REV: Lesson - Great African Empires: Songhai and the Swahili Coast

A map of the Songhai empire in western Africa.Songhai and the Swahili Coast

Songhai

The ethnic Songhai people broke off from Mali as it declined. The earliest leader, Sunni Ali, built up an indomitable military that turned back towards Mali – and took over Timbuktu, then Djenne, and eventually the entire Mali Empire. In most ways, the Songhai Empire was like the Mali empire. The people practiced a blend of Islam and local religions. Women neither wore veils nor remained separate from men (both of which were common in Mecca at the time). The empire was governed by a series of kings who favored efficiency. However, their military failed to develop as quickly as their neighbors to the North. Thousands of Songhai warriors equipped with arrows and spears were no match for Moroccan cannons. The fall of Songhai ended a millennium of West African dominance of the Trans-Saharan Trade.

A map showing the Swahili Coast in eastern Africa.Swahili Coast

Like West Africa, the Eastern coast of Africa, from Mogadishu to Kilwa, also grew rich off of trade. The East Coast of Africa has natural harbors and had been connected to Asia through trade (like the Silk Road and the Southern Indian Ocean Trade Network) for centuries. However, around the 8th century, with the expansion of Dar al-Islam, Arab traders began to reconnect these trade routes. Persian and Arab Muslims settled in the coastal cities and began to intermarry with the local Bantu people. Their cultural syncretism crafted a new language – Swahili. Soon, the children of the blended African-Arab merchant families made up the most influential social class in the Swahili city-states. Like in West Africa, most people converted to Islam but retained previous traditions like ancestor worship.

The Swahili city-states were powerful traders, but did not band together to form an empire, nor did any individual city-state exert much influence in the interior. However, central African merchants now had an international outlet for their metals, ivory, timber, incense, spices, salts, and other goods. Additionally, the Swahili city-states produced pottery, musical instruments, and cloth. They also mined copper and raided rival interior communities for slaves. Chinese, Indian, and Middle Eastern goods flowed into the city-states (and the interior of Africa). In Kilwa, for example, merchants collected Islamic texts on their bookshelves, women applied Egyptian kohl to their eyelids while looking into Chinese mirrors, and architects embedded Chinese porcelain into their exterior walls! Visitors like Ibn Battuta were charmed by the amenities, gardens, and prosperity. The Swahili coasts’ city-states' autonomy provided each city with a distinct local culture, but unfortunately, this was also to be their downfall. When the Portuguese discovered the gold trade in the 16th century, they overtook the Swahili coast. They were disappointed to find out that the Swahili city-states didn’t actually have that much gold themselves, and even more disappointed to discover they had no natural immunity to African diseases. Portuguese control waned, but the golden age of East African trade was over.

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