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Chapter 33: Beyond the Sahara
To the south of the vast Saharan Desert lies a strip of land called the Sahel, from the estuary of the Senegal river to the bend of the Niger, then to Lake Tchad until the Red Sea. It was in this region, where the first inner African civilizations arose.
By the ninth century, there were already a handful of states merging in the western Sahel: there was the Takrur on the northern banks of the lower Senegal river, a Sanhaja chiefdom in Audaghost, then further eastwards the emrging kingdom of Wagadou (called incorrectly Ghana, although that was only the title of its ruler). Further, on the bend of the Niger, was the city-state of Gao. Ultimately, on the banks of Lake Tchad, there was the emergent Kanem kingdom.
The realm of Gao was inhabited by Songhai people; a people unrelated to most of its neighbours, for they speak a tongue belonging to the Nilo-Saharan family, unlike the Niger-Congo tongues common in that region. The Songhai were actually the fist Subsaharan peoples to establish contact with the Mediterranean via the Tuaregs.
The Tuaregs were desert tribesmen of the Sahara, closely related to the Berber peoples of Tamazgha. They arrived to the Sahara from the Tafilaft region, around Sijilmassa. For most of their neighbours, the Sahara was a hostile environment. A Rhomaic geographer wrote, while after interviewing a Tuareg in Numidia:
" The people of Carthage live on the coast of a great sea. They are at home on the coast; they build ships and go from port to port. A Numidian shepherd would be lost on the sea, but the Carthaginian sailor knows the sea well. For us, the Sahara is the sea. Its dunes are its waves, its oasis are its islands. The caravans are our ships, and we can navigate on the desert the same way as the mariner navigates on the sea"
The Tuaregs were thus the protectors of the entire Saharan trade; and they would go from oasis to oasis, from coast to coast bringing goods, but also ideas. The introduction of Christianity had already begun in the eighth century, and there was already an Archdiocese of Gao belonging to the Donatist Church. The majority of the churchgoers would have been ethnic Tuareg and/or Berber merchants settled in the city and its environs, and liturgy was done in Berber.
However, by the early ninth century, the king of the city had become interested in the religion of the desert-dwellers. By this time, also quite a few of the townsfolk also got baptized. He asked the archbishop, why it was, that they still conduct their prayers in foreign tongue. He said "I may well become a Christian, but for this, I need to know what it means, what is taught at church " Thus the king of Gao ordered a translation of Scripture, of the liturgical books to Songhaic, so that his people would understand the message of Christianity.
The Songhai language would thus become written with a variant of the Tifinagh script, an abjad used by the Berbers of Tamazgha.
The Christianity that arrived to Gao was a rather simple religion: Pray twice a day, go to Church on Sundays and follow the Commandments. Thats it. It did not require a complete submission in all spheres, yet it stood in stark opposition to the animist religion of the forefathers.
Further upstream of the Niger river stood the kingdom of Wagadou, also known as Ghana. The realm of Wagadou was inhabited by the Soninke people, belonging to the Mande family inhabitting the upper Niger basin.
The Soninke were farmers and pastoralists and their capital was to be found at Koumbi Saleh (1). Their location favoured commerce, for in their proximity lay the gold fields of the upper Senegal, as well as the salt deposits in the desert. The Wagadou realm thus soon came to dominate commerce: pouring slaves, gold, copper, salt, ivory and leather northwards in exchange for finished goods. The Ghana king was thought to have been the richest man on earth due to his gold.
At the mouth of the Senegal river, on its northern banks, lay the realm of Takrur. The realm was populated mainly by the Serer people, a people related to the Wolof further south. Another group populating these lands were the Fula. It has been speculated, that the formation of the state may have been caused by a powerful Berber tribe...
The western portions of the Sahara, west of the major trade routes, are now populated by the Bafour people, indigenous to the desert area north of the Senegal river. They were thought to have been of „Black African“ descent.
The upper Senegal valley as well has been a home to a series of emerging tribal chiefdoms.
Now moving eastwards to the basin of lake Tchad we encounter the Kanem realm. This was founded by the Kanembu people migrating from the Tibesti mountains, subject to desertification, to the more fertile lake region, where they displaced the native Sao civilization city-states.
The Kanem peoples were a nomadic horse-people, and they had few towns. They were connected to the Transsharan trade route via Bilma into Fazan. A major commodity in this trade were slaves, which were raided and captured in the regions further south. The second most important article, which was exported from Kanem, was ivory.
The contact with the Fazan resulted in baptism of a few Kanem nobles, but the gross majority of the populace would remain pagan.
The region of Guinea, inhabitted by the Niger-Congo peoples, was organized into tribal chiefdoms; on can notice the Hausa living notheastwards of the middle Niger, the Yorubas west and and the Igbo east of the Niger Delta; and the Bantu peoples have by now come to dominate the majority of the southern half of the continent, before being stopped by the impenetrable areas of the Congo rainforest, which gave refuge to the Pygmy peoples, and the hostile inhospitable Kalahari and the Drakensberg, protecting the remnant of the Khoisan in region of the Cape and the Namib desert.
