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a brief note on contacts between ancient African kingdoms and Rome. | finding the lost city of Rhapta on the east African coast. | https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-brief-note-on-contacts-between | Few classical civilizations were as impactful to the foreign contacts of ancient African states and societies like the Roman Empire.
Shortly after Augustus became emperor of Rome, his armies undertook a series of campaigns into the African mainland south of the Mediterranean coast. The first of the Roman campaigns was directed into Nubia around 25BC, [but was defeated by the armies of Kush in 22BC](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-meroitic-empire-queen-amanirenas). While the Roman defeat in Nubia permanently ended its ambitions in this region and was concluded with a treaty between Kush's envoys and the emperor on the Greek island Samos in 21BC, Roman campaigns into central Libya beginning in 20BC were relatively successful and the region was gradually incorporated into the empire.
The succeeding era, which is often referred to as '_Pax Romana_', was a dynamic period of trade and cultural exchanges between Rome and the rest of the world, including north-eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean world.
The increase in commercial and diplomatic exchanges between Kush and Roman Egypt contributed to the expansion of the economy of Meroitic Kush, which was one of the sources of gold and ivory exported to Meditteranean markets.[1](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-brief-note-on-contacts-between#footnote-1-145467894) By the 1st century CE, Meroe had entered a period of prosperity, with monumental building activity across the cities of the kingdom, as well as a high level of intellectual and artistic production. [The appearance of envoys from Meroe and Roman Egypt in the documentary record of both regions](https://www.patreon.com/posts/africans-in-rome-75714077) demonstrates the close relationship between the two state’s diplomatic and economic interests.
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_**the shrine of Hathor (also called the 'Roman kiosk') at Naqa, Sudan. ca. 1st century CE**_.
_It was constructed by the Meroitic co-rulers Natakamani and Amanitore and served as a ‘transitory’ shrine in front of the larger temple of the Nubian god Apedemak (seen in the background). Its nickname is derived from its mix of Meroitic architecture (like the style used for the Apedemak temple) with Classical elements (like the decoration of the shrine’s columns and arched windows). The Meroitic inscriptions found on the walls of the shrine indicate that it was built by local masons who were likely familiar with aspects of the construction styles of Roman-Egypt or assisted by a few masons from the latter._[2](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-brief-note-on-contacts-between#footnote-2-145467894)
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The patterns of exchange and trade that characterized _Pax Romana_ would also contribute to the expansion of Aksumite commercial and political activities in the Red Sea region, which was a conduit for the lucrative trade in silk and spices from the Indian Ocean world as well as ivory from the Aksumite hinterland. At the close of the 2nd century, the armies of Aksum were campaigning on the Arabian peninsula and the kingdom’s port city of Adulis had become an important anchorage for merchant ships traveling from Roman-Egypt to the Indian Ocean littoral. These activities would lay the foundation for the success of [Aksumite merchants as intermediaries in the trade between India and Rome](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-aksumite-empire-between-rome).
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_**Dungur Palace, Aksum, Ethiopia - Reconstruction, by World History Encyclopedia.**_
_This large, multi-story complex was one of several structures that dominated the Aksumite capital and regional towns across the kingdom, and its architectural style was a product of centuries of local developments. The material culture of these elite houses indicates that their occupants had access to luxury goods imported from Rome, including glassware, amphorae, and Roman coins._[3](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-brief-note-on-contacts-between#footnote-3-145467894)
The significance of the relationship between Rome and the kingdoms of Kush and Aksum can be gleaned from Roman accounts of world geography in which the cities of Meroe and Aksum are each considered to be a '_**Metropolis**_' —a term reserved for large political and commercial capitals. This term had been used for Meroe since the 5th century BC and Aksum since the 1st century CE, since they were the largest African cities known to the classical writers[4](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-brief-note-on-contacts-between#footnote-4-145467894).
However, by the time Ptolemy composed his monumental work on world geography in 150 CE, another African city had been elevated to the status of a Metropolis. This new African metropolis was the **city of Rhapta,** located on the coast of East Africa known as _‘Azania’_, and it was the southernmost center of trade in a chain of port towns that stretched from the eastern coast of Somalia to the northern coast of Mozambique.
**The history of the ancient East African coast and its links to the Roman world are the subject of my latest Patreon article.**
**Please subscribe to read about it here:**
[ANCIENT EAST AFRICA AND THE ROMANS](https://www.patreon.com/posts/105868178)
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_**Fresco with an aithiopian woman presenting ivory to a seated figure (Dido of Carthage) as a personified Africa overlooks**_, from House of Meleager at Pompeii, MAN Napoli 8898, Museo Archaeologico Nazionale, Naples | 2024-06-09T16:20:45+00:00 | {
"tokens": 2097
} |
A complete history of Abomey: capital of Dahomey (ca. 1650-1894) | Journal of African cities chapter 10. | https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital | Abomey was one of the largest cities in the "forest region" of west-Africa; a broad belt of kingdoms extending from Ivory coast to southern Nigeria. Like many of the urban settlements in the region whose settlement was associated with royal power, the city of Abomey served as the capital of the kingdom of Dahomey.
Home to an estimated 30,000 inhabitants at its height in the mid-19th century, the walled city of Abomey was the political and religious center of the kingdom. Inside its walls was a vast royal palace complex, dozens of temples and residential quarters occupied by specialist craftsmen who made the kingdom's iconic artworks.
This article outlines the history of Abomey from its founding in the 17th century to the fall of Dahomey in 1894.
**Map of modern benin showing Abomey and other cities in the kingdom of Dahomey.[1](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-1-136876141)**
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**The early history of Abomey: from the ancient town of Sodohome to the founding of Dahomey’s capital.**
The plateau region of southern Benin was home to a number of small-scale complex societies prior to the founding of Dahomey and its capital. Like in other parts of west-Africa, urbanism in this region was part of the diverse settlement patterns which predated the emergence of centralized states. The Abomey plateau was home to several nucleated iron-age settlements since the 1st millennium BC, many of which flourished during the early 2nd millennium. The largest of these early urban settlements was Sodohome, an ancient iron age dated to the 6th century BC which at its peak in the 11th century, housed an estimated 5,700 inhabitants. Sodohome was part of a regional cluster of towns in southern Benin that were centers of iron production and trade, making an estimated 20 tonnes of iron each year in the 15th/16th century.[2](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-2-136876141)
The early settlement at Abomey was likely established at the very founding of Dahomey and the construction of the first Kings' residences. Traditions recorded in the 18th century attribute the city's creation to the Dahomey founder chief Dakodonu (d. 1645) who reportedly captured the area that became the city of Abomey after defeating a local chieftain named Dan using a _Kpatin_ tree. Other accounts attribute Abomey's founding to Houegbadja the "first" king of Dahomey (r. 1645-1685) who suceeded Dakodonu. Houegbadja's palace at Abomey, which is called _Kpatissa_, (under the kpatin tree), is the oldest surviving royal residence in the complex and was built following preexisting architectural styles.[3](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-3-136876141)
(read more about [Dahomey’s history in my previous article on the kingdom](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-kingdom-of-dahomey-and-the-atlantic))
The pre-existing royal residences of the rulers who preceeded Dahomey’s kings likely included a _hounwa_ (entrance hall) and an _ajalala_ (reception hall), flanked by an _adoxo_ (tomb) of the deceased ruler. The palace of Dan (called _Dan-Home_) which his sucessor, King Houegbadja (or his son) took over, likely followed this basic architectural plan. Houegbadja was suceeded by Akaba (r. 1685-1708) who constructed his palace slightly outside what would later become the palace complex. In addition to the primary features, it included two large courtyards; the _kpododji_ (initial courtyard), an _ajalalahennu_ (inner/second courtyard), a _djeho_ (soul-house) and a large two-story building built by Akaba's sucessor; Agaja.[4](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-4-136876141)
Agaja greatly expanded the kingdom's borders beyond the vicinity of the capital. After nearly a century of expansion and consolidation by his predecessors across the Abomey Plateau, Agaja's armies marched south and captured the kingdoms of Allada in 1724 and Hueda in 1727. In this complex series of interstate battles, Abomey was sacked by Oyo's armies in 1726, and Agaja begun a reconstruction program to restore the old palaces, formalize the city's layout (palaces, roads, public spaces, markets, quarters) and build a defensive system of walls and moats. The capital of Dahomey thus acquired its name of Agbomey (Abomey = inside the moat) during Agaja's reign.[5](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-5-136876141)
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Ruins of an unidentified palace in Abomey, ca. 1894-1902. Quai branly most likely to be the simbodji palace of Gezo.
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_**Section of the Abomey Palace complex in 1895**_, Quai branly.
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The royal palace complex at Abomey, map by J. C. Monroe
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_**Section of the ruined palace of Agaja**_ in 1911. The double-storey structure was built next to the palace of Akaba
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_**Section of Agaja’s palace**_ in 1925, Quai branly.
[Share](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share)
**The royal capital of Abomey during the early 18th century**
The administration of Dahomey occurred within and around a series of royal palace sites that materialized the various domestic, ritual, political, and economic activities of the royal elite at Abomey. The Abomey palace complex alone comprised about a dozen royal residences as well as many auxiliary buildings. Such palace complexes were also built in other the regional capitals across the kingdom, with as many as 18 palaces across 12 towns being built between the 17th and 19th century of which Abomey was the largest. By the late 19th century, Abomey's palace complex covered over a hundred acres, surrounded by a massive city wall about 30ft tall extending over 2.5 miles.[6](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-6-136876141)
These structures served as residences for the king and his dependents, who numbered 2-8,000 at Abomey alone. Their interior courtyards served as stages on which powerful courtiers vied to tip the balance of royal favor in their direction. Agaja's two story palace near the palace of Akba, and his own two-story palace within the royal complex next to Houegbadja's, exemplified the centrality of Abomey and its palaces in royal continuity and legitimation. Sections of the palaces were decorated with paintings and bas-reliefs, which were transformed by each suceeding king into an elaborate system of royal "communication" along with other visual arts.[7](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-7-136876141)
Abomey grew outwardly from the palace complex into the outlying areas, and was organized into quarters delimited by the square city-wall.[8](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-8-136876141) Some of the quarters grew around the private palaces of the kings, which were the residences of each crown-prince before they took the throne. Added to these were the quarters occupied by the guilds/familes such as; blacksmiths (Houtondji), artists (Yemadji), weavers, masons, soldiers, merchants, etc. These palace quarters include Agaja's at Zassa, Tegbesu’s at Adandokpodji, Kpengla’s at Hodja, Agonglo’s at Gbècon Hwégbo, Gezo’s at Gbècon Hunli, Glele's at Djègbè and Behanzin's at Djime.[9](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-9-136876141)
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_**illustration of Abomey in the 19th century**_.
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_**illustration of Abomey’s city gates and walls**_, ca. 1851
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_**interior section in the ‘private palace’ of Prince Aho Gléglé (grandson of Glele)**_, Abomey, ca. 1930, Archives nationales d'outre-mer
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_**Tomb of Behanzin in Abomey**_, early 20th century, Imagesdefence, built with the characteristic low hanging steep roof.
