The rise and fall of the Songhai Empire. While the fall is an immediate consequence of the Moroccan invasion subsequent events are dominated by conflicts with the Tuaregs of the Sahara and episodes of 'jihadist' regimes. Colonial powers enter the fray. Timbuktu becomes both a legend and a source of intellectual industry.

1. From the Songhai Empire to
2014

2. Languages: Niger-Congo family
• Mande
– Manding
• Bambara
– Soninke
• Senegambian
– Fulani (Fula, Peul)

3. Nilo-Saharan Languages
• Songhai

4. Tuareg
Afro-Asiatic Languages
• Semitic
– Arabic
• Berber
– Tuareg
(Tamahaq/Tamaceq)

5. Race and Color
7,000 bp

6. 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.

7. 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

8. Songhai Empire

9. Gao Ancien and Saney - Two Cities

11. Gao Saney Residents
Deduced from Arabic inscriptions in cemetery
• Indigenous people
• Muslim Berbers from North Africa

12. Gao Saney: Trade and Industry
• Occupied ~ 700 CE
• Reworking glass
– Glass from Asia
• Copper crescents
– Copper from Tunisia?
– Currency?

13. Copper Crescents

14. Gao Ancien
Location

15. Pillared Structure (Royal Palace or Mosque?)

16. Gao Ancien, imported and local pottery

17. Carnelian Beads, nearby source?

18. Sonni Ali
1434 Tuaregs invade and take Gao
The Tuaregs: Chief Akil gives administration of
Timbuktu to an aide but withholds customary
payments
1468 Help from Sonni Ali sought. Ali captures
Timbuktu
1475 Capture of Djenne
General tolerance of non Muslim practice

19. Askia the Great (~1443-1538)
(b. Muhammad Toure)
General in Songhai army
1493 Takes over the throne to establish an
Islamic state
Expands empire
Notable hajj
Expel or force conversion of Jews
Brings in jurists and encourages scholars

20. Tomb of Askia the Great, Gao, 1495

21. 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.

22. 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

23. 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

24. 1591
Moroccan defeat of
Songhai Empire

25. 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

26. Manuscripts and Libraries

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

28. Timbuktu, astronomical tables

29. Timbuktu, Music & Genealogy

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

31. Timbuktu,
arithmetic,
18th century

32. Timbuktu
Disease and Cure

33. Rules of Arabic Syntax
In the form of a poem
1861 copy of 13th C. work.

34. The Rights of the
Prophet
Copy of 12th C. work

35. 1728 Hadtih, Djenne

36. 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

37. Verse guide to
learning the
language of the
Fulani people

38. 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)

39. 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]

40. 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

41. Manuscript poem
Tijaniyyah, early 20th C.

42. 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.

43. Djenne, Mausolea by Mosque

44. Shrine/tomb of Sufi saint, Timbuktu

45. 18th Century West Africa

46. René Caillié
• First European to return
from Timbuktu (1828)
Plan and Front of the House of Sidi Abdallah
Chebir, in Which Mr. Caillié Resides

47. Timbuktu 1828

48. 1840’s ‘Jihadist’ States

49. Tukolor Empire

50. Colonial Period

51. French Foreign Legion fort, Moroccan Sahara

52. Sahara Today

53. Algeria: Oil and Gas

54. Routes and No-go zones

55. Trans-Sahara Trade Today
• Cocaine
– Fishing boat S. America to Guinea Bissau etc.
– North to Mediterranean
• Arms
– South from Libya
• Uranium ore
– Niger

56. Legacy of the Slave Trade
• 25-50% of North African female pool is made of
typical sub-Saharan lineages
Harich 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)

57. Tuareg - Morocco
Libya

58. Tuareg
Mali

59. Berber (Tamasheq) speakers
• Tuaregs (rouges)
– Lighter skinned; higher
status
– Livestock owners
• Bella
– Darker skinned
– Blacksmiths; former (?)
slaves; employed as herders

60. Resettlement of nomads, attacks and exile

61. 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’

62. 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/day
Niger/Chad: 76
vehicles/day
Time for the conveyance of
goods from Southern
European ports to the
cities of Northern Niger
Algiers-Arlit ~2500 km
40 days 18 days

63. Trans-Africa Highways - North Africa

64. 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