The
Mandinke empire of Mali, founded by Mansa Uli around 1200, replaces
the kingdom of Ghana ("mansa" means ruler or king).
Ghana had been much weakened due to attacks from the kingdom
of the Almoravid Berbers from Morocco to the north. The kingdom
finally fell completely in 1203 to the Sosso people. Mali was
ruled by Mansa Sunjata (sometimes spelled Sundiata) from 1230
to 1255. During his rule the cities of Walata and Timbuktu became
major trading centres.
The greatest and most famous of all of Mali's kings was Mansa
Musa, who ruled from 1307 to his death in 1332. His capital
was the city of Niani. He expanded Mali's borders to include
the cities of Timbuktu, Djenne and Gao. The army of Mali was
based on armoured cavalry, similar to the knights in Europe.
Armour covered both man and horse. Some metal was used, but
most common were protective suits of brightly coloured quilted
cloth. The padded quilt was cooler, lighter and more flexible
than metal armour, but could still stop an arrow at all but
close range. The Mali soldiers were armed with spears and bows
and became the most feared military force in West Africa. The
Malians were not just warriors, but were also great mariners,
and sailors from Mali during the time of Mansa Musa may have
reached Brazil. While European traders were beginning to use
credit, merchants from Mali had already developed their own
system of banking and credit, adapted from the Arabs. Mansa
Musa, a follower of Islam, built many large and beautiful mosques
throughout the kingdom, and, using Arabic script, increased
the level of literacy in his realm.
Mali went into decline after the death of the great king. The
subject city of Gao rebelled in 1375 under the Sonni ("king")
Suleiman-Mar. Around 1400, Gao was strong enough to raid the
Mali capital itself, and about 50 years later became the centre
of the new Songhai Empire, which now became the most powerful
state in West Africa. In 1468, Sonni Ali conquered Timbuktu.
Sonni Muhammad Toureacute (1493-1528) made Islam the state religion
of the empire.
The first kingdoms of the Hausa people were founded in what
is now Nigeria after 1200. The first kingdom was called Daura.
Between 1440 and 1473, during the reign of the Oba or "king"
Eware the Great, the kingdom of Benin expanded into a great
forest empire.
In 1441, Portugal opens up a direct slave trade with the west
coast of Africa. For the first time captives are taken directly
from West Africa to Portugal. Before, slaves were bought and
sold through North African middlemen. In 1472, the Portuguese
had made contact with the Benin Empire.
Djenne
Made
from terracotta clay, this is an excellent example of medieval
West African sculpture. It shows a majestic and dignified figure,
probably representing a warrior king, decked out in elaborately
detailed jewelry and armed with a quiver of arrows and a distinctive
type of dagger on his upper left arm. These daggers are still
worn by the nomadic Tuareg people, who dominate the caravan
routes crossing the Sahara desert. It is quite possible that
the warrior was originally mounted on a horse, destroyed over
the years. While representational--the sculpture is realistic
in that there is a recongizable human form--elements have been
exaggerated, such as the jutting, bearded chin, to emphasize
the power and dignity of this ruler.