**Abomey in the late 18th century: Religion, industry and art.**
Between the end of Agaja's reign and the beginning of Tegbesu's, Dahomey became a tributary of the Oyo empire (in south-western Nigeria), paying annual tribute at the city of Cana. In the seven decades of Oyo's suzeranity over Dahomey, Abomey gradually lost its function as the main administrative capital, but retained its importance as a major urban center in the kingdom. The kings of this period; Tegbesu (r. 1740-1774), Kpengla (r. 1774-1789) and Agonglo (r. 1789-1797) resided in Agadja’s palace in Abomey, while constructing individual palaces at Cana. But each added their own entrance and reception halls, as well as their own honga (third courtyard).[10](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-10-136876141)
Abomey continued to flourish as a major center of religion, arts and crafts production. The city's population grew by a combination of natural increase from established families, as well as the resettlement of dependents and skilled artisans that served the royal court. Significant among these non-royal inhabitants of Dahomey were the communities of priests/diviners, smiths, and artists whose work depended on royal patronage.
The religion of Dahomey centered on the worship of thousands of vodun (deities) who inhabited the Kutome (land of the dead) which mirrored and influenced the world of the living. Some of these deities were localized (including deified ancestors belonging to the lineages), some were national (including deified royal ancestors) and others were transnational; (shared/foreign deities like creator vodun, Mawu and Lisa, the iron and war god Gu, the trickster god Legba, the python god Dangbe, the earth and health deity Sakpata, etc).[11](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-11-136876141)
Each congregation of vodun was directed by a pair of priests, the most influencial of whom were found in Abomey and Cana. These included practitioners of the cult of tohosu that was introduced in Tegbesu's reign. Closely associated with the royal family and active participants in court politics, Tohosu priests built temples in Abomey alongside prexisting temples like those of Mawu and Lisa, as well as the shrines dedicated to divination systems such as the Fa (Ifa of Yoruba country). The various temples of Abomey, with their elaborated decorated facades and elegantly clad tohosu priests were thus a visible feature of the city's architecture and its function as a religious center.[12](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-12-136876141)
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_**Temple courtyard dedicated to Gu in the palace ground of king Gezo**_, ca. 1900, library of congress
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_**entrance to the temple of Dangbe**_, Abomey, ca. 1945, Quai branly (the original roofing was replaced)
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_**Practicioners of Gu and Tohusu**_ _**in Abomey**_, ca. 1950, Quai branly
Besides the communities of priests were the groups of craftsmen such as the Hountondji families of smiths. These were originally settled at Cana in the 18th century and expanded into Abomey in the early 19th century, setting in the city quarter named after them. They were expert silversmiths, goldsmiths and blacksmiths who supplied the royal court with the abundance of ornaments and jewelery described in external accounts about Abomey. Such was their demand that their family head, Kpahissou was given a prestigious royal title due to his followers' ability to make any item both local and foreign including; guns, swords and a wheeled carriage described as a "square with four glass windows on wheels".[13](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-13-136876141)
The settlement of specialist groups such as the Hountondji was a feature of Abomey's urban layout. Such craftsmen and artists were commisioned to create the various objects of royal regalia including the iconic thrones, carved doors, zoomorphic statues, 'Asen' sculptures, musical instruments and figures of deities. Occupying a similar hierachy as the smiths were the weavers and embroiderers who made Dahomey's iconic textiles.
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Carved blade from 19th century Abomey, Quai branly. made by the Hountondji smiths.
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_**Pistol modified with copper-alloy plates**_, 1892, made by the Hountondji smiths.
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_**Asen staff from Ouidah**_, mid-19th cent., Musée Barbier-Mueller, _**Hunter and Dog with man spearing a leopard**_, ca. 1934, Abomey museum. _**Brass sculpture of a royal procession**_, ca 1931, Fowler museum
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Collection of old jewelery and Asen staffs in the Abomey museum, photos from 1944.
Cloth making in Abomey was part of the broader textile producing region and is likely to have predated the kingdom's founding. But applique textiles of which Abomey is famous was a uniquely Dahomean invention dated to around the early 18th century reign of Agadja, who is said to have borrowed the idea from vodun practitioners. Specialist families of embroiders, primarily the Yemaje, the Hantan and the Zinflu, entered the service of various kings, notably Gezo and Glele, and resided in the Azali quarter, while most cloth weavers reside in the gbekon houegbo.[14](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-14-136876141)
The picto-ideograms depicted on the applique cloths that portray figures of animals, objects and humans, are cut of plain weave cotton and sewn to a cotton fabric background. They depict particular kings, their "strong names" (royal name), their great achievements, and notable historical events. The appliques were primary used as wall hangings decorating the interior of elite buildings but also featured on other cloth items and hammocks. Applique motifs were part of a shared media of Dahomey's visual arts that are featured on wall paintings, makpo (scepters), carved gourds and the palace bas-reliefs.[15](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-15-136876141) Red and crimson were the preferred colour of self-representation by Dahomey's elite (and thus its subjects), while enemies were depicted as white, pink, or dark-blue (all often with scarifications associated with Dahomey’s foe: the Yoruba of Oyo).[16](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-16-136876141)
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_**Illustration showing a weaver at their loom in Abomey**_, ca. 1851
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_**Cotton tunics from Abomey, 19th century**_, Quai branly. The second includes a red figure in profile.
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_**Applique cloths from Abomey depicting war scenes**_, _**Quai branly**_. Both show Dahomey soldiers (in crimson with guns) attacking and capturing enemy soldiers (in dark blue/pink with facial scarification). The first is dated to 1856, and the second is from the mid-20th cent.
The bas-reliefs of Dahomey are ornamental low-relief sculptures on sections of the palaces with figurative scenes that recounted legends, commemorated historic battles and enhanced the power of the rulers. Many were narrative representations of specific historical events, motifs of "strong-names" representing the character of individual kings, and as mnemonic devices that allude to different traditions.[17](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-17-136876141)
The royal bas-relief tradition in its complete form likely dates to the 18th century during the reign of Agonglo and would have been derived from similar representations on temples, although most of the oldest surviving reliefs were made by the 19th century kings Gezo and Glele. Like the extensions of old palaces, and building of tombs and new soul-houses, many of the older reliefs were modified and/or added during the reigns of successive kings. Most were added to the two entry halls and protected from the elements by the high-pitched low hanging thatch roof which characterized Abomey's architecture.[18](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-18-136876141)
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_**Reliefs on an old Temple in Abomey**_, ca. 1940, Quai branly.
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_**Bas-reliefs on the reception hall of king Gezo**_, ca. 1900. Metropolitan Museum of Art,
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_**Reconstruction of the reception hall**_, ca. 1925, Quai branly
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_**Bas-reliefs from the palace of King Behanzin**_, ca. 1894-1909, Quai branly
**Abomey in the 19th century from Gezo to Behanzin.**
Royal construction activity at Abomey was revived by Adandozan, who constructed his palace south of Agonglo's extension of Agaja's palace. However, this palace was taken over by his sucessor; King Gezo, who, in his erasure of Adandozan's from the king list, removed all physical traces of his reign. The reigns of the 19th century kings Gezo (r. 1818-1858) and Glele (r.1858-1889) are remembered as a golden age of Dahomey. Gezo was also a prolific builder, constructing multiple palaces and temples across Dahomey. However, he chose to retain Adandozan's palace at Abomey as his primary residence, but enlarged it by adding a two-story entrance hall and soul-houses for each of his predecessors.[19](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-19-136876141)
Gezo used his crowned prince’s palace and the area surrounding it to make architectural assertions of power and ingenuity. In 1828 he constructed the Hounjlo market which became the main market center for Abomey, positioned adjacent and to the west of his crowned prince’s palace and directly south of the royal palace. Around this market he built two multi-storied buildings, which occasionally served as receptions for foreign visitors.[20](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-20-136876141)
Gezo’s sucessor, King Glele (r. 1858-1889) constructed a large palace just south of Gezo's palace; the _Ouehondji_ (palace of glass windows). This was inturn flanked by several buildings he added later, such as the _adejeho_ (house of courage) -a where weapons were stored, a hall for the _ahosi_ (amazons), and a separate reception room where foreigners were received. His sucessor, Behanzin (r. 1889-1894) resided in Glele's palace as his short 3-year reign at Abomey couldn’t permit him to build one of his own before the French marched on the city in 1893/4.[21](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-21-136876141)
As the French army marched on the capital city of Abomey, Behanzin, realizing that continued military resistance was futile, escaped to set up his capital north. Before he left, he ordered the razing of the palace complex, which was preferred to having the sacred tombs and soul-houses falling into enemy hands. Save for the roof thatching, most of the palace buildings remained relatively undamaged. Behanzin's brother Agoli-Agbo (1894-1900) assumed the throne and was later recognized by the French who hoped to retain popular support through indirect rule. Subsquently, Agoli-Agbo partially restored some of the palaces for their symbolic and political significance to him and the new colonial occupiers, who raised a French flag over them, making the end of Abomey autonomy.[22](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-abomey-capital#footnote-22-136876141)
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Section of Gezo’s Simbodji Palace, illustration from 1851.
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Simbodji in 1894
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Simbodji in 1894-1909
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_**Palace complex**_ in 1896, BNF.
East of the kingdom of Dahomey was the Yoruba country of Oyo and Ife, two kingdoms that were **home to a vibrant intellectual culture where cultural innovations were recorded and transmitted orally**;
read more about it here in my latest Patreon article;
[EDUCATION IN AN ORAL SOCIETY](https://www.patreon.com/posts/88655364?pr=true)
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A history of Women's political power and matriliny in the kingdom of Kongo. | In the 19th century, anthropologists were fascinated by the concept of matrilineal descent in which kinship is traced through the female line. | https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power | In the 19th century, anthropologists were fascinated by the concept of matrilineal descent in which kinship is traced through the female line. Matriliny was often confounded with matriarchy as a supposedly earlier stage of social evolution than patriarchy. Matriliny thus became a discrete object of exaggerated importance, particulary in central Africa, where scholars claimed to have identified a "matrilineal belt" of societies from the D.R. Congo to Mozambique, and wondered how they came into being.
This importance of matriliny appeared to be supported by the relatively elevated position of women in the societies of central Africa compared to western Europe, with one 17th century visitor to the Kongo kingdom remarking that _"the government was held by the women and the man is at her side only to help her"_. In many of the central African kingdoms, women could be heads of elite lineages, participate directly in political life, and occasionally served in positions of independent political authority. And in the early 20th century, many speakers of the Kongo language claimed to be members of matrilineal clans known as ‘Kanda’.
Its not difficult to see why a number of scholars would assume that Kongo may have originally been a matrilineal —or even matriarchal— society, that over time became male dominated. And how this matrilineal African society seems to vindicate the colonial-era theories of social evolution in which “less complex” matriarchal societies grow into “more complex” patriarchal states. As is often the case with most social histories of Africa however, the contribution of women to Kongo’s history was far from this simplistic colonial imaginary.
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Scholars have often approached the concept of matriliny in central Africa from an athropological rather than historical perspective. Focusing on how societies are presently structured rather than how these structures changed through time.
