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GREAT EMPIRES OF THE WORLD
BY: Henry Kweh Cooper
Generally, it has been accepted by scholars and scientists today that the continent of Africa is where mankind first saw the light of day. In other words, it is recognized as the original home of man. Nevertheless, the tragic misconceptions of historical thought have always been the belief that Black Africa had no history before the arrival of Europeans. The acceptable concept had widely been that the continent was a barbarous and savage continent torn by tribal warfare for centuries. It is always thought of as a continent of no trace of civilization or culture. In fact, one author put it this way: “Before the Europeans arrived during the fifteenth century, Africa was mostly isolated by its geography from other centers of human activity.”
It was not until recently that more reliable studies have brought to light much information about great civilizations that developed in Africa while Europe was in the period often referred to as the Dark Ages. The earliest of these mature civilizations were in West Africa. These were towns and cities well organized which in period of time grew and became great empires. Namely, the Sudan (an Arabic word meaning, “land of the Black”) was important in the early history of the continent, because the African first practiced agriculture in this region, and of course, became the first people south of the sahara to master the use of iron tools and advance weapons. These Sudanese were also among the first people in Africa to organize viable economic and political systems. Before even the arrival of Christianity, these agriculture people had learn to domesticate crop that provided for the ever expanding population and nearby regions.
The region was not only known for its advancement in using iron tools, good soils, and the transport afforded by the Niger River that enabled agriculture and provided for a rapidly growing population and active trade northward across the Sahara, but it is famous and highly-respected for its educational system. Highly-respected universities in the entire Moslem world were established in the important towns of the western Sudan. For hundreds of years, these Sudanese cities contributed to the growth of Moslem scholarship and scientific interests. While Europe was in its “Dark Ages,” Timbuktu became the greatest center of learning in the world. In fact, this period in the western Sudan is sometimes referred to as “the glorious age in Africa”. These people were also among the many states and kingdoms in the world that established a unique economic system. Commercial success was at its highest peak in the Sudan. The people had credit system as well as inter-empire banks. Their reputation of wealth and power soon spread far beyond their borders. The gold and salt trading were among the wealth building economy system these Sudanese had. Pilgrimages of emperors were some of the power-driving attractions in the Sudan. For instance, it is said that on separate pilgrimages to Mecca, two West African emperors dispensed more than $10,000,000 (ten million dollars) apiece in charity. The news of this event alone boosted the economy from every corner of these great empires.
With this background, then, we will begin our journey into the history of the Western Sudan, visiting in turn the ancient empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. These Empires were a series of states that were formed starting about 900 C. E. in the bulge of West Africa below the great Sahara Desert.
Ghana, the earliest of these ‘Sudanic’ states known to history, lay just north of the gold-bearing river valleys of the upper Niger and Senegal, a region which became known to the Arabs as Wangara. This Empire lasted for about two centuries before it fell apart. It was created by the Soninke people in the tenth century and had a very strong early root in Islam. As a matter of fact, this empire is mostly made known by Islamic writers. This region had always had a very strong tie with the Islam world up to today. Islam contributed the Arabic script and language to the Sudanic empires, which became known as a center of learning and culture.
The name ‘Ghana’ was the name given to the kings (obviously became the name of the state). Kumbi became its capital. By the year 300 A.D, Ghana had been ruled by over forty kings. These rulers and kings possessed great authorities, and led praiseworthy lives on account of their love of justice and friendship for the Muslims. These kings were attributed divine powers. The king was not to be though of as any common man. He gave public audience from behind a curtain; not even the most intimate of his courtiers was to see him eat or drink. He was never to die of natural death. His health determined the fertility of the land. Since Ghana is said to have been a pagan empire, their worship surrounded sun-gods, moon-gods, mother earth and the king. At the voice of the king, the people felt face in dust as they worship by pulling dust on their heads.
Al Ghaba was where the king lived while Kumbi was its commercial capital. It is very clear that in government, the Muslims dominated. It is also understood that this empire only lasted for so long because of its mighty army. Speaking of its military strength, the king had over 200,000 men of which 40,000 were bowmen. The army used iron weapons to ensure the power and authority of the emperor. Even so, surely enough, the presence of this mighty army ensured the people of their peace and security as well as stability of the realm. We get to know that until the invention of firearms, the mighty African warriors of the Sudan were never conquered.
Trade was extremely important to the life of Ghana. It was also a very important factor in the spread of the Muslim faith in West Africa. The state revenue derived from taxes levied on trade. For every donkey loaded with salt that entered the country, the king took a duty of one golden dinar, and two dinars from every one that leaves. There is no doubt that a fair number of the native Soninke of Ghana became wealthy through the trans-Saharan trade. The Moroccans best knew Ghana and termed it as ‘the land of gold.’ The Sahara was a fertile land before it became a desert barrier. How and why did people cross the Sahara once its expanse became so forbidding? Rock paintings, depicting horse-drawn chariots in the Sahara, reveal one mode of transportation. This is not surprising because this form of transport was common in the Mediterranean area in biblical times. One of the reasons for crossing the Sahara or for sailing along the coast of West Africa as the Phoenicians occasionally did was the quest for metals, the most important and valuable of which was gold. This empire had a magnitude of business on the trans-Saharan route. Ghana traded other materials such as ivory, skins, copper, salt, and kola-nuts apart from the gold trading. The people took the gold and salt trading very seriously since it was a highly profitable one for both North African merchants and Sudanese middlemen. Gold was mined in remote areas and brought by middlemen to the towns. There was a production and an export tax. The supply of gold on the market was well controlled. This way there was a fair price and profit for both middlemen and merchants. Also, to secure their business with the North African merchants, they never dreamt of revealing the source of their gold. These merchants never had access to the gold mines: these mines were kept as deep secret by Ghana which controlled the whole gold traffic. The best gold found in this land came from the town of Ghiyaru, which was eighteen days traveling from the city of the king. Besides gold, Ghana offered ostrich feathers, and later slaves for goods that came from the outside world.
