The area of Western Sudan includes the vast expanse of savanna, which stretches between the Sahara Desert to the north and the Guinea coast to the south. In Arabic, the term ‘Sudan’ refers to ‘Land of Blacks’. During the medieval period, Ghana, Mali, and Songhai conquered Western Sudan with no fixed political boundaries . The country had neither ethnic nor national identities. Each empire had its own economic and political center, which include Ghana's Kumbi Saleh, Songhai's Gao and many others, though they were not the political capitals of the country. The empires had floating capitals, which shifted from one place to another as the ruling monarchs travelled. The empires of Western Sudan possessed strong leadership and dominant trade routes.
The empires had prominent contacts with the Islamic world. The trading networks saw the involvement of the Arabs and Berbers, which in turn led to the development of commerce known as trans-Saharan trade during the seventh century . The major reason for the possibility of trade in the trans-Saharan region was due to the availability of agricultural land and livestock breeding in the savanna region of western Sudan. The region had abundant resources of gold and salt, which were essential for the northern part of Africa and Europe. The trade exchanged gold and salt for manufactured goods. Salt was necessary as a dietary supplement as well as a preservative to the south of Sahara. Salt mines, such as Taghaza earned huge profits through the imposition of taxes in the form of imports and exports .
Mobility was the most essential element of the trade, which the camels fulfilled as they entered into western Sudan by the seventh century. Horses were also a part of the trans-Saharan trade, which dominated the empires; however, they were higher in prize. The emperor of Songhai, Sonni Ali Ber and the Soso king Sumanguru Kante were famous in the history for their impressive cavalry . The trans-Saharan trade led to the coordination of the first largest kingdom in the western part of Africa in the fourth century, called Ghana. The Soninkes who resided in the grasslands of the savanna to the north of the Niger and Senegal rivers formed the kingdom of Ghana. For over seven centuries, the Ghana kingdom had a great domination over western Sudan.
Unable to withstand the Muslim invasions by the Arabs in the eleventh century, Ghana lost to the kingdom of Mali. The kingdom of Mali formed by the Mandinkas became the greatest empire of western Sudan from the thirteenth century until the fifteenth century and expanded its territory beyond ancient Ghana. The kingdom of Mali was famous for its learned men, influenced by the Islamic studies in government, law, and business affairs . Mali also possessed wealthy rulers who maintained peace and order in the kingdom. As wealth increased in Mali, the society categorized itself into freemen and slaves. The slaves were permanent servants subject to sale for work . The Songhai people who belonged to the central Sudan overthrew the kingdom of Mali.
The Songhai Empire had abundant gold supplies coming from the forest region, which lies to the south of Gao. The king of Songhai, Sonni Ali Ber accepted Islam as and developed Timbuktu as a rich trading center of the Songhai Empire . However, in the year 1590, Songhai came into conflict with the Sultan of Morocco, Ahmed al Mansur, who sent an army to seize the trade of gold in the kingdom. Though the leaders of Morocco succeeded in looting the gold from Gao and Timbuktu, they failed to halt the trade route and win control over the trade routes of the south. Finally, the Songhai kingdom saw its downfall by the end of the sixteenth century. Each African kingdom had its own religion; however, the dominance of the Arabs spread Islam all over western Sudan.
Islam played a prominent role in the trans-Saharan trade and Arabic became the prominent language of the region and the medium of writing. Though the religion became significant in the eleventh century, the trans-Saharan trade enhanced the scope of Islam . However, the people still followed their traditions and customs. All the empires of western Sudan were insecure and weak, in spite of their strong hold in the trans-Saharan trade. The spread of Islam generated architectural and literary achievements, but the people were not ready to totally give up their culture. The royal administrators could not control the self-sustaining villages and the lineage chiefs, which ultimately led to the collapse of the empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai .
References
Middleton, John. African Merchants of the Indian Ocean: Swahili of the East African Coast. Waveland Press, 2004.
Mofolo, Thomas. Chaka. Heinemann, 1981.
Niane, Djibril Tamsir. Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali. Longmans, 1965.
Northrup, David. The Atlantic Slave Trade. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.