One such prominent scholar of west-central Africa, Jan Vansina, observed that matrilineal groups were rare among the foragers of south-west Angola but common among the neighboring agro-pastoralists, indicating an influence of the latter on the former. Vansina postulated that as the agro-pastoral economy became more established in the late 1st millennium, the items and tools associated with it became highly valued property —a means to accumulate wealth and pass it on through inheritance. Matrilineal groups were then formed in response to the increased importance of goods, claims, and statuses, and hence of their inheritance or succession. As leadership and sucession were formalised, social alliances based on claims to common clanship, and stratified social groups of different status were created.[1](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-1-137752120)
According to Vansina, only descent through the mother’s line was used to establish corporate lineages headed by the oldest man of the group, but that wives lived patrilocally (ie: in their husband's residence). He argues that the sheer diversity of kinship systems in the region indicates that matriliny may have developed in different centers along other systems. For example among the Ambundu, the Kongo and the Tio —whose populations dominated the old kingdoms of the region— matrilineages competed with bilateral descent groups. This diverse framework, he suggests, was constantly remodeled by changes in demographics and political development.[2](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-2-137752120)
Yet despite their apparent ubiquity, matrilineal societies were not the majority of societies in the so-called matrilineal belt. Studies by other scholars looking at societies in the Lower Congo basin show that most of them are basically bilateral; they are never unequivocally patrilineal or matrilineal and may “oscillate” between the two.[3](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-3-137752120) More recent studies by other specialists such as Wyatt MacGaffey, argue that there were never really any matrilineal or patrilineal societies in the region, but there were instead several complex and overlapping forms of social organization (regarding inheritance and residency) that were consistently changed depending on what seemed advantageous to a give social group.[4](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-4-137752120)
Moving past contemporary debates on the existance of Matriliny, most scholars agree that the kinship systems in the so-called matrilineal belt was a product of a long and complex history. Focusing on the lower congo river basin, systems of mobilizing people often relied on fictive kinship or non-kinship organizations. In the Kongo kingdom, these groups first appear in internal documents of the 16th-17th century as political factions associated with powerful figures, and they expanded not just through kinship but also by clientage and other dependents. In this period, political loyalty took precedence over kinship in the emerging factions, thus leading to situations where rivaling groups could include people closely related by descent.[5](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-5-137752120)
Kongo's social organization at the turn of the 16th-17th century did not include any known matrilineal descent groups, and that the word _**'kanda**_' —which first appears in the late 19th/early 20th century, is a generic word for any group or category of people or things[6](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-6-137752120). The longstanding illusion that _**'kanda'**_ solely meant matrilineage was based on the linguistic error of supposing that, because in the 20th century the word kanda could mean “matriclan” its occurrence in early Kongo was evidence of matrilineal descent.[7](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-7-137752120) In documents written by Kongo elites, the various political and social groupings were rendered in Portuguese as _**geracao**_, signifying ‘lineage’ or ‘clan’ as early as 1550. But the context in which it was used, shows that it wasn’t simply an umbrella term but a social grouping that was associated with a powerful person, and which could be a rival of another group despite both containing closely related persons.[8](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-8-137752120)
In Kongo, kinship was re-organized to accommodate centralized authority and offices of administration were often elective or appointive rather than hereditary. Kings were elected by a royal council comprised of provincial nobles, many of whom were themselves appointed by the elected Kings, alongside other officials. The kingdom's centralized political system —where even the King was elected— left a great deal of discretion for the placement of people in positions of power, thus leaving relatively more room for women to hold offices than if sucession to office was purely hereditary. But it also might weaken some women's power when it was determined by their position in kinship systems.[9](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-9-137752120)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa1bafc76-fb25-49ac-a484-0d66584ecab5_696x557.png)
_**Aristocratic women of Kongo, ca. 1663, [the Parma Watercolors](https://mavcor.yale.edu/mavcor-journal/nature-culture-and-faith-seventeenth-century-kongo-and-angola).**_
[Share](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share)
Kongo's elite women could thus access and exercise power through two channels. The first of these is appointment into office by the king to grow their core group of supporters, the second is playing the strategic role of power brokers, mediating disputes between rivalling kanda or rivaling royals.
Elite women appear early in Kongo's documented history in the late 15th century when the adoption of Christianity by King Nzinga Joao's court was opposed by some of his wives but openly embraced by others, most notably the Queen Leonor Nzinga a Nlaza. Leonor became an important patron for the nascent Kongo church, and was closely involved in ensuring the sucession of her son Nzinga Afonso to the throne, as well as Afonso's defeat of his rival brother Mpanzu a Nzinga.[10](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-10-137752120)
Leonor held an important role in Kongo’s politics, not only as a person who controlled wealth through rendas (revenue assignments) held in her own right, but also as a “daughter and mother of a king”, a position that according to a 1530 document such a woman _**“by that custom commands everything in Kongo”**_. Her prominent position in Kongo's politics indicates that she wielded significant political power, and was attimes left in charge of the kingdom while Afonso was campaigning.[11](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-11-137752120)
Not long after Leonor Nzinga’s demise appeared another prominent woman named dona Caterina, who also bore the title of '_**mwene Lukeni**_' as the head of the royal _**kanda**_/lineage of the Kongo kingdom's founder Lukeni lua Nimi (ca. 1380). This Caterina was related to Afonso's son and sucessor Pedro, who was installed in 1542 but later deposed and arrested by his nephew Garcia in 1545. Unlike Leonor however, Caterina was unsuccessful in mediating the factious rivary between the two kings and their supporters, being detained along with Pedro.[12](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-12-137752120)
In the suceeding years, kings drawn from different factions of the _lukeni_ lineage continued to rule Kongo until the emergence of another powerful woman named Izabel Lukeni lua Mvemba, managed to get her son Alvaro I (r. 1568-1587) elected to the throne. Alvaro was the son of Izabel and a Kongo nobleman before Izabel later married Alvaro's predecessor, king Henrique, who was at the time still a prince. But after king Henrique died trying to crush a _jaga_ rebellion in the east, Alvaro was installed, but was briefly forced to flee the capital which was invaded by the _jaga_s before a Kongo-Portugal army drove them off. Facing stiff opposition internally, Alvaro relied greatly on his mother; Izabel and his daughter; Leonor Afonso, to placate the rivaling factions. The three thereafter represented the founders of the new royal _**kanda**_/house of _kwilu_, which would rule Kongo until 1624.[13](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-13-137752120)
Following in the tradition of Kongo's royal women, Leonor Afonso was a patron of the church. But since only men could be involved in clerical capacities, Leonor tried to form an order of nuns in Kongo, following the model of the Carmelite nuns of Spain. She thus sent letters to the prioress of the Carmelites to that end. While the leader of the Carmelite mission in Kongo and other important members of the order did their best to establish the nunnery in Kongo, the attempt was ultimately fruitless. Leonor neverthless remained active in Kongo's Church, funding the construction of churches, and assisting the various missions active in the kingdom. Additionally, the Kongo elite created female lay associations alongside those of men that formed a significant locus of religiosity and social prestige for women in Kongo.[14](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-14-137752120)
As late as 1648, Leonor continued to play an important role in Kongo's politics, she represented the House of _kwilu_ started by king Alvaro and was thus a bridge, ally or plotter to the many descendants of Alvaro still in Kongo. One visiting missionary described her as _**“a woman**_ _**of very few words, but much judgment and government, and because of her sage experience and prudent counsel the king Garcia and his predecessor Alvaro always venerate and greatly esteem her and consult her for the best outcome of affairs"**_. This was despite both kings being drawn from a different lineage, as more factions had appeared in the intervening period.[15](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-15-137752120)
The early 17th century was one of the best documented periods in Kongo's history, and in highlighting the role of women in the kingdom's politics and society. Alvaro's sucessors, especially Alvaro II and III, appointed women in positions of administration and relied on them as brokers between the various factions. When Alvaro III died without an heir, a different faction managed to get their candidate elected as King Pedro II (1622-1624). Active at Pedro's royal council were a number of powerful women who also included women of the _Kwilu_ house such as Leonor Afonso, and Alvaro II's wife Escolastica. Both of them played an important role in mediating the transition from Alvaro III and Pedro II, at a critical time when Portugual invaded Kongo but was defeated at Mbanda Kasi.[16](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-16-137752120)
Besides these was Pedro II's wife Luiza, who was now a daughter and mother of a King upon the election of her son Garcia I to suceed the short-lived Pedro. However, Garcia I fell out of favour with the other royal women of the coucil (presumably Leonor and Escolastica), who were evidently now weary of the compromise of electing Pedro that had effectively removed the house of Kwilu from power. The royal women, who were known as “the matrons”, sat on the royal council and participated in decision making. They thus used the forces of an official appointed by Alvaro III, to depose Garcia I and install the former's nephew Ambrosio as king of Kongo.[17](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-17-137752120)
However, the _kwilu_ restoration was short-lived as kings from new houses suceeded them, These included Alvaro V of the _'kimpanzu'_ house, who was then deposed by another house; the ‘_kinlaza’_, represented by kings Alvaro VI (r. 1636-1641) and Garcia II (r. 1641-1661) . Yet throughout this period, the royal women retained a prominent position on Kongo's coucil, with Leonor in particular continuing to appear in Garcia II's court. Besides Leonor Afonso was Garcia II's sister Isabel who was an important patron of Kongo's church and funded the construction of a number of mission churches. Another was a second Leonor da Silva who was the sister of the count of Soyo (a rebellious province in the north), and was involved in an attempt to depose Garcia II.[18](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-18-137752120)
In some cases, women ruled provinces in Kongo during the 17th century and possessed armies which they directed. The province of Mpemba Kasi, just north of the capital, was ruled by a woman with the title of _'mother of the King of Kongo'_, while the province of Nsundi was jointly ruled by a duchess named Dona Lucia and her husband Pedro, the latter of whom at one point directed her armies against her husband due to his infidelity. According to a visiting priest in 1664, the power exercised by women wasn't just symbolic, _**"the government was held by the women and the man is at her side only to help her"**_. However, the conflict between Garcia II and the count of Soyo which led to the arrest of the two Leonors in 1652 and undermined their role as mediators, was part of the internal processes which eventually weakened the kingdom that descended into civil war after 1665.[19](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-19-137752120)
In the post-civil war period, women assumed a more direct role in Kongo's politics as kingmakers and as rulers of semi-autonomous provinces. After the capital was abandoned, effective power lay in regional capitals such as Mbanza Nkondo which was controlled by Ana Afonso de Leao, and Luvota which was controlled by Suzanna de Nobrega. The former was the sister of Garcia II and head of his royal house of _kinlaza_, while the latter was head of the _kimpanzu_ house, both of these houses would produce the majority of Kongo's kings during their lifetimes, and continuing until 1914. Both women exercised executive power in their respective realms, they were recognized as independent authorities during negotiations to end the civil war, and their kinsmen were appointed into important offices.[20](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-20-137752120)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc1dab79-44d0-4827-8b85-8d012dcad5e5_497x566.png)
_**Map of Kongo around 1700.**_
The significance of Kongo's women in the church increased in the late 17th to early 18th century. Queen Ana had a reputation for piety, and even obtained the right to wear the habit of a Capuchin monk, and an unamed Queen who suceeded Suzanna at Luvota was also noted for her devotion. It was in this context that the religious movement led by a [princess Beatriz Kimpa Vita](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/one-womans-mission-to-unite-a-divided), which ultimately led to the restoration of the kingdom in 1709. Her movement further "indigenized" the Kongo church and elevated the role of women in Kongo's society much like the royal women had been doing. [21](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-21-137752120)
For the rest of the 18th century, many women dominated the political landscape of Kongo. Some of them, such as Violante Mwene Samba Nlaza, ruled as Queen regnant of the 'kingdom' of Wadu. The latter was one of the four provinces of Kongo but its ruler, Queen Violante, was virtually autonomous. She appointed dukes, commanded armies which in 1764 attempted to install a favorable king on Kongo's throne and in 1765 invaded Portuguese Angola. Violante was later suceeded as Queen of Wadu by Brites Afonso da Silva, another royal woman who continued the line of women sovereigns in the kingdom.[22](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-22-137752120)
Women in Kongo continued to appear in positions of power during the 19th century, albeit less directly involved in the kingdom's politics as consorts of powerful merchants, but many of them were prominent traders in their own right[23](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-23-137752120). Excavations of burials from sites like Kindoki indicate that close social groups of elites were interred in the same cemetery complex alongside rich grave goods as well as Christian insignia of royalty. Among these elites were women who were likely consorts or matriarchs of the male relatives buried alongside them. The presence of initiatory items of _kimpasi_ society as well as long distance trade goods next to the women indicates their relatively high status.[24](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-24-137752120)
It’s during this period that the matrilineal ‘kandas’ first emerged near the coastal regions, and were most likely associated with the commercial revolutions of the period as well as contests of legitimacy and land rights in the early colonial era.[25](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-25-137752120) The social histories of these clans were then synthesized in traditional accounts of the kingdom’s history at the turn of the 20th century, and uncritically reused by later scholars as accurate reconstructions of Kongo’s early history. While a few of the clans were descended from the old royal houses (which were infact patrilineal), the majority of the modern clans were relatively recent inventions.[26](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-26-137752120)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6d8348c2-d9fe-4495-82fe-074416d02150_712x505.png)
_**17th century illustration of Kongo titled “[Palm tree that gives wine”](https://mavcor.yale.edu/slice/palm-tree-gives-wine-october-may)**_, showing a woman with a gourd of palm wine. During the later centuries, women dominated the domestic trade in palm wine especially along important carravan routes in the kingdom.[27](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power#footnote-27-137752120)
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The above overview of women in Kongo's history shows that elite women were deeply and decisively involved in the political and social organization of the Kongo kingdom. In a phenomenon that is quite exceptional for the era, the political careers of several women can be readily identified; ranging from shadowy but powerful figures in the early period, to independent authorities during the later period.
