Overview:
In the period between 400 A.D. and
1591 A.D., West
Africa witnessed the rise and fall of the indigenous medieval empires of
ancient Ghana, medieval
Mali, and
Songhai. Although many other
smaller states and kingdoms arose in the region during this time, only
the above three achieved the status of fully-fledged, functioning and
long-living conquest states and expansionist empires.
These civilizations regulated the
Trans-Saharan trade by offering protection
for trade caravans as well as taxing slaves, gold, firearms, textiles and salt that they
carried.
By the 5th century
Ghana had arisen and
reached its height by 1200 AD. It was ruled by the
Serahule people and eventually broke apart in the 13th
century.
The
Mali Empire included
Ghana’s territory
and extended it in the 13th century. It was a Mandinka
territory and at its height covered an area of over 24,000
sq. km. In
this period, the city of Tombouctou became a world-famous centre of
commerce and education.
Mali declined in the 14th
century and was succeeded by
Songhai, which grew to be the
largest land empire in tropical Africa. It originated as a
small territory located on the Niger river known as Al-kawkaw.
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Background:
The peoples of the various areas of Western Africa have
been connected to one and other by trade routes since antiquity.
Prior to the advent of camels in North Africa in around 300 AD,
trade took place over comparatively short distances, employing
the use of the horse, donkey or other beasts of burden to
transport loads.
However, by the 5th
century CE camels had become the main type of transport in the
Sahara Desert. This was a vital development for more rapid and
efficient trade in the region as the animals had a number of
advantages over oxen and other beasts of burden. Camels could
carry the same load as oxen, but at a constant pace over a much
greater distance in sand, enduring hot daytime temperatures and night time
cold, and requiring much less drinking water.
 Growth in Trade:
As the
centuries passed,
North African Berbers and other peoples crossed the Sahara, linking up
with traders from the south, whose own desert caravan
routes crossed the coastal and riverine trade networks of
other peoples. These interconnecting networks promoted
long-distance trade in certain commodities such as salt, gold, iron, kola nut, spices, including
Black African slaves. The major trade goods
were desert salt from the north which were required to preserve food
and supplement diets. These were exchanged through the barter
system for food, gold and slaves from the southern tropics.
At the southern
edge of the Sahara, local, regional, and
long-distance commerce was made possible by progress made in the
field of agriculture which allowed specialisation in other occupations
besides farming.
In the first millennium CE, small trading
settlements, growing with the caravan traffic, became commercial centres
for craftsmen who worked in leather, ivory, metals, and wood, ivory.
Later the rulers of these cities extended their authority and
influence to other regions of the neighbouring countryside. West Africa
south of the desert was the area of
sub-Saharan Africa’s largest and most sophisticated states in
the period before the 19th century. People could travel and
communicate over long distances either on horseback or foot
across the dry savanna or along the water routes of the mighty Niger
River. And their location between the trans-Saharan trade routes
and the northern parts of commercial networks from
gold-producing areas meant that the great empires of Ghana,
Mali, and
Songhai could profit from the commerce passing through
their territories. They also were influenced to varying degrees
by Islam, which gradually spread through trade to the lands
south of the desert, which the Arabs called the bilad al-sudan,
or "the land of the blacks."
Social Organisation:
West African societies also shared similar types
of social organisation, which made it easier for members of
different kingdoms and chieftaincies to relate to each other.
These societies all organized young men and women into "age
groups," such as the Mandinka's Kafo, who who went through the
various rites of passage
together and could be called upon for communal work
responsibilities. They all recognized secret institutions like
the Poro society, a religious group spread throughout the
western Sudan. And they all conformed to well-known standards of
hospitality and good behaviour for hosts and travelers. Certain
occupational groups, like the Dyula traders,
also cut across geographic and political demarcations. So did the
occupational caste groups of griots,
blacksmiths, and leatherworkers.
Religion:
Religious beliefs and ceremonies were broadly similar among the
peoples of West Africa. Whatever the protocol details, West African
traditional
religion incorporated 4 categories of supernatural phenomena
interacting with each other and with humankind: a
creator god
remote from everyday affairs and difficult to communicate with;
ancestors, who could intercede
with other spirits on behalf of their descendants and the
community at large; spirits
believed to live in the earth, waters, plants and animals; and
amulets, which blacksmiths made to contain the magical
powers of animal, vegetable, and mineral substances.
Islam spread
steadily in this religious context, brought along by traders and
scholars and focused its activities and influence in the cities. Rulers of West African
kingdoms welcomed Muslim administrative help
as Muslims were the only people who were
able to read and write and this ability enabled them to better
organise their administration more effectively. Royal power also rested on traditional African
religion, which held that spirits of the land ensured
agricultural success and ancestors made contacts with spirits of
the land. Most West Africans who had contact with Islam simply
added Allah to the existing pantheon of gods, without seeing any
contradiction. The result was a spectrum of beliefs which rulers
patronised in the interests of political and social and
co-existence.
Just as Ibn Battuta had observed the king of
Mali celebrate the
end of Ramadan in the morning and listen to bards in bird-head masks
sing his praises in the afternoon, so a ruler of Jenne is said to have
constructed a mosque which he split into two areas, one for
Muslims and one for pagans.
By the final years of the
Songhai
Empire, such religious contradictions contributed to political
fragmentation. The Trans-Saharan trade continued however, joined after about
1,500 CE by the ever growing European slave trade on the Atlantic
coastline. |
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Mansa Musa on the throne
(Mali civilization). |
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