Songhai Empire
dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
The Songhai Empire is a medieval civilization thought to have been started in the 9th century as a small principality (in West Africa) located on both banks of the Niger River referred to as Al-kaw kaw by Islamic scholars. In the 16th century it became the largest empire ever to have been created in tropical Africa. The kingdom arose from a fertile area which was very suited for livestock rearing and agriculture. The river was also very suitable for fishing. As early as 800 A.D. the indigenous people of the area made full use of the natural resources of their region and by the time they entered into recorded history, they were already divided into two specialised professional groups, the Gabibi who were agriculturalists and the Sorko who were fishermen. Its borders extended from the central area of Nigeria to the Atlantic coast and included parts of what are now Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Guinea and Mauritania. Its capital was the city of Gao, on the bend of the Niger River in present day Niger and Burkina Faso where a small Songhai state had existed since the 11th century.
This is the third in a series detailing African empires. The Songhai were the successor state to both the earlier Ghanain and Malian empires. The Songhai people are thought to have settled at Gao as early as 800 AD, but did not establish it as the capital until the 11th century, during the reign of Dia Kossoi. However, the Dia dynasty soon gave way to the Sunni family, proceeding the ascension of Sulaiman-Mar, who gained independence and hegemony over the city and was a forbearer of Sunni Ali Ber. Mar is often credited with wresting power away from the Mali Empire and gaining independence for the then small Songhai kingdom.
In the 13th century Gao was a tributary of the Mali Empire and it was in 1275 that Gao managed to break Mali's hegemony over its affairs in a rebellion began by a couple of Gaoan princes who were also Manding military chiefs. Sulayman and Alikolon Narr broke away from the Manding army and drove out them out of Gao and thus established the Za royal lineage. This breaking away however, did not gain Gao complete independence for the time being. Disputes over succession weakened the Mali Empire, and many of its peripheral subjects broke away. The Songhai made Gao their capital and began an imperial expansion of their own throughout the western Sahel. And by 1420, Songhai was strong enough to exact tribute from Masina. In all, the Sunni dynasty would count 18 kings.
The city of Gao lies on the Niger River (photo courtesy of mali muso)
The first emperor of Songhai was Sunni Ali, reigning from about 1464 to 1493. Like the Mali kings before him, Ali was a Muslim. In the late 1460s, he conquered many of the Songhai's neighboring states, including what remained of the Mali Empire. Sunni Ali quickly established himself as the empire's most formidable military strategist and conqueror.
His empire encompassed more landmass than all of western Europe and, to date, was the largest empire that Africa has ever seen. With his control of critical trade routes and cities such as Timbuktu, Sonni Ali brought great wealth to the Songhai Empire, which at its height would surpass the wealth of Mali.
During his campaigns for expansion, Ali conquered many lands, repelling attacks from the Mossi to the south and overcoming the Dogon people to the north. He annexed Timbuktu in 1468, after Islamic leaders of the town requested his assistance in overthrowing marauding Tuares who had taken the city subsequently to the decline of Mali. However, Ali met stark resistance after setting his eyes on the wealthy and renowned trading town of Djenne. After a persistent seven-year siege, he was able to forcefully incorporate it into his vast empire in 1473, but only after having starved them into surrender.
Ali imposed Islam on non-Muslims and forced them to abide by Islamic law. Due to his violent sack of Timbuktu, he was described as an intolerant tyrant in many Islamic accounts. Islamic historian Al-Sa'df expresses this sentiment in describing his incursion on Timbuktu:
Sonni Ali entered Timbuktu, committed gross iniquity, burned and destroyed the town, and brutally tortured many people there. When Akilu heard of the coming of Sonni Ali, he brought a thousand camels to carry the fuqaha of Sankore and went with them to Walata..... The Godless tyrant was engaged in slaughtering those who remained in Timbuktu and humiliated them.
tuareg on horseback timbuktu (courtesy of mali muso)
After taking the throne Muhammad I would be known as Askia the Great, even though he had no real right to be the king. Not only was he not in the royal family blood line, he did not hold the sacred symbols which entitled one to become a ruler. Furthermore, he was most likely a descendant of Soninke lineage rather than Songhay, which mean that by Songhay standards his family background would have not allowed him to be King. But Askia managed to bypass that law and take the throne.
Askia the Great
His policies resulted in a rapid expansion of trade with Europe and Asia, the creation of many schools, and made Islam an integral part of the empire.
He is reputed to be buried in the Tomb of Askia in Gao, a World Heritage Site. Rumor has it that he gained the name Askia (which means forceful one) after Sunni Ali Ber's daughter heard the news of one of his wars
The successor of Sunni Ali Ber, Askia Muhammad was much more astute and farsighted than his predecessor had ever been. The intended successor of Sonni Ali was removed by rebelling Islamic factions. In 1493, one of his generals, Muhammad Toure, later known as Askia Muhammad I or Askia the Great, mounted the throne. He orchestrated a program of expansion and consolidation which extended the empire from Taghaza in the North to the borders of Yatenga in the South; and from Air in the Northeast to Futa Tooro in Guinea. Instead of organizing the empire along Islamic lines, he tempered and improved on the traditional model by instituting a system of bureaucratic government unparalleled in the Weste Africa.
