Page 18 - Empires of Medieval West Africa

i n t r o d u c t i o n

Meanwhile, in the 11th century, a large region above the Upper
Niger River fell under the control of the Susu, a southern group of the
Soninke people. The Susu took control of the old Ghana territories for a
time. Then they themselves were conquered by the Mali Empire.
Mali, the second of the great empires of the Western Sudan, was
founded in the first half of the 13th century. Far to the south of ancient
Ghana, a large group of Mande chiefdoms (little states run by chiefs)
had been in existence for a long time. The Mande people are culturally
related to the Soninke people of Ghana, but up to this time they had
never been unified under one leader.
By the end of the 12th century, the Mande chiefdoms had fallen
under the domination of the Susu. The Susu peoples were ruled by a
powerful king named Sumanguru Kanté. Susu was one of several small
kingdoms that were prosperous during the decline of Ghana and before
the founding of Mali.
According to oral tradition, the Mande people’s greatest hero was
Sunjata Keita (sometimes spelled Sundiata). In the middle of the 13th
century he united the Mande chiefdoms. Then he led them in a war
that freed them from Susu domination and established the founda-
tions of the Mali Empire, which would prosper until the late 14th
century.
Songhay, the third of the medieval West African empires, began as
a trading town called Gao on the eastern side of the Niger Bend. Gao
(which the Arab geographers called Gawgaw) had its beginnings about
the same time that Ghana was getting started, some time after 500. Gao
eventually developed into a kingdom controlled by the Songhay people.
These people have some cultural similarities to the Mande peoples of
Ghana and Mali, but they speak a different language.
In the early 14th century, Gao was conquered by Mali and added to
the Mali Empire. About 30 years later, the Mali Empire’s influence had
begun to decline. By the 1430s, Gao had regained its independence.
In the second half of the 15th century, a great ruler named Sii Ali
Beeri (sometimes spelled Sunni Ali) came to power in Gao. He con-
quered many neighboring chiefs and kings, took over their territories,
and established the Songhay Empire. The Songhay rulers controlled a
vast empire in the Western Sudan. Their lands included eastern por-
tions of the old empires of Ghana and Mali. Songhay was conquered by
an army from Morocco in 1591.

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