Ghana, like other great empires of the world, did not fall: it crumbled. It gradually declined from the position it had preserved over the centuries. For years Ghana’s wealth had been an object of jealousy among its neighbors. This long century’s control of Ghana over the Western Sudan finally came under threat in the earlier ninth century. Just like any other great kingdom, the end of this great empire derived from within. It down-fall came from people that lived in it and learned its weakness and became those jealous neighbors. After many battles from the Almoravids ( Moslem Berber) to bring about the end of the supremacy of Ghana, its political and economic system was never its old self again. The Almoravid invasion was a big blow to the prestige and position of Ghana in the Western Sudan. By the middle of the 1300s, visitors from outside were never told about of Ghana because it was then gone with its temporary memory.
After the fall of Ghana, the Mandingo State of Mali became the successor power in West Africa. Before this medieval state was able to succeed Ghana as the major kingdom in the Western Sudan, the people of Mali first had overcome the challenge of their pagan rivals, the Sossos. It would take a man of extraordinary ability, courage, and determination to lead Mali to victory over the Sossos. Certainly for these Mande people, who were closely related to the Soninke of Ghana, such man was available just in time of the need. Sundiata was that man. He became a legend and a lasting part of the rich heritage of West Africa. He just could not take ‘no’ for an answer when it came to defending his position. When speaking of war, he was talking of after his victory. Under his rain, Mali also became one of the richest farming regions in West Africa. He is sometimes said to have been the founder of Mali. Sundiata was not just the one man at the right time, a well known man also showed up when he was deeply needed. Musa Mansa, who was well known in Europe, Asia and the Middle East because of visits and pilgrimages, was the prestige of Mali during the Medieval. Under these Musas (as the royal were called) Mali became larger and better organized than Ghana. These Mansas reigned from 1312 to 1337 and became the most famous of Mali’s emperors. One of these Mansas; namely, Mansa Musa was the most famous among these emperors not only of his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324-25, because after all, anyone could go to Mecca. Great attention was attracted to him because of his standard of living, his manner and style of traveling, his display of immense wealth in gold and boundless generosity that flabbergasted those who saw him and set tongues wagging about him all over the world. He went through cities like Cairo while on his way to the holy city giving generous presents and gifts of gold. He gave so much gold that the people of Cairo earned incalculable sums. Musa gave so much that the price of gold fell by about twelve percent in all the cities he passed through. Lavishly Mansa Musa gave to charity in Cairo and Mecca so that he ran out of funds in the end and had to raise a loan before he could return home to the Sudan. He was shown great respect at all the places he visited in the Middle East. People still sang the praises of the Mali emperor after roughly sixteen years. The name of this emperor echoed in all of Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa many years after his death.
Like Ghana, Mali relied heavily on the taxes imposed on the Saharan traders in three vital commodities: gold, salt, and slaves. By the close of the fourteenth century, the Mali Empire had achieved greater wealth and power than Ghana.
Mali last only for about two hundred years. At the time of the death of Mansa Musa, the Empire of Mali stretched to it farthest limits. To administer and keep together such a large empire required great skill and wisdom, and Mansa Musa had these qualities. As long as he was alive, the empire remained intact, but after his death less gifted emperors sat on the throne, and this great empire began to disintegrate.
The great days of Mali began quickly after the death of Mansa Suleyman. The end of the glory of Mali was not far away when Mansa Djata was given the throne. He recklessly spent everything that the empire had. Mali finally soon counted for little in the Western Sudan by 1468, when Sonni Ali, king of Songhai, began to overrun it altogether.
Songhai, like the empires of Ghana and Mali which preceded it, emerged in the savanna region of West Africa. Timbuktu became its capital city. This city which had long been burned to the ground during the ‘Mansa Mali Period’, now reached new height as a center of scholarship. Just as Ghana had a mighty army, this empire is often called “The Mighty Empire of Songhai.” The chain of conquests which forged a great Songhay Empire began with the recapture of Timbuktu around the year 1468. Shortly after the addition of Jenne, the Songhai Empire replaced its long time rival, Mali, as the dominant power in the western Sudan. Timbuktu became the major trade and administrative center. By the turn of the century, the Songhay Empire had become the largest and most powerful state in the entire history of West Africa.
Some of the most important innovations associated with this empire are the establishment of schools, a uniform system of weights and measures, the improvement of banking and credit procedures, reorganization of the armed forces, the promotion of more foreign trade, and the creation of an effective government administrative network throughout the land. Like the empire of Ghana and Mali, Songhai’s wealth was based on trade. Songhai was known as a wealthy and powerful empire with an efficient government and fair legal system.
Great research Henry.