In addition, Askia established standardized trade measures and regulations, and initiated the policing of trade routes. He also encouraged learning and literacy, ensuring that Mali's universities produced the most distinguished scholars, many of whom published significant books. To secure the legitimacy of his usurpation of the Sonni dynasty, Askia Muhammad allied himself with the scholars of Timbuktu, ushering in a golden age in the city for Muslimscholarship.
The eminent scholar Ahmed Baba, for example, produced books on Islamic law which are still in use today. Muhammad Kati published Tarik al-Fattah and Abdul-Rahman as-Sadi published Tarik ul-Sudan (Chronicle(history) of the Sudan(an ancient reference to Africa, not political Sudan), two history books which are indispensable to present-day scholars reconstructing African history in the Middle Ages.
Ahmed Baba Institute in Timbuktu (courtesy of mali muso)
Like Mansa Musa, Askia also completed one of the five Pillars of Islam by taking a hajj to Mecca, and, also like the former, went with an overwhelming amount of gold. He donated some to charity and used the rest for lavish gifts to impress the people of Mecca with the wealth of the Songhay. Islam was so important to him that upon his return he recruited Muslim scholars from Egypt and Morocco to teach at the Sankore Mosque in Timbuktu as well as setting up many other learning centers throughout his empire.
Not only was he a patron of Islam, he also was gifted in administration and encouraging trade. He centralized the administration of the empire and established an efficient bureaucracy which was responsible for among other things tax collection and the administration of justice. He also demanded for canals to be built in order to enhance agriculture, which would eventually increase trade. More importantly than anything he did for trade was the introduction of weights and measures and appointing an inspector for each of its important trading centers. During his reign Islam became more widely entrenched, trans-Saharan trade flourished, and the Saharan salt mines of Taghaza were brought within the boundaries of the empire.
The following are work of scholarship by Africans during Askia's reign
Songhai Empire and Islam.
al-Minnah fi Itiqad Ahl al-Sunnah (The Gift of the Followers of the Path of Muhammad).
Law and Politics in the Songhai Empire.
As'ilat Askiyah wa-Ajwibat al-Maghili (Maghili's Tract on Politics).
Ethical Behavior.
al-Fawa'id wa-al-Qala'id (Useful Stories and Verses)
Philosophical Exchange.
al-Mubin fi Mukhtasar Maani al-Alfaz al-Mutadawilah bayna al-Hukama' wa-al-Mutakallimin (A Summary Explanation of the Pronouncements of the Scholars and Theologians
Unfortunately as Askia the Great grew older his power declined. Askia Muhammad went blind in his old age, and was deposed (removed from the throne) in 1528 by his son Askia Musa at the age of 80. He died at the age of 96.
Following Musa’s overthrow in 1531, Songhay’s empire went into decline. Following multiple attempts at governing the Empire by Askia’s sons and grandsons there was little hope for a return to the power it once held. Between the political chaos and multiple civil wars within the empire it came as a surprise when Morocco invaded Songhay unexpectedly. The main reason for the Moroccan invasion of Songhay was to seize control of and revive the trans-Saharan trade in gold. The Empire fell to the Moroccans and their firearms in 1591. The use of firearms was important because although Askia was such an innovator, he never modernized his army and replaced their weapons with new European firearms, which in retrospect may have given them a fighting chance against the Moroccans.
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*** SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS ***
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Black Kos editors Deoliver47 and dopper0189 will be participating in the panel, Promoting People of Color in the Progressive Blogosphere at Netroots Nation 2010. Along with Black Kos family member shanikka. Rounding out the group will be TexMex and navajo of the Native American Netroots. We will be on at 4:30 PM on Friday July 23rd. We hope to meet everyone who is going there.
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So some people think racial profiling is a myth or is rare? New York Times: A Few Blocks, 4 Years, 52,000 Police Stops.
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When night falls, police officers blanket some eight odd blocks of Brownsville, Brooklyn. Squad cars with flashing lights cruise along the main avenues: Livonia to Powell to Sutter to Rockaway. And again.
On the inner streets, dozens of officers, many fresh out of the police academy, walk in pairs or linger on corners. Others, deeper within the urban grid, navigate a maze of public housing complexes, patrolling the stairwells and hallways.
This small army of officers, night after night, spends much of its energy pursuing the controversial Police Department tactic known as "Stop, Question, Frisk," and it does so at a rate unmatched anywhere else in the city.
The officers stop people they think might be carrying guns; they stop and question people who merely enter the public housing project buildings without a key; they ask for identification from, and run warrant checks on, young people halted for riding bicycles on the sidewalk.
One night, 20 officers surrounded a man outside the Brownsville Houses after he would not let an officer smell the contents of his orange juice container.
