Page 120 - Empires of Medieval West Africa

t h e s o n g h a y p e o p l e

made a public attempt to murder him. The attempt failed, and the
kurmina-fari was forced to flee to an oasis in the desert. There he was
taken and sold as a slave. He was set to work irrigating the gardens. One
day he was recognized by an Arab who used to sell him horses, and he
jumped into a well and committed suicide.

druM lordS and rival BroTherS
Rival brothers were half-brothers who had the same father but different
mothers. Often, problems arose between rival brothers who were sons
of the Askia. An incident that resulted from the death of one of Askia
Muhammad’s officers, the benga-farma (Governor of the Lakes), is a
good example of this.
In Songhay, all of the highest ranking officers were called drum
lords because they were permitted to have their own drummers as sym-
bols of authority. Whenever the officer went anywhere, his drummer
would march ahead of him to announce his arrival.

Though more often
used today for musical
performances, as here in
Guinea in 2000, drums in
medieval times were used
as symbols of high office.
For instance, high-ranking
officials were called drum
lords because they were
the only people who could
have their own drummers.

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