. These fields were kept out of the hands of Sunni Ali by the Portuguese, who established a trading post in modern-day Ghana. This gold was then bartered for salt, a precious commodity in West Africa that was sometimes literally worth its weight in gold. As Songhai dominated the trade in salt and gold, it became the clear leader of the trans-Saharan trade system. 

    One of the goods the Songhai empire exported was, the Songhai didn't just trade in gold and salt, and Gao became a cosmopolitan market town in which goods were exchanged. Copper, arms, glassware, horses, cloth, sugar, and salt were exchanged for ivory, spices, kola nuts, fragrant woods, palm oil, and enslaved people. Enslaved people had a key role in the Songhai kingdom. The Songhai nobles used forced laborers on their large estates to farm, fish, and raise animals for milk, meat, and skins. Village farms often had enslaved workers to help keep up food production for the growing populace. Some Songhai rulers used enslaved people as royal advisors, as their guidance was seen as unbiased since they could not personally benefit from the decisions being made. Other palace slaves were craftspeople and musicians. 

     Under Askia Muhammad, slaves were also soldiers, as they were trusted not to rise up against their rulers. Despite the many successes of his reign, Muhammad ended his reign embittered and half-blind, and in 1528 he was deposed by his eldest son Musa and banished. His children quarreled over power during the next decade until another of Muhammad's sons – and his third successor – Askia Ismail, invited him back to Gao in 1537. 

    The next year, Muhammad died and was buried in a tomb in Gao. This tomb still stands and has been classed as having outstanding universal value by UNESCO. Ismail only ruled for one year before Askia Issihak succeeded him. These dynastic squabbles were briefly interluded by a peaceful and prosperous period under the rule of Askia Dawud in 1549. However, the detrimental effect of the ineffectual and power-hungry rulers had already started causing the vast Songhai empire to shrink gradually. The edges of the kingdom, especially in the west, began to shake off Songhai control. Morocco started to gain power and set its sights on the riches of the Songhai empire. After Askia Dawud's reign ended in 1582, the Moroccan leader, Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur, initiated raids on the salt deposits of Taghaza. In a few short years, the Moroccan campaign would bring the empire to its knees. 

     In 1586, a rivalry between Mohammad IV Bano and his brothers essentially split the empire in half. But it wasn't just dynastic conflict that put an end to this once mighty kingdom. As with many indigenous empires during the 16th century, advances in weaponry were the ultimate cause of the fall of the Songhai empire. 

     Around 1590, Ahmad al-Mansur of Morocco, the self-proclaimed "Golden Conqueror," sent a small force of approximately 4,500 men to attack the Songhai. The Songhai army of roughly 9,700 infantry and 12,500 cavalry greatly outnumbered the Moroccan forces, but the Moroccans were not armed with spears and arrows as the Songhai were. The smaller Moroccan force easily defeated the massive Songhai army with superior firearms. 

     Despite a few ineffectual Songhai uprisings, all of the Songhai's wealth and trade assets were seized, and Songhai became part of Moroccan territory. Just like that, the largest empire in western Africa collapsed. Weakened by rulers who only sought the power of the position and not the responsibility, the final blow came in the form of gunpowder. But as the empire collapsed, the Songhai people persevered. 

     Nowadays, around three million members of the Songhai still inhabit the area around the great bend in the Niger River. Their territory extends from the mouth of the Sokoto River in Nigeria to Lake Debo in central Mali. Nomadic Songhai groups also live in southeast Algeria, Niger, and Mali. The Songhai encompasses many related groups, including the Zarma, with over two million speakers.

     The Songhai still engage in small-scale cattle farming, fishing, and cultivating crops, including cereals. However, many young Songhai are now leaving the traditional lifestyle and moving to areas like Ghana on the coast. At its largest, the Songhai empire extended to the Atlantic coast and into Niger and Nigeria, making it the largest of the three West African empires, with Mali and Ghana following, respectively.