(1)In southeastern Mauretania
By the ninth century, there were already a handful of states merging in the western Sahel: there was the Takrur on the northern banks of the lower Senegal river, a Sanhaja chiefdom in Audaghost, then further eastwards the emrging kingdom of Wagadou (called incorrectly Ghana, although that was only the title of its ruler). Further, on the bend of the Niger, was the city-state of Gao. Ultimately, on the banks of Lake Tchad, there was the emergent Kanem kingdom.
The realm of Gao was inhabited by Songhai people; a people unrelated to most of its neighbours, for they speak a tongue belonging to the Nilo-Saharan family, unlike the Niger-Congo tongues common in that region. The Songhai were actually the fist Subsaharan peoples to establish contact with the Mediterranean via the Tuaregs.
The Tuaregs were desert tribesmen of the Sahara, closely related to the Berber peoples of Tamazgha. They arrived to the Sahara from the Tafilaft region, around Sijilmassa. For most of their neighbours, the Sahara was a hostile environment. A Rhomaic geographer wrote, while after interviewing a Tuareg in Numidia:
" The people of Carthage live on the coast of a great sea. They are at home on the coast; they build ships and go from port to port. A Numidian shepherd would be lost on the sea, but the Carthaginian sailor knows the sea well. For us, the Sahara is the sea. Its dunes are its waves, its oasis are its islands. The caravans are our ships, and we can navigate on the desert the same way as the mariner navigates on the sea"
The Tuaregs were thus the protectors of the entire Saharan trade; and they would go from oasis to oasis, from coast to coast bringing goods, but also ideas. The introduction of Christianity had already begun in the eighth century, and there was already an Archdiocese of Gao belonging to the Donatist Church. The majority of the churchgoers would have been ethnic Tuareg and/or Berber merchants settled in the city and its environs, and liturgy was done in Berber.
However, by the early ninth century, the king of the city had become interested in the religion of the desert-dwellers. By this time, also quite a few of the townsfolk also got baptized. He asked the archbishop, why it was, that they still conduct their prayers in foreign tongue. He said "I may well become a Christian, but for this, I need to know what it means, what is taught at church " Thus the king of Gao ordered a translation of Scripture, of the liturgical books to Songhaic, so that his people would understand the message of Christianity.
The Songhai language would thus become written with a variant of the Tifinagh script, an abjad used by the Berbers of Tamazgha.
The Christianity that arrived to Gao was a rather simple religion: Pray twice a day, go to Church on Sundays and follow the Commandments. Thats it. It did not require a complete submission in all spheres, yet it stood in stark opposition to the animist religion of the forefathers.
Further upstream of the Niger river stood the kingdom of Wagadou, also known as Ghana. The realm of Wagadou was inhabited by the Soninke people, belonging to the Mande family inhabitting the upper Niger basin.
The Soninke were farmers and pastoralists and their capital was to be found at Koumbi Saleh (1). Their location favoured commerce, for in their proximity lay the gold fields of the upper Senegal, as well as the salt deposits in the desert. The Wagadou realm thus soon came to dominate commerce: pouring slaves, gold, copper, salt, ivory and leather northwards in exchange for finished goods. The Ghana king was thought to have been the richest man on earth due to his gold.
At the mouth of the Senegal river, on its northern banks, lay the realm of Takrur. The realm was populated mainly by the Serer people, a people related to the Wolof further south. Another group populating these lands were the Fula. It has been speculated, that the formation of the state may have been caused by a powerful Berber tribe...
The western portions of the Sahara, west of the major trade routes, are now populated by the Bafour people, indigenous to the desert area north of the Senegal river. They were thought to have been of „Black African“ descent.
The upper Senegal valley as well has been a home to a series of emerging tribal chiefdoms.
Now moving eastwards to the basin of lake Tchad we encounter the Kanem realm. This was founded by the Kanembu people migrating from the Tibesti mountains, subject to desertification, to the more fertile lake region, where they displaced the native Sao civilization city-states.
The Kanem peoples were a nomadic horse-people, and they had few towns. They were connected to the Transsharan trade route via Bilma into Fazan. A major commodity in this trade were slaves, which were raided and captured in the regions further south. The second most important article, which was exported from Kanem, was ivory.
The contact with the Fazan resulted in baptism of a few Kanem nobles, but the gross majority of the populace would remain pagan.
The region of Guinea, inhabitted by the Niger-Congo peoples, was organized into tribal chiefdoms; on can notice the Hausa living notheastwards of the middle Niger, the Yorubas west and and the Igbo east of the Niger Delta; and the Bantu peoples have by now come to dominate the majority of the southern half of the continent, before being stopped by the impenetrable areas of the Congo rainforest, which gave refuge to the Pygmy peoples, and the hostile inhospitable Kalahari and the Drakensberg, protecting the remnant of the Khoisan in region of the Cape and the Namib desert.
(1)In southeastern Mauretania
- Tomislav Addai
- Word Count: 1k