States and Socities in Subsaharan Africa

STATES AND SOCITIES IN SUBSAHARAN AFRICA HIST 1301 | History The Mali Empire The breakup of the Ghana Empire, accelerated by the fall of the Islamic Almoravid power in modern-day Morocco in the middle of the twelfth century, was most advantageous to the kingdom of Sosso. However, the Sosso Kingdom did not last long; in 1235, Sundiata Keita overthrew it. After capturing Koumbi Saleh five years later, Prince Sundiata (also spelt Sunjata) laid the groundwork for the creation of the greatest and richest Mali Empire in the history of mediaeval Africa. By the twelfth century, Bure, in the savanna land to the southeast, had replaced Bambuk as the primary gold source in West Africa. This change brought new populations into the vast West African Sudanese commercial network, including the southern Soninke and Malinke speakers of the savanna, and removed Ghanaian monopoly over trans-Saharan commerce. The first people to fully exploit these altered conditions were the Sosso, a subgroup of the southern Soninke. They separated from Ghana at some point about 1200, founding a new empire ruled by their sorcerer-king, Soumaoro. Their Sosso Kingdom had a terrible reputation for cruelty throughout its brief life by attacking and subjugating other countries, assassinating their monarchs, and obtaining tribute. The southern Malinke-speaking Mande people were raided by the Sosso army in the 1220s, and in 1224 or so they launched an attack on the northern Soninke people of Ghana, taking their city. A survivor of one of Soumaoro's assaults, Prince Sundiata of the Keita clan organised a number of the tiny Mande kingdoms in the area and brought them together to oppose the incursions. Generations of bards have passed down the deeds of Sundiata Keita, a nearmythological character in the Mande oral tradition. Around 1235, Sundiata began to bolster his authority over the Mande people's stronghold, which was centred on the upper Senegal and Niger Rivers. He then sought to annex all the Soninke peoples that the Sosso had just vanquished in order to increase the size of the kingdom of Mali. A large portion of the old kingdom of Ghana as well as its ostensibly autonomous vassal republics, Mema and Wagadu, were included in their realm. The administration of these recently acquired lands was frequently done so covertly, installing benevolent puppet governments to carry out the wishes of the Malian king. This political move incited animosity among some of the Malian vassal nations, such as Takrur and Songhai. Sundiata persuaded the other Malinke monarchs to cede their mansa title to him in exchange for establishing coalitions against the Sosso. As a result, he was designated as the only mansa, the Malinke people's religious and political leader. He had established a sizable domain in a few short years. Its imperial capital was conveniently located at Niani, close to the Bure goldfields in the upper Niger valley's southern savanna region. During Sundiata's reign, the Mali Empire stretched from the southwest's wooded borders, to the Malinke and southern Soninke's grassland savanna, and finally reached the Sahel, which is now part of Ghana. The once-important trading hub at the westernmost point of trans-Saharan commerce, Awdaghost, was controlled by nomads and lost its significance to Oualata, which is now the primary southern desert port for trade across the Sahara. The acquisition of the Sahelian trading cities, which connected the local economy to the extensive trans-Saharan commerce, was more important to the Mali monarchs than the conquest of the numerous chiefdoms and petty kingdoms scattered throughout the grasslands. These towns, which included Oualata, Gao, Timbuktu, and Djenné, were important targets. One of the key elements of Mali's varied economy was control over the towns and the commercial routes that connected them. Other elements were access to the Bure goldfields and the agriculturally wealthy rural areas, especially those surrounding Niani in the south of the nation. In contrast to Ghana, Mali's southern savanna received greater rainfall, which made it easy for the country's farmers to produce enough food to feed the country's people. The empire was divided into regions that were focused on particular crops. For instance, rice thrived in the Gambia valley and the area surrounding the upper Niger floodplain, while sorghum and millet grew on the savannah. In the meantime, camel, sheep, and goat grazing was the primary use of the drier and more northern Sahelian grasslands. For the kings of Mali, maintaining control over the gold-producing towns may provide difficulties. The gold supply in Mali was threatened when a monarch captured an area and tried to propagate Islam among the gold producers who refused to convert and stopped mining. The Malian kings let the gold regions to continue as semi-independent vassal republics because they constituted a significant threat to the imperial economy. Events occurring in other parts of the world supported the gold trade in Mali. As the mediaeval economy recovered, gold coins were once more being produced by European nations. Merchants from southern Europe tried to purchase gold from their colleagues in North Africa in order to fulfil the increasing demand. At the same time, traders brought gold to the Middle Niger towns by opening new trade routes that led southward into the goldfields of the Akan forest (in modern-day Ghana). The trans-Saharan gold trade reached its pinnacles in the fourteenth century thanks to these advances north and south of Mali. The Mali Empire's heyday is symbolised by Mansa Musa's 1324–1325 trip to Egypt and Mecca. The most wellknown Malian monarch, Mansa Musa, was said to be extraordinarily wealthy. He is reported to have travelled to Cairo at the head of a massive caravan that had 100,000 warriors, 5,000 prisoners, and 100 camel loads of gold. As a fellow Muslim, Mansa Musa was treated with great reverence by the Egyptian monarch, who gave him so many presents that the value of gold in Cairo plummeted and did not rise again for a period of twelve years. The voyage of Mansa Musa attracted the interest of individuals from Spain to Syria, among them the Muslim geographer Ibn Battuta, who visited Mali under the reign of his brother Mansa Suleyman after years of travelling around Asia. The story of Ibn Battuta has grown to be a key source of information about Mali in the fourteenth century. Abraham Cresques, a Majorcan cartographer, included a picture of Mali in The Catalan Atlas in 1375, indicating the country's continued renown in the fourteenth century. One of the maps features an enthroned Mansa Musa and partially portrays the trading routes of North Africa. His golden sceptre and crown declare him to be a king. He is holding an enormous chunk of gold in one hand, which attests to the richness of his realm. "The black lord is named Mussa Melly, lord of the Blacks of Guineas," the caption says. Due to the large amount of gold that has been extracted from his territory, this monarch is the most wealthy and honourable lord in the entire nation. The Mali Empire's monarch determined its power and prosperity. A succession of feeble emperors, short reigns, and dynastic civil warfare exposed the empire to invasion in the late fourteenth century. The mansas of Mali were no longer able to retain unopposed control over the trade routes that were vital to their survival due to their diminished authority. Mali abandoned Timbuktu and Gao in 1438 due to opposition from the Mossi people in the region south of the Niger, Tuareg invasions north of the Niger bend, and frequent uprisings by the Songhai people, who ruled the city of Gao (on the periphery of the empire). Mema, one of the kingdoms that had allied with Sundiata, broke away and regained its independence at the same time. Mali was still in charge of the Mande heartland and the adjacent southern plains despite being weakened. But the profitable commerce across the Sahara was starting to come under the jurisdiction of the newly developing Songhai Empire, centred on Gao.