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New rules could transform the predatory-lending debate from arguments over anecdotes to conclusions based on hard evidence. American Prospect: An Anti-Redlining Law Gets a Makeover
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When Congress began tackling financial reform, the overhaul quickly became labeled as "historic" and "sweeping," with attention deservedly focused on regulating derivatives, winding down large financial institutions, and creating the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to regulate mortgages and other financial products. But lost in the torrent of news coverage was a significant move to change the way key information on borrowers and mortgage loans is collected and made public. Those changes, to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) represent a benchmark in the long fight against lending discrimination. They could become an invaluable tool for consumer activists, regulators, and researchers trying to identify egregious lenders and their loans. They could transform the predatory-lending debate from arguments over anecdotes to conclusions based on hard evidence.
Or maybe not.
In the crucial rule-making to follow final passage of a financial-reform bill, the HMDA changes could also potentially get lost in the weeds, watered down by industry lobbyists and made public in a format that's difficult to access and hard to use. The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could end up owning another problem it doesn't have the tools to fix. Like so much in the reform bill, the proposals to transform HMDA data raise important issues, without fully resolving them.
"The industry is very nervous about making detailed information on loans and borrowers available," says Kathleen Engel, a financial-services law professor at Suffolk University in Massachusetts. "It will take a lot of time to get these rules right, and there will be tremendous industry pushback. They're going to try to make it as difficult as possible to detect wrongdoing."
HMDA is a 1975 anti-redlining measure that calls for the Federal Reserve to collect and make public loan data from mortgage lenders and banks. The financial-reform bill calls for major changes to the law. First, it would move responsibility for the collection and reporting of the data to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Second, it would require an expansion of the loan details to be collected under HMDA, including, for the first time, credit-score information and age of the borrower, total fees and points, presence of teaser rates or prepayment penalties, and the use of a mortgage broker, loan officer, or other agent.
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Clutch: Why Are Beauty Schools Ignoring Natural Hair?
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I was on the phone with an instructor from a well-known Chicago beauty school and I just finished asking her about natural hair care basics, things like daily moisturizing, deep conditioning, detangling and clarifying. Her cluelessness became quickly evident and yet, her company wanted her to speak at an event for naturals that I was organizing.
I was excited at first, when I heard a fancy-pants Chicago beauty school liked my site and wanted to partner. And somehow, I was still optimistic when I was told the designated speaker tried, and failed, to go natural.
But my hopes were pretty much dashed with her declaration of the unrealness of natural hair. I think it was the fact she spoke the words without a hint of the gross irony.
After that conversation I set out to understand how – despite existing in an age where Black celebrities are taking razors to their heads in the name of naturalness — the mainstream beauty industry seems so blind to it all.
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New York Times: Police Are Charged in Post-Katrina Shootings
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Four current and two former New Orleans police officers have been charged in connection with the killing of unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina, federal law enforcement officials announced here on Tuesday.
Four of the men — former Officer Robert Faulcon, Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, Sgt. Robert Gisevius and Officer Anthony Villavaso — were charged with federal civil rights violations in the killing of 17-year-old James Brissette and the wounding of four others, all members of the same family, when the officers came across a group on the bridge in eastern New Orleans and opened fire.
In addition, Mr. Faulcon, who was arrested Tuesday morning by F.B.I. agents in Fresno, Tex., was charged with shooting Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old man with severe mental disabilities, in the back, killing him, as he tried to flee.
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The Root: The Rainbow Black Greeks
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Back when I was a young college brother, my frat and I took delight in going to parties and chanting clever little ditties against other fraternities. For the most part, the back-and-forth chants were good-natured, usually about how much more cool my organization was compared to another organization. Or how we pledged so much harder than they did. But it was all so innocent, with basically the goal of having partygoers say to their friends that your fraternity rocked the party over another fraternity.
But there was one chant that would always piss us off. It was when any rival fraternity inevitably began chanting "Gay Phi Gay" in a sing-song way. Oh, how that would burn us! One reason was because A Phi A was an easy rhyme with Gay Phi Gay, which made it hard to stop. But more importantly to us, no heterosexual fraternity man wanted to be connected with anything gay. It was the "no homo" era before the "no homo" era.
You'd think as college-educated, black men, we'd brush off these chants as being sophomoric, homophobic and beneath contempt. We would rise above these immature utterances. Oh no, my friends, you'd be wrong! These chants were a declaration of fraternal war against our straight manhood and that could not stand. So we responded with this chant:
"You may say, Gay Phi Gay, but who is stroking your women while you are away? The Alphas! The Alphas, the whole damn frat! While you were talking that bullshit, we were working those backs!"
That would show them! Combat rumors of homosexuality by pulling out the three-pronged weapon of hyper-heterosexuality, sexism and misogyny. And we'd pat ourselves on the back, congratulating ourselves on positively affirming our straightness.
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[] Eek! Black Panthers! and On gentrification by brooklynbadboy
[] Black Power's Gonna Get You Sucka: Right-Wing Paranoia and the Rhetoric of Modern Racism by tim wise
[] Why there's no such thing as "Reverse Racism" by hepshiba
[] "He's too BLACK to be President" by MinistryOfTruth
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FRIDAY WAKE-UP MUSIC
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