How did the Great Empires of West Africa collapse?
For 800 years, between the 9th and 16th centuries, sub-Saharan West Africa was dominated by a succession of great empires. Capitalizing on their vast gold resources and trans-Saharan trade, the empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai each in turn extended their influence over the region. I invite you to join me as we delve into the history of these three great empires, to discover how they arose, how they flourished, and how they collapsed.
🫶 Support the channel and get access to my series on French history, including all episodes ad-free: https://fr.ulule.com/episodes-dhistoire/ ! Thank you so much to everyone who joins the Ulule campaign; it will help me tremendously.
Join the channel's Discord server: / discord
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Sources (thanks to Géraud for the research):
Main Works
• ABITBOL, M., The End of the Songhay Empire, in OGOT, B., General History of Africa. Vol. 5: Africa from the 16th to the 18th Century, UNESCO, 2011.
• ALPERN, S., Mali: The Rise and Fall of a Medieval Empire, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996.
• CISSOKO, S., The Songhay from the 12th to the 16th Century, in NIANE, D., General History of Africa. Vol. 4: Africa from the 12th to the 16th century, UNESCO, 2011.
• CISSOKO, S., Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Flourishing of the Niger Sudan in the 15th-16th centuries, L’Harmattan, Paris, 1996.
• CONRAD, D., Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali and Songhay, Facts On File, New York, 2005.
• CONRAD, D., The Ghana Empire: an African Kingdom in the Age of Merchants, 750-1076, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2005.
• FASI, M., HRBEK, I., et al., General History of Africa. Vol. 3: Africa from the 7th to the 11th century, UNESCO, 1990.
• HALE, T., Mali: a Cultural Profile, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1998.
• HOPKINS, J., The Mali Empire, Routledge, London, 1986.
• LEVTZION, N., Ancient Ghana and Mali, Methuen, London, 1973.
Secondary works
• ABRAM, D., The Mali Empire, Benchmark Books, New York, 1997.
• ALPERN, S., Ghana: a Kingdom in Africa, Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton, 1995.
• AUSTEN, R., West Africa in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, in The Cambridge History of Africa, vol. 4, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1975.
• BOVILL, E., The Golden Trade of the moors: West African Kingdoms in the Fourteenth Century, Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton, 1995.
• CISSÉ, Y. and KAMISSOKO, W., La Grande Geste du Mali. From the origins to the founding of the Empire, Karthala, Paris, 1988.
• CISSÉ, Y. and KAMISSOKO, W., Sounddiata, la Gloire du Mali, Karthala, Paris, 1991.
• CONNAH, G., African Civilizations: an Archaeological Perspective, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001.
• DAVIDSON, B., A history of West Africa to the Nineteenth Century, Longman, London, 1985.
• DIETERLEN, G. and SYLLA, D., The empire of Ghana: Wagadou and the traditions of Yéréré, Karthala-association ARSAN, Paris, 1992.
• DOAK, R., The Ghana Empire: a True Book, Children’s Press, New York, 2012.
• GATTI, A., The Unseen Guest: Plays and Poems of West Africa, University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 1993.
• GOODWIN, A., The Medieval Empire of Ghana, in South African Archaeological Bulletin, vol. 12, 1957.
• HALE, T., The epic of Askia Mohammed, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1996.
• HERBERT, A., Kingdoms of West Africa, Methuen, London, 1984.
• HUNWICK, J., Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sadi’s Tarikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and other contemporary documents, Leiden, Brill, 1999.
• HUNWICK, J., The Songhay Empire (1500 – 1700): a Case Study in African Political Integration, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1972.
• JOHNSON, J., The Epic of Son-Jara: a West African Tradition, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1992.
• JOLLY, J., History of the African continent: from Prehistory to 1600, L’Harmattan, Paris, 1996.
• KONATE, D., The Epic of Sundiata Keita, Seuil jeunesse, Paris, 2002.
• LE TOURNEAU, R., North Africa to the Sixteenth Century, in The Cambridge History of Islam, vol. 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1970.
• LEVTZION, N., and POUWELS, R., Islam in West Africa: Religion, Society and Politics to 1800, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000.
• MCNEESE, T., The Ghana Empire: Trade and the Arrival of Islam, Chelsea House Publications, New York, 2001.
• MCKISSACK, P., Askia Muhammad: African Hero of Songhai, Carolrhoda Books, Minneapolis, 2001.
• SCHWAB, K., Ancient West Africa, Chelsea House Publications, New York, 2003.
• WISNIEWSKI, D., Sundiata: Lion King of Mali, HarperCollins, New York, 1992.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Music:
• Love is the Cure - Sufi Lounge
• Desert Crossing - Sufi Lounge
• Shams Tabrizi - Sufi Lounge
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
00:00 - Introduction
01:12 - The Ghana Empire
04:49 - The Mali Empire
08:37 - The Songhai Empire
12:40 - Conclusion