4 Songhai Empire to the 21st century Su2014

From the Songhai Empire to 2014

Languages: Niger-Congo family

• Mande– Manding• Bambara

– Soninke• Senegambian– Fulani (Fula, Peul)

Nilo-Saharan Languages

• Songhai

Tuareg

Afro-Asiatic Languages

• Semitic– Arabic

• Berber– Tuareg

(Tamahaq/Tamaceq)

Race and Color

7,000 bp

Y Chromosome

Olalde, Iñigo, et al. "Derived immune and ancestral pigmentation alleles in a 7,000-year-old Mesolithic European." Nature 507.7491 (2014): 225-228.

Artist’s reconstruction Two ‘ancestral’ alleles for skin pigmentation[3% and 0% in modern Europeans]Based on modern Europeans 67-82 % chance of non-brown eyes

Songhai Empire

Gao Ancien and Saney - Two Cities

Gao Saney and Royal Cemetery

Gao Saney Residents

Deduced from Arabic inscriptions in cemetery• Indigenous people• Muslim Berbers from North Africa

Gao Saney: Trade and Industry

• Occupied ~ 700 CE• Reworking glass– Glass from Asia

• Copper crescents– Copper from Tunisia?– Currency?

Copper Crescents

Gao AncienLocation

Pillared Structure (Royal Palace or Mosque?)

Gao Ancien, imported and local pottery

Carnelian Beads, nearby source?

Sonni Ali

1434 Tuaregs invade and take GaoThe Tuaregs: Chief Akil gives administration of Timbuktu to an aide but withholds customary payments

1468 Help from Sonni Ali sought. Ali captures Timbuktu1475 Capture of Djenne

General tolerance of non Muslim practice

Askia the Great (~1443-1538) (b. Muhammad Toure)

General in Songhai army1493 Takes over the throne to establish an Islamic stateExpands empireNotable hajjExpel or force conversion of JewsBrings in jurists and encourages scholars

Tomb of Askia the Great, Gao, 1495

Leo Africanus 1500 Description of West Africa

Europe becomes aware of African civilizations; Redraw the maps.

Here are great store of doctors, judges, priests, and other learned men, And hither are brought divers manuscripts or written bookes out of Barbarie, which are sold for more money than any other merchandize. The coine of Tombuto is of gold without any stampe or superscription : but in matters of smal value they use certaine shels brought hither out of the kingdome of Persia.The inhabitants are people of a gentle and chereful disposition, and spend a great part of the night in singing and dancing through all the streets of the citie.

Last years of the Songhai Empire

• Imam/qadi Al Aqib (active 1570-83)– Rebuild Sankore, Djingareyber and Sidi Yahia

mosques• Ahmad Baba (1556-1627)– Scholar, writer and teacher in Timbuktu and

Morocco

Trade – Songhai Empire

• Continue gold/ivory/ostrich feathers/civet salt/copper/ trade

• Manuscripts North Africa• Kola nuts rainforest Sahel and North Africa• Textiles North Africa• Paper Italy

1591Moroccan defeat of Songhai Empire

Trade

• Slaves to Morocco• Decline of trade routes• Coastal states trade directly with Europeans• Trade w. north bypassed the Sahara– Main product traded for gold - cloth

• Traders move south of former empire

Manuscripts and Libraries

Subject Matter Topic %

Language 11.9Devotion 33.9Islam 17.6Sufism 6.9Geography 0.2Economics 5.3Education 1.4Conduct & Ethics 5.0History 4.6Social Science 6.9Science 5.3Medicine 0.9

Timbuktu, astronomical tables

Timbuktu, Music & Genealogy

Tarikh al-Sudan (History of Songhai), written 1655, copied 1792

Timbuktu, arithmetic, 18th century

TimbuktuDisease and Cure

Rules of Arabic SyntaxIn the form of a poem1861 copy of 13th C. work.

The Rights of the ProphetCopy of 12th C. work

1728 Hadtih, Djenne

Use of Arabic Script (Ajami)

• Became widespread in 18th century• Part of jihad• Invent new letters to express sounds present

in native languages but not Arabic

Verse guide to learning the language of the Fulani people

Other Cultural Centers

• Chinguetti, Mauritania– 13th C. mosque– Libraries from 18th century

• Boutilimit, Mauritania– School and library established

by Shaykh Sidiyya "al-Kabir" (1774–1868)

Sufism

“Doing what is beautiful”“Sufism explains how Muslims can strengthen their understanding and observance of Islam in order to find God's presence in themselves and the world.” [Oxfrod Islamic Studies Online]

Sufism

• Organized into brotherhoods• Marabout – religious leader– Functions: teaching; promoting Islamic culture;

leading community prayer; and performing rites connected with curing the ill, preventing misfortune, and soothsaying.

• Tijaniyyah: Social reformers; jihadists

Manuscript poemTijaniyyah, early 20th C.

Sufi ‘Saints’

Believed to have power or divine blessing to work miracles such as foretelling the future, mind-reading, flying, treating illness

Believed to work miracles even after their death.

Djenne, Mausolea by Mosque

Shrine/tomb of Sufi saint, Timbuktu

18th Century West Africa

René Caillié

• First European to return from Timbuktu (1828)

Plan and Front of the House of Sidi Abdallah Chebir, in Which Mr. Caillié Resides

Timbuktu 1828

1840’s ‘Jihadist’ States

Tukolor Empire

Colonial Period

French Foreign Legion fort, Moroccan Sahara

Sahara Today

Algeria: Oil and Gas

Routes and No-go zones

Trans-Sahara Trade Today

• Cocaine – Fishing boat S. America to Guinea Bissau etc.– North to Mediterranean

• Arms– South from Libya

• Uranium ore– Niger

Legacy of the Slave Trade

• 25-50% of North African female pool is made of typical sub-Saharan lineagesHarich et al.: “The trans-Saharan slave trade – clues from interpolation analyses and high-resolution characterization of mitochondrial DNA lineages.” BMC Evolutionary Biology 2010 10:138

• Mauritania: Haratins, “ones who have been freed,” descendants of the ‘Black Moors’– “slavery may affect up to 20 percent of the population in

both rural and urban settings”(Quoted in http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/210740.pdf)

Tuareg - Morocco

Libya

TuaregMali

Berber (Tamasheq) speakers

• Tuaregs (rouges)– Lighter skinned; higher

status– Livestock owners

• Bella – Darker skinned– Blacksmiths; former (?)

slaves; employed as herders

Resettlement of nomads, attacks and exile

Sahara Insurgents

• AQIM (Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) • Ansar Dine – Tuareg - fundamentalist

• MNLA (National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad)– Tuareg - secular

• MUJAO (Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa)– Breakaway from AQIM From International Criminal Court ‘Situation in Mali’

The Future?Trans-Sahara Highway Project

2013 2018 Goal

Border crossings Algeria/Niger:62 vehicles/day Niger/Chad: 18 vehicles/day

Algeria/Niger: 116 vehicles/dayNiger/Chad: 76 vehicles/day

Time for the conveyance of goods from Southern European ports to the cities of Northern NigerAlgiers-Arlit ~2500 km

40 days 18 days

Trans-Africa Highways - North Africa

Resources

• Chad - fishery resources of Lake Chad, • Niger - uranium mined in Arlit, Niger, • Southern Algeria - natural gas and oil • Argument: Highway improvements would lead

to better social services• Hindrances: Borders, political instability