This outline also reveals that the organization of social relationships in Kongo were significantly influenced by the kingdom's political history. The kingdom’s loose political factions and social groups which; could be headed by powerful women or men; could be created upon the ascension of a new king; and didn't necessary contain close relatives, fail to meet the criteria of a historically 'matrilineal society'.
Ultimately, the various contributions of women to Kongo's history were the accomplishments of individual actors working against the limitations of male-dominated political and religious spaces to create one of Africa’s most powerful kingdoms.
The ancient libraries of Africa contain many scientific manuscripts written by African scholars. **Among the most significant collections of Africa’s scientific literature are medical manuscripts written by west African physicians** between the 15th and 19th century.
**Read more about them here:**
[HISTORY OF MEDICINE IN AFRICA](https://www.patreon.com/posts/history-of-in-on-90073735)
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"tokens": 6216
} |
A history of the Loango kingdom (ca.1500-1883) : Power, Ivory and Art in west-central Africa. | Africa's past carved in ivory | https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500 | For more than five centuries, the kingdom of Loango dominated the coastal region of west central Africa between the modern countries of Gabon and Congo-Brazzaville. As a major regional power, Loango controlled lucrative trade routes that funneled African commodities into local and international markets, chief among which was ivory.
Loango artists created intricately carved ivory sculptures which reflected their sophisticated skill and profound cultural values, making their artworks a testament to the region's artistic and historical heritage. Loango ivories rank among the most immediate primary sources that offer direct African perspectives from an era of social and political change in west-central Africa on the eve of colonialism
This article explores the political and economic history of Loango, focusing on the kingdom's ivory trade and its ivory-carving tradition.
_**Map of west-central Africa in 1650 showing the kingdom of Loango**_
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fea1ef028-8254-43ec-8cf9-26acaef01d55_625x473.png)
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**The government in Loango**
Beginning in the early 2nd millennium, the lower Congo river valley was divided into political and territorial units of varying sizes whose influence over their neighbors changed over time. The earliest state to emerge in the region was the kingdom of Kongo by the end of the 14th century, and it appears in external accounts as a fully centralized state in the 1480s. The polity of Loango would have emerged not long after Kongo's ascendance but wouldn't appear in the earliest accounts of west-central Africa.[1](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-1-119689450)
Loango was likely under the control of Kongo in the early 16th century, since the latter of which was nominally the suzerain of several early states in the lower Congo valley where its first rulers had themselves originated. Around the end of his reign, the Kongo king Diogo I (r. 1545-1561) sent a priest to named Sebastião de Souto to the court of the ruler of loango. Traditions documented in the 17th century credit a nobleman named Njimbe for establishing the independent kingdom of Loango.[2](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-2-119689450)
Njimbe built his power through the skillful use of force and alliances, conquering the neighboring polities of Wansi, Kilongo and Piri, the last of which become the home of his capital; Buali (_**Mbanza loango**_) near the coast. In the Kikongo language, a person from Piri would be called a _**Muvili**_, hence the origin of the term Vili as an ethnonym for people from the Kingdom of Loango[3](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-3-119689450). But the Vili "ethnicity" came to include anyone from the so-called Loango coast which included territories controlled by other states.[4](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-4-119689450)
Kongo lost any claims of suzerainty over Loango by 1584, as the latter was then fully independent, and had disappeared from the royal titles of Kongo's kings. In the 1580s, caravans coming from Loango regularly went inland to purchase copper, ivory and cloth. And increasing external demand for items from the interior augmented the pre-existing commercial configurations to the benefit of Loango, which extended its cultural and political influence along the coast as far as cape Lopez.[5](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-5-119689450)
Once a vassal of Kongo, Loango became a competitor of its former overlord as a supplier of Atlantic commodities. After the death of Njimbe in 1565, power passed to another king who ruled over sixty years until 1625. Loango had since consolidated its control over a large stretch of coastline, established the ports of Loango and Mayumba, and was expanding southward. The pattern of conquest and consolidation had given Loango a complex government, centered in a core province ruled directly by the king and royals, while outlying provinces remained under their pre-conquest dynasties who were supervised by appointed officials.[6](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-6-119689450)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe7d28453-2714-41a6-b8e0-803cb4c6c4f5_1962x1407.jpeg)
_**Colorized illustration of Olfert Dapper’s drawing of the Loango Capital, ca. 1686**_
By 1624, Loango expanded eastwards, using a network of military alliances to attack the eastern polities of Vungu and Wansi. These overtures were partly intended to monopolize the trade in copper and ivory in Bukkameale, a region that lay within the textile-producing belt of west-central Africa. This frontier region of Bukkameale located between Loango and Tio/Makoko kingdom, contained the copper mines of Mindouli/Mingole, and was the destination of most Vili carravans which regulary travelled through the interior both on foot and by canoe.[7](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-7-119689450)
The importance of Ivory, Cloth and Copper to Loango's rulers can be gleaned from this account by an early 17th century Dutch observer;
_**"**_\[The king\] _**has tremendous income, with houses full of elephant’s tusks, some of them full of copper, and many of them with lebongos**_ \[raphia cloth\]_**, which are common currency here… During my stay, more than 50,000 lbs.**_ \[of ivory\] _**were traded each year. … There is also much beautiful red copper, most of which comes from the kingdom of the Isiques**_ \[Makoko\] _**in the form of large copper arm-rings weighing between 1½ and 14 lb., which are smuggled out of the**_ \[Makoko\] _**country".**_[8](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-8-119689450)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06e0ac8a-3d98-4719-9388-081b98cf92c0_431x677.png)
_**detail on a carved ivory tusk from Loango, depicting figures traveling by canoe and on foot. 1830-1887, No. TM-A-11083, Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen**_
Before the unnamed king's death in 1625, he instituted a rotation system of sucession in which each of the rulers of the four districts (Kaye, Boke, Selage, and Kabongo) within the core province would take the title of king. The first selected was Yambi ka Mbirisi from Kaye, who suceeded to the throne but had to face a brief sucession crisis from his rival candidates. The tenuous sucession system held for a while but evidently couldn't be maintained for long. In 1663, Loango was ruled by a king who, following a diplomatic and religious exchange with Kongo's province of Soyo, had taken up the name 'Afonso' after the famous king of Kongo.[9](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-9-119689450)
Afonso hoped his connection to Soyo would increase his power at the expense of the four other nobles meant to suceed him in rotation, since he’d expect to be suceeded by his sons instead. But this plan failed and Afonso was deposed by rival claimant who was himself deposed by another king in 1665. This started a civil war that ended in the 1670s, and when the king died, the rotation system was replaced by a state council (similar to the one in Kongo and other kingdoms), which elected kings. _**“they could raise one king up and replace him with another to their pleasure.”**_[10](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-10-119689450)
For most of the 18th century, the king's power was reduced as that of the councilors grew with each election. These councilors included the Magovo and the Mapouto who managed foreign affairs, the Makaka who commanded the army, the Mfuka who was in charge of trade, and the Makimba who had authority over the coast and interior. The king's role was confined to judicial matters such as resolving disputes and hearing cases.[11](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-11-119689450)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F511fed62-2c13-45c7-be6b-528f976f8c0e_561x670.png)
_**Detail of 19th century tusk, showing the emblem of the “Prime Minister of Loango ‘Mafuka Peter’” in the form of a coat of arms consisting of two seated animals in semi-rampant posture holding a perforated object between them. No. 11.10.83.2 -National Museums Liverpool.**_[12](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-12-119689450)
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_**“Audience of the King of Loango”, ca. 1756, Thomas Salmon**_
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After the death of a king, the election period often extended for some time while the country was nominally led by a 'Mani Boman' (regent) chosen by the king before his death. In 1701, no king had been elected despite the previous one having died nine months earlier, the kingdom was in the regency of Makunda in the interim. After the death of a king named Makossa in 1766, none was elected to succeed him in the 6 years that followed during which time the kingdom was led by two "regents". In 1772, Buatu was finally elected king, but when he died in 1787, no king was elected for nearly a century.[13](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-13-119689450)
From 1787 to 1870, executive power in Loango was held by the Nganga Mvumbi (priest of the corpse), another pre-existing official figure whose duty was to oversee the body of the king as he awaited burial. During the century-long interregnum, seven people holding this title acted as the leaders of the state. Their legitimacy lay in the claim that there was no suitable sucessor in the pool of candidates for the throne. The Nganga Mvumbi became part of the royal council which thus preserved its power by indefinitely postponing the election of the king. But the kingdom remained centralized in the hands of this bureaucracy, who exercised power in the name of the (deceased) king, collecting taxes, regulating trade, waging war and engaging with regional and foreign states.[14](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-14-119689450)
Descriptions of Loango in 1874 show a country firmly in the hands of the Nganga Mvumbi and his officers, although in the coastal areas, local officials begun to usurp official titles such as the Mafuk, which was sold to prominent families. New merchant classes also emerged among the low ranking nobles called the Mfumu Nsi, who built up power by attracting followers, dependents and slaves, as a consequence of increasing wealth from the commodities trade.[15](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-15-119689450)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1c2c8a20-f7bb-476b-b6b4-80f2c6377444_442x662.png)
_**detail of a 19th century Loango tusk depicting pipe-smoking figures being carried on a litter, No. TM-6049-29 -Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen**_
**External Ivory trade from Loango**
Loango, like most of its peers in central Africa had a mostly agricultural economy with some crafts industries for making textiles, iron and copper working, ivory and wood carving, etc. They had regular markets and used commodity currencies like cloth and copper and were marginally engaged in export trade. External trade items varied depending on demand and cost of purchase, but they primarily consisted of ivory, copper, captives, and cloth. These were acquired by private Vili merchants who were active in the segmented regional exchanges across regional trade routes, some extending as far as central Angola.[16](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-16-119689450)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F10ca3d45-ea9d-40c3-b5e7-c5888a1c3e8e_458x622.png)
_**detail on a 19th century Loango tusk depicting an elephant pinning down a hunter while another hunter aims a rifle at its head.**_ No. 96-28-1 _**\-**_Smithsonian Museum
