Mansa Masu: Songhai Empire

Mansa Musa was an important Malian king from 1312 to 1337 expanding the Mali influence over the Niger city-states of Timbuktu, Gao, and Djenne. Mansa Musa (Mansa meaning emperor or sultan and Musa meaning Moses), the grandson of one of Sundiata’s sisters, is often referred to as "The Black Moses" (Jeffries & Moss 1997). Timbuktu became one of the major cultural centers not just of Africa but of the world. Vast libraries, madrasas (Islamic universities) and magnificent mosques were built. Timbuktu became a meeting place of poets, scholars and artists of Africa and the Middle East. Even after Mali declined, Timbuktu remained the major Islamic center of sub-Saharan Africa (Hooker 1996). Mansa Musa maintained a huge army that kept peace and policed the trade routes. His armies pushed the borders of Mali from the Atlantic coast in the west beyond the cities of Timbuktu and Gao in the east -- and from the salt mines of Taghaza in the north to the gold mines of Wangar in the south (Jeffries & Moss 1997).

By the fourteenth century, Muslim traders were established in the town of Djenne, located in the inland delta of the Niger. The most impressive monument of intercultural borrowing is the Friday Mosque at Djenne. There, salt from the Sahara, goods from northern Africa and fine silks were exchanged for gold, slaves and ivory. The monumental mosque was constructed around 1320 (the present building was reconstructed on the foundation of the original mosque in 1907). The rectangular, flat roofed building had walls supported by plaster-like buttresses topped by finials. The massive rectangular towers reflect the Islamic model while the building materials echo an older Mande architectural style. The toron (horns) projections from the walls are a feature of local architecture serving as scaffolding when the facade is periodically replastered with clay. The African societies shaped and molded the religion with traditional beliefs, values and sensibilities, as well (Peter Mark, Africa, 1996, p. 26).

The Islamization of the Malian Court, in the late thirteenth century, is recorded both in oral traditions of the Mande people and written accounts by Arab historians and travelers. Ibn Khaldun described the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) of Mansa Musa in 1324. On his return from the holy city, Mansa was accompanied be an Andulisian poet and architect, al-Tuwayjin who constructed a royal palace (Mark, Africa, p.16).

In 1352, the geographer Ibn Battuta spent a month at the court of the Mansa. He described a society where Islamic practice was integrated with local religious rituals and gave accounts of fine figurative sculpture. Many of these terra-cotta figures marked with Islamic symbols have been found recently near Djenne--and for the most part, have been excavated illegally (Decker 1990, p.114). During Battuta's visit to Nyani (in modern Bambara territory) he was witness to masked dancers:

"On feast days...the poets come in. Each of them is inside a figure resembling a thrush, made of feathers, and provided with a wooden head with a red beak, to look like a thrush’s head. They stand in front of the Sultan in this ridiculous make-up and recite their poems. Their poems exhort the King to recall the good deeds of his predecessors, and imitate them so that the memory of his good deeds will outlive him. I was told that this practice is a very old custom amongst them, prior to the introduction of Islam, and that they have kept it up." (Willet 1971, p. 93)

SONGHAI Empire

After the death of Mansa Musa, the power of Mali began to decline. In 1430, Tuareg Berbers in the north seized much of Mali’s territory, including Timbuktu. Ten years later, the Mossi kingdom seized much of Mali’s southern territories and then the kingdom of Gao gave rise to the Songhai Empire (Hooker 1996). The Songhai Empire was lead by Sunni Ali from 1464 to 1492 and by Askia Muhammad from 1493 to 1528 ("Mali, Republic" 1998).

Timbuktu was at the height of its commercial and intellectual development during the Mandigo Askia period (1493-1591). The city’s scholars at the prestigious Koranic university attracted students from a wide area. Three great mosques built using traditional techniques still remain. Timbuktu, towards the end of the sixteenth century, collapsed under internal and external pressures. Most of the empire was destroyed by a Moroccan invasion in 1591. The end of the Songhai Empire also marked the end of the region's history as a trading center, as sea routes were established by the Europeans-primarily the Portuguese ("Introduction" 1996). Timbuktu was repeatedly attacked and conquered by the Bambara, Fulani, and Tuareg until 1893, when the French captured the city (Salmon 1988).

CLICK HERE FOR INTERNET RESOURCES ON AFRICAN KINGDOMS FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MANSA MUSA compiled by Tim Spalding

AFRICAN ART INTERNET LESSON: TABLE OF CONTENTS
Artists of Africa	African Art Images	Reasons for Art
Art of Mali	People of Mali	Masks of the Bwa
Where is Mali	The Bamana	Chiwara Headdress
History of Mali	Carvers of Mali	Kurumba Headdress
Mali Empire	Weaving	Masking Societies
Songhai Empire	Earth Dyed Cloth	Masquerades Today
Maternal Figures	Art Preservation	Dogon Dama
Senufo Masks	Ancestral Figures	Dogon Equestrian
People of Africa	History of Africa	Misconceptions
Regions of Africa	What is Art?	Test Your Knowledge

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