The Gao Dynasty and Early Songhai

STATES AND SOCITIES IN SUBSAHARAN AFRICA HIST 1301 | History The Gao Dynasty and Early Songhai Several distinct peoples, including the Gabibi, Gow, and Sorko, moved to the Middle Niger region in the seventh century CE in order to subsist off of its plentiful resources. The Gabibi were established farmers who cultivated the rich banks of the Niger; the Gow sought crocodiles and other river animals; and the Sorko were warrior fishers and hippopotamus hunters. Each group had a distinct purpose for using the area. These peoples maintained a relative balance between themselves and their surroundings because of the many ways in which they utilised the river and its resources. The Sorko were in the greatest position to govern the region of all these groups. They learned to navigate the river by using their canoes for hunting and fishing, and they utilised it as a trading route to exchange food throughout this portion of the Niger. They quickly built settlements along the banks to aid in commerce, extending their domain upstream into the Niger bend. The Sorko took control of the neighbouring Gabibi farming community by raiding their granaries and pillaging their towns, all from these trade post villages. With the entrance of a nomadic horse-riding population who spoke Songhai, a dialect of the Nilo-Saharan language family, perhaps in the ninth century, the dynamics in the area shifted. The Sorko, Gabibi, and Gow peoples gradually assimilated the language of their conquerors, and the combined cultures of these groups laid the foundation for the Songhai state, which had Kukiya as its capital. The citizens of the newly formed Songhai kingdom had regular interaction with Muslim traders at Gao in the north as the state came together. The commercial city of Gao was established in the seventh century by African and Egyptian merchants drawn to Ghana by the Bambuk gold trade. It is located near the eastern side of the Niger bend, a location of historical significance to both the Ghana and Mali Empires. It quickly rose to prominence as a crucial connection in the trans-Saharan commerce in salt, enslaved captives, copper, and gold in the eastern and central Sahara. Gao was first mentioned in writing in the ninth century, and by the 870s, it had established itself as a major regional power. Arab explorers had recognised Gao's advantageous position as a crossroads on the trans-Saharan commerce route between ancient Ghana and Egypt by the eleventh century. Gao's demands expanded along with its size. The merchants of Songhai received food from farmers and fishers in return for goods from North Africa, such as salt and textiles. The Songhai monarchs were acquainted with Islam via their interactions with Muslim traders, and in the eleventh century, they converted, becoming one of the first governments in West Africa to do so. The Gao imperial era began with this conversion. Tradition and subsequent historical records indicate that the Za dynasty, who controlled the kingdom in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, was the first dynasty of monarchs of the Songhai state. The Za are a little-known dynasty, and what little evidence there is comes from folktales, the History of the Sudan in the seventeenth century, Abd al-Sadi's account of the Songhai oral tradition, and some gravestone inscriptions from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. AlSadi's history claims that Za Alayaman, who arrived in Kukiya before to the eleventh century, was the dynasty's legendary founder. Za Alayaman was referred to as "king" or malik, as were his immediate successors. The Zuwa dynasty got its name because evidence points to subsequent rulers—possibly from a second dynasty—who had the title zuwa. According to tradition, Kukiya was the capital of the Songhai empire during its first fourteen kings, who were known as jahiliyyah, which means "in ignorance [of Islam]." The dynasty became Muslim at some point in the 1000s, presumably by Za Kusay, who is remembered in the History of the Sudan as Songhai's first Muslim emperor. That timing, however, is disputed. According to contemporary researchers, the Songhai monarchs became Islamic towards the end of the eleventh century when the Sanhaja Almoravids arrived from Morocco. In any case, it was during this time that the kingdom's political priorities changed from Kukiya to Gao. Partly because of its location at the end of the caravan route that links the northern Sahara, Gao developed as the capital of a major Islamized state. Traders and merchants, including the Songhai themselves, profited as items like kola nuts, dates, enslaved captives, ivory, salt, leather, and of course gold flowed through the capital on their journey to and from the kingdom of Ghana. Because of Gao's success, Mali, a young, aggressive West African nation, became interested in the region and conquered Gao in the year 1325. Mali's empire reached its zenith at this time, and during the following century, its rulers made money from commerce with Gao and taxed its monarchs. Gao was referred to as a “great town on the Nile [Niger], one of the finest, biggest, and most fertile cities of the Sudan” by the traveller Ibn Battuta upon his arrival from Timbuktu in 1353. The Mali Empire was momentarily considerably enlarged by the acquisition of Gao. In the 1430s, the Malian rulers of Gao withdrew due to a series of uprisings by the people of Timbuktu, Takedda, and Gao, civil strife, economic hardship, and incursions by Almoravids from the north. Sunni Ali, the rebel commander of the Songhai, rose to become the first ruler of the Songhai Empire. He turned Songhai into one of the most powerful African mediaeval empires. Sunni Ali waged a war of conquest against his Muslim neighbours from his capital city of Gao, located in the centre of the kingdom. The king expanded his realm as far north as the desert and as far south as Djenné by using his vast army of horsemen and fleet of war boats. His relentless pursuit and harassment of the Tuareg nomads led to his conquest of the trading town of Djenné, the Middle Niger floodplain, the Bandiagara uplands, and Timbuktu, the country's major centre of scholarship and religion. Sunni Ali opposed Muslim troops even though he was a Muslim. Arabic historians harshly condemned him for this and his overall disrespect for Islam. "A great oppressor and notorious evil-doer," Sunni Ali "tyrannised the scholars and holy men, killing them, insulting them, and humiliating them," according to al-Sadi in the History of the Sudan. As a result, a large number of Timbuktu's academics left for Oualata, which caused the city's Islamic knowledge to drastically decline. However, Sunni Ali is regarded as the founder of the Songhai Empire, a brilliant general, and a conquering hero in Songhai oral tradition. He made his kingdom richer and made it even wealthier than Mali by controlling vital trade routes and metropolitan regions.