The Vili's external trade was an extension of regional trade routes, no single state and no single item continuously dominated the entire region's external trade from the 16th to the 19th century. Cloth and salt was used as a means of exchange in caravans leaving Loango to trade in the interior. Among the goods acquired on these trade routes were ivory, copper, redwood and others. Most products were used for local consumption or intermediary exchange to facilitate acquisition of ivory and copper. Ivory was mostly acquired from the frontier regions, which were occupied by various groups including foragers ("pygmies"). The latter obtained the ivory using traps, and competitively sold it to both Loango and Makoko traders.[17](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-17-119689450)
The earliest external demand for Loango's ivory came from Portuguese traders. The Portuguese crown had attempted to monopolize trade between its own agents active along Loango's coast but this proved difficult to enforce as the Loango king refused the establishment of a Portuguese post in his region. This confined the Portuguese to the south and effectively edged them out of the ivory trade in favor of other buyers like the Dutch.[18](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-18-119689450)
Such was Loango's commitment to open trade that when the Dutch ship of the ivory trader Van den Broecke was captured by a Portuguese ship in 1608, armed forces from Loango intercepted the Portuguese ship, executed its crew and freed the Dutch prisoners.[19](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-19-119689450) The Portuguese didn't entirely abandon trade with loango, and would maintain a token presence well in to the 1600s. They also used other European agents as intermediaries. Eg from 1590-1610, the English trader Andrew Battell who had been detained in Luanda, visited Loango as an agent for the governor of Luanda. He mentions trading some fabric for three 120-pound tusks and cloth.[20](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-20-119689450)
The Dutch become the most active traders on the Loango coast beginning in the early 17th century. The account of the Dutch ivory trader Pieter van den Broecke who was active in Loango between 1610 and 1612 provides some of the most detailed descriptions of this early trade. Broecke operated trading stations in the ports of Loango and Maiomba, where he specialized in camwood, raffia cloth and ivory, items that were cheaper and easier to store than the main external trade of the time which was captives. The camwood (used for dyeing cloth) and the raffia cloth (used in local trade) were mostly intermediaries commodities used to purchase ivory.[21](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-21-119689450)
Broecke and his agents acquired about 311,000 pounds of ivory after several trading seasons in Loango across a 5-year period. Most of the ivory came from private traders in the kingdom with a few coming from the Loango king himself. At the same time, Loango continued to be a major exporter of other items including cloth called makuta, of which up to 80,000 meters were traded with Luanda in 1611.[22](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-22-119689450)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fed00d656-d491-4921-88ff-f2f891cf95dd_599x386.jpeg)
_**work made by ivory carvers in Loango, ca. 1910**_
The Dutch activities in Loango must have threatened Portuguese interests in the region, since the kings of Kongo and Ndongo sucessfully exploited the Dutch-Portuguese rivalry for their own interests. In 1624 the Luanda governor Fernão de Souza requested the Loango King to close the Dutch trading post, in exchange for buying all supplies of ivory, military assistance and a delegation of priests. But the Loango king rejected all offers, and continued to trade with the Dutch.[23](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-23-119689450)
Loango's ivory exports continued in significant quantities well into the late 17th century, but some observers noted that the advancement of the ivory frontier inland. Basing on information received from merchants active in Loango, the Ducth writer Olfert Dapper indicated that by the 1660s, supplies of ivory at the coast were decreasing because of the great difficulties in obtaining it.[24](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-24-119689450)
The gradual decline in external ivory trade coincided with the rise in demand of slaves.[25](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-25-119689450) In the last decades of the 17th century, the Loango port briefly became a major embarkation point for captives from the interior, as several routes converged at the port.[26](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-26-119689450) But Loango's port was soon displaced by Malemba, (a port of Kakongo kingdom) and later by Cabinda (a port of Ngoyo kingdom) in the 18th century, and lastly by Boma in the early 19th century, the first three of which were located on the so-called 'Loango coast'. Mentions of Loango in external accounts therefore don't exclusively refer to the kingdom, anymore than 'the bight of Benin' refers to areas controlled by the Benin kingdom.[27](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-27-119689450)
External Ivory trade continued in the 18th century, with records of significant exports in 1787, and the trade had fully recovered in the 19th century as the main export of Loango and its immediate neighbors after the decline of slave trade. The rising demand for commodities such as palm oil, rubber, camwood and ivory, reinvigorated established systems of trade and more than 78 factories were established along Loango's coast. Large exports of ivory were noted by visitors and traders in Loango and the kakongo kingdoms as early as 1817 and 1820, especially through the port of Mayumba.[28](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-28-119689450)
Vili carravans crossed territorial boundaries in different polities protected by toll points, and shrines with armed escorts provided by local rulers. Rising prices compensated the distances and capital invested by traders in acquiring the ivory whose frontier continued to expand inland. The wealth and dependents accumulated by the traders and the 'Mafuk' authorities at the coast gradually eroded the power of the central authorities in the capital. Factory communities created new markets for Vili entrepreneurs including ivory carvers who found new demand beyond their usual royal clientele. Its these carvers that created the iconic ivory artworks of Loango.[29](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-29-119689450)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89b9ec82-7e3a-4792-be31-6c3f74b703c4_630x620.png)
Detail on a carved ivory tusk from Loango, ca. 1890, No. 71.1973.24.1 -Quai branly, depicting a European coastal ‘factory’
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F087c069c-5cd2-4012-b775-36a0a60440cb_862x556.png)
_**Carved ivory tusk from Loango, ca. 1906, No. IIIC20534, Berlin Ethnological Museum**_. depicting traders negotiating and giving tribute, and a procession of porters carrying merchandise.
**The Ivory Art tradition of Loango**
The carving of ivory in Loango was part of an old art tradition attested across many kingdoms in west central Africa.
For example, the earliest records of the Kongo kingdom mention the existence of carved ivory artworks that were given as gifts in diplomatic exchanges with foreign rulers. A 1492 account by the Portuguese chronicler Rui de Pina narrates the conversion of Caçuta (called a “fidalgo” of the Kongo kingdom) and the gifts he brought to Portugal which included _**“elephant tusks, and carved ivory things…”**_ Another account by Garcia de Resende in the 1530s describes _**“a gift of many elephant tusks and carved ivory things..”**_ among other items. Ivory trumpets and bracelets are also mentioned as part of the royal regalia of the king of Kongo.[30](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-30-119689450)
In Loango, the account of the abovementioned English trader Andrew Battell also refers to the ivory trumpets (called pongo or mpunga) at the King's court. He describes these royal trumpets as instruments made with an elephant's tusk, hollow inside, measuring a yard and a half, with an opening like that of a flute. He also mentions a royal burial ground near the capital that was encompassed by elephant tusks set into the ground.[31](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-31-119689450)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdbc3fd12-c278-43de-beb1-03d659f03974_1000x601.png)
_**side-blown ivory Oliphant from the kingdom of Kongo, ca. 1552, Treasury of the Grand Dukes, italy**_
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffd8e53ed-967b-4d14-84fb-2d398ac1394f_599x387.jpeg)
_**Ivory sculptors in Loango, ca. 1910**_
More detailed descriptions of Loango's ivory carving tradition were recorded in the 19th century. These include the account of Pechuël-Loesche's 1873 visit of Loango which includes mentions of ivory and wood carvings depicting the Loango king riding an elephant, that was a popular motif carved onto many private pieces, especially trumpets. Such instruments were costly and only used in festivals after which they were carefully stored away. Pechuël-Loesche believed these royal carvings inspired the pieces carved by private artists of whom he wrote _**"many have an outstanding skill in meticulously carving free hand”.**_[32](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-32-119689450)
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_**Carved ivory tusk from Loango, ca. 1875, no. III C 429, Berlin Ethnological Museum.**_ It depicts a succession of genre-like scenes arranged in rows spiraling around the longitudinal axis, it shows activities associated with coastal trading stations as well as hunting and processions of porters.
Artists in Loango were commisioned by both domestic and foreign clients to create artworks based on the client's preferences. For European clients, the carvers would reproduce a paper sketch on alternative surfaces such as wood using charcoal as ink, and then carefully render the artwork on ivory using different tools
One visitor in 1884 describes the process as such;
_**"On a spiral going all around the large tusk like the arrangement upon the column of trajan, there were depicted a multitude of figures (40 to 100) first incised with a sharp piece of metal; then, by means of two small chisels, sometimes also nails, a bas-relief was produced with a wooden mallet; and then the whole thing was smoothed off with a small knife.**_[33](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-33-119689450)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd5195451-1001-424b-a1de-8e8dfd412f15_620x784.png)
_**Elaborately carved ivory tusk depicting human and animal figures in various scenes, ca. 1890, No. 71.1966.26.16, 71.1966.26.15, 71.1890.67.1 Quai branly**_
The main motifs were human and animal figures depicted in scenes that revolve around specific themes. The human figures include both local and foreign individuals, who are slightly differentiated by clothing, activities and facial hair.[34](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-34-119689450) The figures are always viewed from the side, in profile while the top often has a three-dimensional figure. Themes depicted include trade, travel, hunting in the countryside as well as activities around the factory communities. The latter scenes in particular reflect the semi-colonial contexts in which they were made, with artists exerting subversive criticism through selected imagery.[35](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-35-119689450)
While most of the extant Loango tusks in western institutions were evidently commissioned for European clients, the artists who carved the tusks asserted control over the narratives they depicted.[36](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-36-119689450) Despite the de-centralized nature of the artists’ workshops across nearly a century, the narratives depicted remained remarkably consistent. The collector Carl Stecklemann who visisted Loango before 1889 suggests that the vignettes on the carved tusks chronicled “stirring events” in a great man’s career and were “carefully studied”, while another account from the 1880s suggests that they were “intended to tell stories and to point morals,” [37](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-37-119689450)
One particulary exceptional tusk recreates four postcard images that were photographed by the commissioner of the tusk, German collector Robert Visser. In this tusk, the Loango artist skillfully returned his German surveyors’ surveillance by including a carving showing the latter taking a photo of the site.[38](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-38-119689450) The Loango kingdom formally ended in 1883 when its capital was occupied by the French, but its art tradition would continue throughout the colonial and post-colonial era, with Vili artists creating some of the most exquisite tourist souvenirs on the continent.
