Editing History of Africa (section)

====The western Sahel and Sudan====
{{Main|History of West Africa|Sahelian kingdoms}}
[[File:Ghana empire map.png|thumb|left|The [[Ghana Empire]] at its greatest extent]]
The 7th to 13th centuries in West Africa were a period of relatively abundant rainfall that saw the explosive growth of trade, particularly across the [[Sahara desert]], and the flourishing of numerous important states.<ref name = Brooks>{{cite journal|last1=Brooks|first1=George E.|title=WESTERN AFRICA TO c1860 A.D. A PROVISIONAL HISTORICAL SCHEMA BASED ON CLIMATE PERIODS|journal=Indiana University African Studies Program|date=August 1985|page=36}}</ref> The introduction of the [[Dromedary|camel]] to the western Sahel was a watershed moment, allowing more merchandise to move more easily.<ref name="Gestrich 2019"/> These desert-side states are the first to appear in the written record, with Arab and Berber merchants from North Africa leaving descriptions of their power and wealth.{{sfn|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000}} Nevertheless, there remain big gaps in the historical record, and many details are speculative and/or based on much later traditions.

One of the most powerful and well known of these states was [[Wagadu]], commonly called the Ghana Empire, likely the dominant player in the western Sahel from the 6th century onwards.<ref name = Abney>{{cite thesis|last=Abney|first=Graham|title=Sundiata Keita's Invention of Latin Purgatory: The West African Gold Trade's Influence on Western European Society (ca.1050–1350)|year=2021|publisher=University of New Mexico|url=https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1295&context=hist_etds}}</ref> Wagadu was the most powerful of a constellation of states stretching from [[Takrur]] on the [[Senegal river]] valley to [[Mema]] in the Niger valley, all of whom were subservient to Ghana at least some of the time.<ref name=":0"/> Like Wagadu, the [[Gao Empire]] which rose in the 7th century had at least seven kingdoms accepting their suzerainty. Both [[Gao]] and [[Kumbi Saleh]] (capital of Wagadu) grew fabulously rich through the [[trans-Saharan trade]] routes linking these cities with [[Tadmekka]], [[Kairouan]], and [[Sijilmassa]] in [[North Africa]] along which flowed trade in salt, gold, slaves, and more.<ref>{{cite book|last=McIntosh|first=Susan|title=The Encyclopedia of Empire|chapter=Gao Empire|year=2016|pages=1–3|publisher=Wiley|doi=10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe312|isbn=978-1-118-44064-3|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe312}}</ref><ref name = Levtzion>{{citation|author-link=Nehemia Levtzion|last=Levtzion|first=Nehemia|title=Ancient Ghana and Mali|publisher=Methuen|place=London|year=1973|isbn=0-8419-0431-6}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite journal|last=McIntosh|first=Susan|title=Reconceptualizing Early Ghana|journal=Canadian Journal of African Studies|volume=43|issue=2|pages=347–373|year=2008|publisher=Taylor and Francis|jstor=40380172|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40380172}}</ref><ref name="Gestrich 2019"/>

[[File:Ghana successor map 1200-es.svg|thumb|Map of the western [[Sahel]] and [[West Sudanian savanna|Sudan]] (northern West Africa) c. 1200. (''Songhai'' is [[Gao Empire|Gao]]) <br>Kingdoms in this era were centred around cities and cores, with variations of influence radiating out from these points, borders here are estimates.]]