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe6c11a64-4e52-40c7-821a-b483f4fcce2f_856x541.png)
_**detail of a 19th century Loango ivory tusk depicting the harvesting of palm oil, on the right is a postcard by Robert Visser in Loango**_, photos by Smithsonian[39](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-loango-kingdom-ca1500#footnote-39-119689450)
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_**Carved ivory tusk, made by a congolese artist, ca. 1927, No. TM-5969-203 Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen**_
The African religion of Bori and its Maguzawa Hausa practitioners, are some of the best-documented traditional african practices described by pre-colonial African historians. **Kano's Muslim elite recognized the significance of the traditional Bori faith and the Maguzawa in the city-state's history and ensured that their contributions were documented.**
Read more about it here:
[KANO'S MAGUZAWA AND THE BORI RELIGION](https://www.patreon.com/posts/82189267?pr=true)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F01f6330e-3f4e-4087-8908-cc1f4e821489_615x1207.jpeg)
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Life and works of Africa's most famous Woman scholar: Nana Asmau (1793-1864) | On the contribution of Muslim women in African history. | https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous | Throughout its history, Africa has produced many notable women scholars who contributed greatly to its intellectual heritage.[1](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-1-144303681) But few are as prominent as the 19th-century scholar Nana Asmau from the Sokoto empire in what is today northern Nigeria.
Nana Asmau was one of Africa's most prolific writers, with over eighty extant works to her name and many still being discovered. She was a popular teacher, a multilingual author, and an eloquent ideologue, able to speak informedly on a wide range of topics including religion, medicine, politics, history, and issues of social concern. Her legacy as a community leader for the women of Sokoto survives in the institutions created out of her social activism, and the voluminous works of poetry still circulated by students.
This article explores the life and works of Nana Asmau, highlighting some of her most important written works in the context of the political and social history of west Africa.
_**Map of the Sokoto Caliphate in 1850, by Paul Lovejoy**_
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**Early life of Nana Asmau and the foundation of the Sokoto state.**
Born Nana Asma'u bint Usman 'dan Fodio in 1793 into a family of scholars in the town of Degel within the Hausa city-state of Gobir, she composed the first of her approximately eighty known works in 1820. Many of these works have been translated and studied in the recent publications of Jean Boyd and other historians. The fact that Nana Asmau needed no male pseudonym, unlike most of her Western peers, says a lot about the intellectual and social milieu in which she operated.
While Asmau was extraordinary in her prolific poetic output and activism, she was not an exception but was instead one in a long line of women scholars that came before and continued after her. Asmau was typical of her time and place with regard to the degree to which women pursued knowledge, and could trace eight generations of female scholars both before and after her lifetime. At least twenty of these women scholars can be identified from her family alone between the 18th and 19th centuries based on works written during this period, seven of whom were mentioned in Asmau’s compilation of women scholars, and at least four of whose works survive.[2](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-2-144303681)
These women were often related to men who were also accomplished scholars, the most prominent of whom was Asmau's father Uthman dan Fodio who founded the Sokoto state. One of the major preoccupations of Uthman and his successors was the abolition of "innovation" and a return to Islamic "orthodoxy". Among the main criticisms that he leveled against the established rulers (and his own community) was their marginalization of women in Education. Disregarding centuries of hadiths and scholarly commentaries on the message of the Prophet, the shaykh emphasized the need to recognize the fact that Islam, in its pristine form, didn’t tolerate for any minimalization of women’s civic rights.[3](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-3-144303681)
He writes that _**“Most of our educated men leave their wives, their daughters and their female relatives ... to vegetate, like beasts, without teaching them what Allah prescribes they should be taught and without instructing them in the articles of Law that concern them. This is a loathsome crime. How can they allow their wives, daughters, and female dependents to remain prisoners of ignorance, while they share their knowledge with students every day? In truth, they are acting out of self-interest”**_.[4](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-4-144303681)
He adds; _**“One of the root causes of the misfortunes of this country is the attitude taken by Malams who neglect the welfare of the women. they \[Women\] are not taught what they ought to know about trading transactions; this is quite wrong and a forbidden innovation. It is obligatory to teach wives, daughters, and female dependants: the teaching of \[male\] pupils is optional and what is obligatory has priority over what is optional.”**_[5](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-5-144303681) And in another text critical of some of the 'pagan' practices he saw among some of his own community, he writes that _**"They do not teach their wives nor do they allow them to be educated, All these things stem from ignorance. They are not the Way of the Prophet"**_.[6](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-6-144303681)
Asmau’s creative talents were cultivated in the [school system of Islamic West Africa](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-network-of-african-scholarship), in which learning was individualized under a specific teacher for an individual subject, relying on reference material from their vast personal libraries. Asmau was taught by multiple teachers throughout her life even as she taught other students, and was especially fortunate as her own family included highly accomplished scholars who were teachers in Degel. These teachers included her sister, Khadija, her father, Shaykh Uthman, and her half-brother, Muhammad Bello, all of whom wrote several hundred works combined, many of which survived to the present day.[7](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-7-144303681)
Nana Asma'u mastered the key Islamic sciences, acquired fluency in writing the languages of Hausa, Arabic, and Tamasheq, in addition to her native language Fulfulde, and became well-versed in legal matters, fiqh (which regulates religious conduct), and tawhid(dogma). Following in the footsteps of her father, she became deeply immersed in the dominant Qadriyya order of Sufi mysticism. The first ten years of her life were devoted to scholarly study, before the beginning of Uthman’s movement to establish the Sokoto state. There followed a decade of itinerancy and warfare, through which Asma’u continued her studies, married, and wrote poetic works.[8](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-8-144303681)
Around 1807, Asmau married Gidado dan Laima (1776-1850 ), a friend of Muhammad Bello who later served as wazir (‘prime minister’) of Sokoto during the latter's reign. Gidado encouraged Asmau’s intellectual endeavors and, as Bello’s closest companion, was able to foster the convergence of his wife’s interests with her brother’s. In Asmaus elegy for Gidado titled; _Sonnore Gid'ad'o_ (1848), she lists his personal qualities and duties to the state, mentioning that he _**"protected the rights of everyone regardless of their rank or status… stopped corruption and wrongdoing in the city and … honoured the Shehu's womenfolk."**_[9](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-9-144303681)
**Asmau’s role in documenting the history and personalities of Sokoto**
Asmau was a major historian of Sokoto, and an important witness of many of the accounts she described, some of which she may have participated in as she is known to have ridden her horse publically while traveling between the cities of Sokoto, Kano, and Wurno[10](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-10-144303681).
Asmau wrote many historical works about the early years of Uthman Fodio's movement and battles, the various campaigns of Muhammad Bello (r. 1817-1837) eg his defeat of the Tuaregs at Gawakuke in 1836, and the campaigns of Aliyu (r. 1842-1859) eg his defeat of the combined forces of Gobir and Kebbi. She also wrote about the reign and character of Muhammad Bello, and composed various elegies for many of her peers, including at least four women scholars; Fadima (d. 1838), Halima (d. 1844), Zaharatu (d. 1857), Fadima (d. 1863) and Hawa’u (1858) —the last of whom was one of her appointed women leaders[11](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-11-144303681). All of these were of significant historical value for reconstructing not just the political and military history of Sokoto, but also its society, especially on the role of women in shaping its religious and social institutions[12](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-12-144303681).
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folio from the fulfulde manuscript _**Fa'inna ma'al Asur Yasuran**_ (So Verily), 1822, SOAS
One notable battle described by Asmau was the fall of the Gobir capital Alƙalawa in 1808, which was arguably the most decisive event in the foundation of Sokoto. Folklore attributes to Asmau a leading role in the taking of the capital. She is said to have thrown a burning brand to Bello who used the torch to set fire to the capital, and this became the most famous story about her. However, this wasn’t included in her own account, and the only likely mention of her participation in the early wars comes from the Battle of Alwasa in 1805 when the armies of Uthman defeated the forces of the Tuareg chief Chief of Adar, Tambari Agunbulu, "_**And the women added to it by stoning \[enemies\] - and leaving them exposed to the sun."**_[13](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-13-144303681)
After the first campaigns, the newly established state still faced major threats, not just from the deposed rulers who had fled north but also from the latter's Tuareg allies. One of the first works written by Asmau was an acrostic poem titled, _**Fa'inna ma'a al-'usrin yusra**_ (1822), which she composed in response to a similar poem written by Bello who was faced with an invasion by the combined forces of the Tuareg Chief Ibrahim of Adar, and the Gobir sultan Ali. [14](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-14-144303681)
This work was the first in the literary collaboration between Asma'u and Muhammad Bello, highlighting their equal status as intellectual peers. The Scottish traveler Hugh Clapperton, who visited Sokoto in 1827, noted that women were _**“allowed more liberty than the generality of Muslim women”**_[15](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-15-144303681). The above observation doubtlessly reveals itself in the collaborative work of Asmau and Bello titled; Kitab al-Nasihah (book of women) written in 1835 and translated to Fulfulde and Hausa by Asmau 1836. It lists thirty seven sufi women from across the Muslim world until the 13th century, as well as seven from Sokoto who were eminent scholars.[16](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-16-144303681)
Asmau provided brief descriptions of the Sokoto women she listed, who included; Joda Kowuuri, _**"a Qur'anic scholar who used her scholarship everywhere,"**_ Habiba, the most revered _**"teacher of women,"**_ Yahinde Limam, who was _**"diligent at solving disputes"**_, and others including Inna Garka, Aisha, lyya Garka and Aminatu bint Ade, in addition to "as many as a hundred" who she did not list for the sake of brevity.[17](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-17-144303681) The poem on Sufi Women emphasizes that pious women are to be seen in the mainstream of Islam, and could be memorized by teachers for instructional purposes.[18](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-18-144303681)
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folios from the _**‘kitab al-nasiha’**_ (Book of Women), 1835/6, SOAS Library
[Share](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share)
**Asmau’s role in women’s education and social activism.**
The above work on sufi women wasn’t intended to be read as a mere work of literature, but as a mnemonic device, a formula to help her students remember these important names. It was meant to be interpreted by a teacher (jaji) who would have received her instructions from Asmau directly. Asmau devoted herself to extensive work with the teachers, as it was their job to learn from Asma'u what was necessary to teach to other teachers of women, whose work involved the interpretations of very difficult and lengthy material about Islamic theology and practices.[19](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-19-144303681)
Asma'u was particularly distinguished as the mentor and tutor of a community of jajis through whom the key tenets of Sufi teachings about spirituality, ethics, and morality in the handling of social responsibilities spread across all sections of the society.[20](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-20-144303681) The importance of providing the appropriate Islamic education for both elite and non-elite women and girls was reinforced by the growing popularity [non-Islamic Bori religion](https://www.patreon.com/posts/82189267?pr=true), which competed for their allegiance.[21](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-21-144303681) One of Asmau’s writings addressed to her coreligionists who were appealing to Bori diviners during a period of drought, reveals the extent of this ideological competition.[22](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-22-144303681)
Groups of women, who became known as the ‘Yan Taru (the Associates) began to visit Asma’u under the leadership of representatives appointed by her. The Yan Taru became the most important instrument for the social mobilization, these _**"bands of women students"**_ were given a large malfa hat that's usually worn by men and the _Inna (_chief of women in Gobir) who led the bori religion in Gobir. By giving each jaji such a hat, Asmau transformed it into an emblem of Islamic learning, and a symbol of the wearer’s authority.[23](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-23-144303681)
Asmau’s aim in creating the ‘Yan Taru was to educate and socialize women. Asmau's writings also encouraged women's free movement in public, and were addressed to both her students and their male relatives, writing that: _**"In Islam, it is a religious duty to seek knowledge Women may leave their homes freely for this."**_[24](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-24-144303681) The education network of the ‘Yan Taru was already widespread as early as the 1840s, as evidenced in some of her writings such as the elegy for one of her students, Hauwa which read;
_**"\[I\] remember Hauwa who loved me, a fact well known to everybody. During the hot season, the rains, harvest time, when the harmattan blows, And the beginning of the rains, she was on the road bringing people to me… The women students and their children are well known for their good works and peaceful behaviour in the community."**_[25](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-25-144303681)
Many of Asmau's writings appear to have been intended for her students[26](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-26-144303681), with many being written in Fulfulde and Hausa specifically for the majority of Sokoto’s population that was unfamiliar with Arabic. These include her trilingual work titled _‘Sunago’_, which was a nmemonic device used for teaching beginners the names of the suras of the Qur'an.[27](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-27-144303681) Other works such as the _Tabshir al-Ikhwan_ (1839) was meant to be read and acted upon by the malarns who specialized in the ‘medicine of the prophet’[28](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-28-144303681), while the Hausa poem _Dalilin Samuwar Allah_ (1861) is another work intended for use as a teaching device.[29](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-29-144303681)
Asmau also wrote over eighteen elegies, at least six of which were about important women in Sokoto. Each is praised in remembrance of the positive contributions she made to the community, with emphasis on how her actions defined the depth of her character.
These elegies reveal the qualities that were valued among both elite and non-elite women in Sokoto. In the elegy for her sister Fadima (1838), Asmau writes; _**“Relatives and strangers alike, she showed no discrimination. she gave generously; she urged people to study. She produced provisions when an expedition was mounted, she had many responsibilities. She sorted conflicts, urged people to live peacefully, and forbade squabbling. She had studied a great deal and had deep understanding of what she had read.”**_[30](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-30-144303681)
Asma’u did not just confine her praise to women such as Fadima who performed prodigious tasks, but, also those who did more ordinary tasks. In her elegy for Zaharatu (d. 1857), Asmau writes: _**“She gave religious instruction to the ignorant and helped everyone in their daily affairs. Whenever called upon to help, she came, responding to layout the dead without hesitation. With the same willingness she attended women in childbirth. All kinds of good works were performed by Zaharatu. She was pious and most persevering: she delighted in giving and was patient and forbearing.”**_[31](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-31-144303681)
A list of her students in specific localities, which was likely written not long after her death, mentions nearly a hundred homes.[32](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-32-144303681)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4f07babc-aa01-451d-83f1-5d053e83af5d_915x589.png)
Folio from the fulfulde manuscript _‘Sunago’_ 1829, [BNF Paris](https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9065795d/f49.item.r=Arabe%206112.zoom).
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd79a887e-9bed-4ea3-b6f7-92a82e8fefbd_929x575.png)
folios from the Hausa manuscript '_**Qasidar na Rokon Allah**_', early 19th century, SOAS Library
**Asmau’s role in the political and intellectual exchanges of West Africa.**
After the death of Muhammad Bello, Asmau’s husband Gidado met with the senior councilors of Sokoto in his capacity as the wazir, and they elected Atiku to the office of Caliph. Gidado then relinquished the office of Wazir but stayed in the capital. Asmau and her husband then begun to write historical accounts of the lives of the Shehu and Bello for posterity, including the places they had lived in, their relatives and dependants, the judges they had appointed, the principal imams of the mosques, the scholars who had supported them, and the various offices they created.[33](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-33-144303681)
Besides writing extensively about the history of Sokoto's foundation, the reign of Bello, and 'text-books' for her students, Asmau was from time to time invited to advise some emirs and sultans on emergent matters of state and rules of conduct. One of her works titled '_Tabbat Hakiya_' (1831), is a text about politics, informs people at all levels of government about their duties and responsibilities. She writes that;
_**"Rulers must persevere to improve affairs, Do you hear? And you who are ruled, do not stray: Do not be too anxious to get what you want. Those who oppress the people in the name of authority Will be crushed in their graves… Instruct your people to seek redress in the law, Whether you are a minor official or the Imam himself. Even if you are learned, do not stop them."**_[34](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-34-144303681)
Asmau, like many West African scholars who could voice their criticism of politicians, also authored critiques of corrupt leaders. An example of this was the regional governor called ɗan Yalli, who was dismissed from office for misconduct, and about whom she wrote;
_**"Thanks be to God who empowered us to overthrow ɗan Yalli. Who has caused so much trouble. He behaved unlawfully, he did wanton harm.. We can ourselves testify to the Robberies and extortion in the markets, on the Highways and at the city gateways".**_[35](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-35-144303681)
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folios from the Fulfulde poem _**‘Gikku Bello’**_ 1838/9. [BNF Paris](https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9065795d/f54.item.r=Arabe%206112.zoom)
As an established scholar, Asmau corresponded widely with her peers across West Africa. She had built up a reputation as an intellectual leader in Sokoto and was recognized as such by many of her peers such as the Sokoto scholar Sheikh Sa'ad who wrote this of her; _**"Greetings to you, O woman of excellence and fine traits! In every century there appears one who excels. The proof of her merit has become well known, east and west, near and far. She is marked by wisdom and kind deeds; her knowledge is like the wide sea."**_[36](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-36-144303681)
Asmau’s fame extended beyond Sokoto, for example, the scholar Ali Ibrahim from Masina (in modern Mali) wrote: _**"She \[Asma’u\] is famous for her erudition and saintliness which are as a bubbling spring to scholars. Her knowledge, patience, and sagacity she puts to good use as did her forebears"**_ and she replied: **"It would be fitting to reward you: you are worthy of recognition. Your work is not inferior and is similar in all respects to the poetry you mention."**[37](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-37-144303681)
She also exchanged letters with a scholar from [Chinguetti (Shinqit in Mauritania)](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-south-western-saharan) named Alhaji Ahmad bin Muhammad al-Shinqiti, and welcomed him to Sokoto during his pilgrimage to Mecca, writing: _**"Honour to the erudite scholar who has left his home To journey to Medina. Our noble, handsome brother, the hem of whose scholarship others cannot hope to touch. He came bearing evidence of his learning, and the universality of his knowledge.**_[38](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-38-144303681)_**"**_
Asm’u died in 1864 at the age of 73, and was laid to rest next to the tomb of the Shehu. Her brother and students composed elegies for her, one of which read that
_**"At the end of the year 1280 Nana left us, Having received the call of the Lord of Truth.**_
_**When I went to the open space in front of Giɗaɗo’s house I found it too crowded to pass through Men were crying, everyone without exception Even animals uttered cries of grief they say.**_
_**Let us fling aside the useless deceptive world, We will not abide in it forever; we must die. The benevolent one, Nana was a peacemaker. She healed almost all hurt."**_[39](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-39-144303681)
After Nana Asma’u’s death, her student and sister Maryam Uwar Deji succeeded her as the leader of the ‘Yan Taru, and became an important figure in the politics of Kano, an emirate in Sokoto.[40](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-40-144303681) Asmau’s students, followers, and descendants carried on her education work among the women of Sokoto which continued into the colonial and post-colonial era of northern Nigeria.
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9bb3cba9-747d-45fb-affb-f50bb6001af0_873x573.png)
Folios from the Hausa poem titled ‘Begore’ and a poem in Fulfulde titled ‘Allah Jaalnam’.[41](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-41-144303681)
**Conclusion: Asmau’s career and Muslim women in African history.**
Nana Asmau was a highly versatile and polymathic writer who played a salient role in the history of West Africa. She actively shaped the political structures and intellectual communities across Sokoto and was accepted into positions of power in both the secular and religious contexts by many of her peers without attention to her gender.
The career of Asmau and her peers challenge Western preconceptions about Muslim women in Africa (such as those held by Hugh Clapperton and later colonialists) that presume them to be less active in society and more cloistered than non-Muslim women.[42](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/life-and-works-of-africas-most-famous#footnote-42-144303681) The corpus of Asmau provides firsthand testimony to the active participation of women in Sokoto's society that wasn't dissimilar to the [experiences of women in other African societies](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-womens-political-power).
Asmau's life and works are yet another example of the complexity of African history, and how it was constantly reshaped by its agents --both men and women.
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F94d24b11-6e2b-4f3a-877d-b3344ee26cea_800x492.jpeg)
_**View of Sokoto from its outskirts**_., ca. 1890
To the south of Sokoto was **the old kingdom of Benin, which had for centuries been in close contact with European traders from the coast. These foreigners were carefully and accurately represented in Benin’s art across five centuries as their relationship with Benin evolved.**
**read more about the evolution of Europeans in Benin’s art here:**
[THE INDIGENOUS AND FOREIGN IN BENIN ART](https://www.patreon.com/posts/103165109)
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The empire of Kong (ca. 1710-1915): a cultural legacy of medieval Mali. | At the close of the 18th century, the West African hosts of the Scottish traveler Mungo Park informed him of a range of mountains situated in "a large and powerful kingdom called Kong". | https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a | At the close of the 18th century, the West African hosts of the Scottish traveler Mungo Park informed him of a range of mountains situated in _**"a large and powerful kingdom called Kong".**_
These legendary mountains of Kong subsequently appeared on maps of Africa and became the subject of all kinds of fanciful stories that wouldn't be disproved until a century later when another traveler reached Kong, only to find bustling cities instead of snow-covered ranges[1](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-1-147064187). The mythical land of Kong would later be relocated to Indonesia for the setting of the story of the famous fictional character King Kong[2](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-2-147064187).
The history of the real kingdom of Kong is no less fascinating than the story of its legendary mountains. For most of the 18th and 19th centuries, the city of Kong was the capital of a vast inland empire populated by the cultural heirs of medieval Mali, who introduced a unique architectural and scholarly tradition in the regions between modern Cote D'Ivoire and Burkina Faso.
This article explores the history of the Kong empire, focusing on the social groups that contributed to its distinctive cultural heritage.
_**approximate extent of the ‘Kong empire’ in 1740.**_
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6aaf171a-ac39-44c8-862e-1e2a5b68d723_1303x582.png)
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**The early history of Kong and Dyula expansion from medieval Mali.**
The region around Kong was at the crossroads of long-distance routes established by the Dyula/Juula traders who were part of the [Wangara commercial diaspora associated with medieval Mali](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/foundations-of-trade-and-education) during the late Middle Ages. These trade routes, which connected the [old city of Jenne](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-complete-history-of-jenne-250bc) and Begho to later cities like Kong, Bobo-Dioulasso, and Bonduku, were conduits for lucrative commerce in gold, textiles, salt, and kola for societies between the river basins of the Niger and the Volta (see map above).[3](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-3-147064187)
The hinterland of Kong was predominantly settled by speakers of the Senufu languages who likely established a small kingdom centered on what would later become the town of Kong. According to later accounts, there were several small Senufu polities in the region extending from Kong to Korhogo in the west, and northward to Bobo-Dioulasso, between the Bandama and Volta rivers. These polities interacted closely, and some, such as the chiefdom of Korohogo, would continue to flourish despite the profound cultural changes of the later periods.[4](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-4-147064187)
These non-Muslim agriculturalists welcomed the Mande-speaking Dyula traders primarily because of the latter's access to external trade items like textiles (mostly used as burial shrouds) and acculturated the Dyula as ritual specialists (Muslim teachers) who made protective amulets. It was in this context that the city of Kong emerged as a large cosmopolitan center attracting warrior groups such as the Mande-speaking **Sonongui**, and diverse groups of craftsmen including the Hausa, who joined the pre-existing Senufu and Dyula population.[5](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-5-147064187)
Throughout the 16th century, the growing influence of external trade and internal competition between different social groups among the warrior classes greatly shaped political developments in Kong. By 1710, a wealthy Sonongui merchant named Seku Umar who bore the Mande patronymic of "**Watara**" took power in Kong with support from the Dyula, and would reign until 1744. Seku Umar Watara’s new state came to be known as **Kpon** or K'pon in internal accounts, which would later be rendered as “Kong” in Western literature. After pacifying the hinterland of Kong, Seku's forces campaigned along the route to Bobo-Dioulassao, whose local Dyula merchants welcomed his rule.[6](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-6-147064187)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F96b27ba9-a9a8-46d9-8b02-4f6807761f5b_760x559.jpeg)
_**view of Kong, ca. 1892**_, by Louis Binger.