The arrival of Islam in West Africa had seismic consequences for the history of the entire region. By the 10th century, the king of [[Gao]] had converted, possibly to [[Ibadi]] Islam.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=25}} In 1035 king [[War Jabi]] of Takrur became the first ruler to adopt Sunni Islam.<ref name="Colvin">Colvin, Lucie Gallistel, ''Historical dictionary of Senegal'', Scare Crow Press Inc. (1981), p. 18, {{ISBN|0-8108-1369-6}}</ref> The rise of the [[Almoravid dynasty|Almoravid]] [[Sanhaja]] in the 1050s, perhaps inspired and supported by Muslims in Takrur, pushed the leaders of Sahelian states to institutionalize Islam in the subsequent decades.<ref>Levtzion N. The Sahara and the Sudan from the Arab conquest of the Maghrib to the rise of the Almoravids. In: Fage JD, ed. The Cambridge History of Africa. The Cambridge History of Africa. Cambridge University Press; 1979:637–684.</ref> Historians debate whether the Almoravids conquered Wagadu or merely dominated them politically but not militarily. In any case the period saw significant upheaval and a shift in trade patterns as previously important cities like [[Awdaghost]] and [[Tadmekka]] fell victim to the Almoravids and their allies.{{Efn|Soninke oral traditions hold that, intent on invading Ghana, the Almoravid army found the king respectful of Islam, and that he willingly adopted Islam with the exchange of gold for an [[imam]] relocating to [[Koumbi Saleh]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Conrad|first1=David|last2=Fisher|first2=Humphrey|title=The Conquest That Never Was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. I. The External Arabic Sources|journal=History in Africa|volume=10|year=1983|doi=10.2307/3171690|jstor=3171690|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-in-africa/article/conquest-that-never-was-ghana-and-the-almoravids-1076-i-the-external-arabic-sources/4C43B158FD3D74BE744D8634781A4E0A}}</ref>{{rp|pages=23–24}}}}{{sfn|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=73, 98}} In the confusion, some vassals achieved independence such as [[Mema]], [[Sosso Empire|Sosso]], and [[Kingdom of Diarra|Diarra/Diafunu]], with the last two being especially powerful.<ref name = Abney/> Despite Wagadu regaining full independence and power throughout the 12th century, this could not counteract the worsening climate and shifts in trade south and east. Around the turn of the 13th century, the [[Sosso Empire]] united the region and conquered a weakened [[Ghana Empire|Ghana]] from its south, spurring large-scale Soninke out-migration.{{efn|According to some traditions, [[Ghana Empire|Wagadu's]] fall is caused when a nobleman attempts to save a maiden from sacrifice against her wishes and kills ''Bida'' before escaping the population's ire on horseback, annulling [[Ghana Empire|Wagadu]] and Bida's prior assurance and unleashing a curse causing drought and famine, sometimes causing gold to be discovered in [[Siguiri|Bure]]. The Soninke generation that survived the drought were called "it has been hard for them" (''"a jara nununa"'').<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Conrad |first1=David |last2=Fisher |first2=Humphrey |year=1983 |title=The Conquest That Never Was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. II. The Local Oral Sources |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-in-africa/article/conquest-that-never-was-ghana-and-the-almoravids-1076-ii-the-local-oral-sources/01C98BFDB91C78BFAC421A8F42C02407 |journal=History in Africa |volume=10 |pages=53–78 |doi=10.2307/3171690 |jstor=3171690}}</ref>{{rp|pages=56, 64}}}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fall|first1=Mamadou|editor1-last=Fall|editor1-first=Mamadou|editor2-last=Fall|editor2-first=Rokhaya|editor3-last=Mane|editor3-first=Mamadou|title=Bipolarisation du Senegal du XVIe – XVIIe siécle|date=2021|publisher=HGS Editions|location=Dakar|pages=14–39|language=French|chapter=Les Terroirs Historiques et la Poussée Soninké}}</ref>

[[Sosso Empire|Sosso]]'s [[Soumaoro Kante]] conquered [[Diarra]], [[Gajaaga]], and the [[Manding region]].<ref>POLLET Eric, WINTER Grace, La Société Soninké (Dyahunu, Mali), Bruxelles, Editions de l'Institut de Sociologie de l'Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1971.</ref> According to the oral [[Epic of Sundiata]], [[Sundiata Keita]], a [[Mandinka people|Mandinka]] prince in exile, returned to [[Pre-imperial Mali|Manden]] to save his people of the tyrannical Sosso king. Sundiata unified the [[Twelve Doors of Mali|Mandinka clans]], allied with [[Mema]], and defeated [[Soumaoro Kante]] at the [[Battle of Kirina]] in the early 13th century. He then proclaimed the ''[[Kouroukan Fouga]]'' of the nascent [[Mali Empire]].<ref name="Niane 1984" /> Allied kingdoms, including [[Mema]] and [[Ghana Empire|Wagadu]], retained leadership of their province, while conquered leaders were assigned a ''[[Mali Empire#Government|farin]]'' subordinate to the ''[[Mansa (title)|mansa]]'' (emperor), with provinces retaining a great deal of autonomy.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Cissoko|first1=Sekene Mody|title=Formations sociales et État en Afrique précoloniale : Approche historique|journal=Présence Africaine|date=1983|volume=COLLOQUE SUR « LA PROBLÉMATIQUE DE L'ÉTAT EN AFRIQUE NOIRE »|issue=127/128|pages=50–71|doi=10.3917/presa.127.0050|jstor=24350899|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24350899|access-date=4 July 2023}}</ref>
[[File:The Mali Empire.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Mali Empire]] in 1337 CE, with major gold fields, of [[Bambuk]], [[Siguiri|Bure]], [[Gaoua|Lobi]] (tended by the [[Ga-Adangbe people|Gan]] and later [[Lobi people]]), and [[Tarkwa|Akan]], and [[Trans-Saharan trade|trade routes]], outlined. The desert should extend further south to [[Koumbi Saleh|Koumbi]]. The [[Mossi Kingdoms]] are located north of Lobi.]]

In addition to campaigns in the north to subdue [[Kingdom of Diarra|Diafunu]], Mali established suzerainty over the highlands of [[Fouta Djallon]].<ref>Bühnen, Stephan. "In Quest of Susu." History in Africa, vol. 21, 1994, pp. 1–47. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3171880. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.</ref> After being insulted by the [[Wolof people|Wolof]] king of [[Kita, Mali|Kita]], Sundiata sent [[Tiramakhan Traore]] west at the head of a large army, ultimately bringing most of [[Senegambia]] under the empire's control and, after defeating the [[Bainuk people|Bainuk]] king, established dozens of Mandinka vassal kingdoms in the [[Gambia river|Gambia]] and [[Casamance river|Casamance]] basins, a region known as [[Kaabu]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Niane|first=Djibril Tamsir|title=Histoire des Mandingues de l'Ouest: le royaume du Gabou|publisher=KARTHALA Editions|year=1989|pages=221 Pages|isbn=9782865372362|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pHCgAnkySJwC&q=Kikikor&pg=PA22}}</ref>