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa2f094b6-d55a-4748-8688-821bd792c9af_1225x521.png)
_**a section of Kong**_, ca. 1889, Binger & Molteni.
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7f131b87-5b89-4d53-886c-0ecc99691427_1030x490.png)
_**Palace of the Senufu king Gbon Coulibaly at Korhogo**_, ca. 1920, Quia Branly. Despite the Dyula presence in Korhogo and the town’s proximity to Kong, it was outside the latter’s direct control.
**The states of Kong during the 18th century and the houses of Watara.**
Seku Watara expanded his power rapidly across the region, thanks to his powerful army made up of local allies serving under Sonongui officers. Seku Watara and his commanders, such as his brother Famagan, his son Kere-Moi, and his general Bamba, conquered the regions between the Bandama and Volta rivers (northern Cote d’Ivoire) in the south, to Minyaka and Macina (southern Mali) in the north. They even got as far as the hinterland of Jenne in November 1739 according to a local chronicle. Sections of the army under Seku Umar and Kere Moi then campaigned west to the Bambara capital of Segu and the region of Sikasso (also in southern Mali), before retiring to Kong while Famagan settled near Bobo.[7](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-7-147064187)
The expansion of the Kong empire was partly driven by the need to protect trade routes, but no centralized administration was installed in conquered territories despite Famagan and Kere Moi recognizing Seku Umar as the head of the state. After the deaths of Seku (1744) and Famagan (1749) the breach between the two collateral branches issuing from each royal house grew deeper, resulting in the formation of semi-autonomous kingdoms primarily at Kong and Bobo-Dioulasso (originally known as Sya), but also in many smaller towns like Nzan, all of which had rulers with the title of _**Fagama**_.[8](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-8-147064187)
The empire of Kong, which is more accurately referred to as _“the states of Kong”_, consisted of a collection of polities centered in walled capitals that were ruled by dynastic _‘war houses’_ which had overlapping zones of influence. These houses consisted of their _**Fagama**_'s kin and dependents, who controlled a labyrinthine patchwork of allied settlements and towns from whom they received tribute and men for their armies.[9](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-9-147064187) The heads of different houses at times recognized a paramount ruler, but remained mostly independent, each conducting their campaigns and preserving their own dynastic histories.[10](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-10-147064187)
In this complex social mosaic, many elites adopted the **Watara** patronymic through descent, alliance, or dependency, and there were thus numerous “Watara houses” scattered across the entire region between the northern Ivory Coast, southern Mali, and western Burkina Faso. At least four houses in the core regions of Kong claimed descent from Seku Umar; there were several houses in the Mouhoun plateau (western Burkina Faso) that claimed descent from both Famagan and Kere Moi. Other houses were located in the region of Bobo-Dioulasso, in Tiefo near the North-western border of Ghana, and as far east as the old town of Loropeni in southern Burkina Faso.[11](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-11-147064187)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd8336e9d-ac92-4e00-a9e1-395a33949bb1_1011x576.png)
_**Friday Mosque of Kong**_, ca. 1920, Quai Branly. The mosque was built in the late 18th century.
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6e16778a-aba6-49c8-85cd-bb8968a48e9c_600x485.jpeg)
_**Street scene in the Marabassou quarter of Kong**_, ca. 1892, ANOM.
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1fcd240f-6fb8-4334-8bcb-54ea505bd423_815x533.png)
_**Bobo Dioulasso’s Friday Mosque**_, ca. 1904, Quai Branly. The mosque was built in the late 19th century.
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0b25031b-0eac-41ac-8eba-2139fd3c77f1_897x471.png)
_**section of Bobo-Dioulasso**_, ca. 1904, Quai Branly.
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**The influence of Dyula on architecture and scholarship in the states of Kong.**
The dispersed Watara houses often competed for political and commercial influence, relying on external mediators such as the Dyula traders to negotiate alliances[12](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-12-147064187). Although nominally Muslim, the Watara elites stood in contrast to the Dyula, as the former were known to have retained many pre-Islamic practices. They nevertheless acknowledged the importance of Dyula clerics as providers of protective amulets, integrated them into the kingdom's administration, and invited them to construct mosques and schools.[13](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-13-147064187)
The cities of Kong and Bobo became major centers of scholarship whose influence extended as far as the upper Volta to the Mande heartlands in the upper Niger region. The movement of students and teachers between towns created a scholarship 'network' that corresponded in large part to their trading network.[14](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-14-147064187)
Influential Dyula lineages such as the Saganogo (or Saganugu) acquired a far-ranging reputation for scholarship by the late 18th century. They introduced the distinctive style of architecture found in the region[15](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-15-147064187), and are credited with constructing the main mosque at Kong in 1785, as well as in cities not under direct Watara control such as at Buna in 1795, at Bonduku in 1797, and at Wa in 1801. Their members were imams of Kong, Bobo-Dioulasso, and many surrounding towns. The Dyula shunned warfare and lived in urban settlements away from the warrior elite’s capitals, but provided horses, textiles, and amulets to the latter in exchange for protecting trade routes.[16](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-16-147064187)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1fbe3693-a5e9-44ad-b85b-cdb5922326cd_1130x489.png)
_**mosque in Kong**_, by Louis Binger, ca. 1892.
The Saganogo scholars of Kong (also known as _**karamokos**_ : men of knowledge) are among the most renowned figures in the region’s intellectual history, being part of a chain of learning that extends back to the famous 15th-century scholar al-Hajj Salim Suware of medieval Mali.[17](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-17-147064187)
The most prominent of these was Mustafa Saganogo (d. 1776) and his son Abbas b. Muhammad al-Mustafa (d. 1801), who appear in the autobiographies of virtually all the region’s scholars[18](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-18-147064187). The former promoted historical writing, and, in 1765, built a mosque bearing his name, which attracted many students. His son became the imam of Kong and, according to later accounts, _**"brought his brothers to stay there, and then the 'ulama gathered around him to learn from him, and the news spread to other places, and the people of Bonduku and Wala came to him, and the people of the land of Ghayagha and also Banda came to study with him."**_[19](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-19-147064187)
Descendants of Mustafa Saganogo, who included Seydou and Ibrahim Saganogo, were invited to Bobo-Dioulasso by its Watara rulers to serve as advisors. They arrived in 1764 and established themselves in the oldest quarters of the city where they constructed mosques, of which they were the first imams. Around 1840, a section of scholars from Bobo-Dioulasso led by Bassaraba Saganogo, the grandson of the abovementioned brothers, established another town 15 km south at Darsalamy (Dār as-Salām).[20](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-20-147064187)
The Saganogo teachers were also associated with several well-connected merchant-scholars with the patronymic of Watara who gained prominence across the region, between the cities of Kong, Bonduku, and Buna.[21](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-21-147064187)
Among these were the gold-trading family of five brothers, including; Karamo Sa Watara, who was the eldest of the brothers and did business in the Hausaland and Bornu; Abd aI-Rahman, who was married to the daughter of Soma Ali Watara of Nzan; Idris, who lived at Ja in Massina; Mahmud who lived in Buna and was married to a local ruler. Karamo's son, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, who provided a record of his family’s activities, later became a prominent scholar in Buna where he studied with his cousin Kotoko Watara who later became ruler of Nzan. The head of the Buna school was Abdallah b. al-Hajj Muhammad Watara, himself a student of Mustafa Saganogo. Buna was a renowned center of learning attracting students from as far as Futa Jallon (in modern Guinea), and the explorer Heinrich Barth heard of it as _**"a place of great celebrity for its learning and its schools."**_[22](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-22-147064187)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdce8f2a7-68f1-442e-99c9-0ec969bb45c4_982x480.png)
_**An important marabout (teacher/scholar) in Kong, ca. 1920, Quai Branly. Neighborhood mosque in Kong**_, ca. 1892, ANOM.
**The states of Kong during the 19th century**
In the later period, the Dyula scholars would come to play an even more central political role in both Kong and Bobo, at the expense of the warrior elites.
When the traveler Louis Binger visited Kong in 1888, he noted that the ‘king’ of the city was Soukoulou Mori, but that real power lay with Karamoko Oule, a prominent merchant-scholar, as well as the imam Mustafa Saganogo, who he likened to a minister of public education because he managed many schools. He estimated the city’s population at around 15,000, and referred to its inhabitants’ religious tolerance —characteristic of the Dyula— especially highlighting their _**"instinctive horror of war, which they consider dishonorable unless in defense of their territorial integrity."**_ He described how merchant scholars proselytized by forming alliances with local rulers after which they'd open schools and invite students to study.[23](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-23-147064187)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F38d9ea57-a867-44f3-aa8e-902d80869c13_760x533.jpeg)
_**Arrival in Kong**_ by Louis-Gustave Binger, ca. 1892
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbc9cb7c7-297c-4007-84e3-2da91060aa2b_349x428.png)
_**copy of the safe conduct issued to Binger by the notables of Kong**_, ca. 1892, British Library.
The main Watara houses largely kept to themselves, but would occasionally form alliances which later broke up during periods of extended conflict. The most dramatic instance of the shattering of old alliances occurred in the last decade of the 19th century when [the expansion of Samori Ture’s empire](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-samori-ture-on-the) coincided with the advance of the French colonial forces.[24](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-24-147064187) Samori Ture reached this region in 1885 and was initially welcomed by the Dyula of Kong who also sent letters to their peers in Buna and Bonduku, informing them that Samori didn't wish to attack them. However, relations between the Dyula and Samori later deteriorated and he sacked Buna in late 1896.[25](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-25-147064187)
In May of 1897, the armies of Samori marched against Kong, which he suspected of entering into collusion with his enemy; Babemba of Sikasso, by supplying the latter with horses and trade goods. Samori sacked Kong and pursued its rulers upto Bobo, with many of Kong's inhabitants fleeing to the town of Kotedugu whose Watara ruler was Pentyeba.
Hoping to stall Samori's advance, Pentyeba allied with the French, who then seized Bobo from one of Samori's garrisons. They later occupied Kong in 1898, and after briefly restoring the Watara rulers, they ultimately abolished the kingdom by 1915, marking the end of its history.[26](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-empire-of-kong-ca-1710-1915-a#footnote-26-147064187)
The historical legacy of Kong is preserved in the distinctive architectural style and intellectual traditions of modern Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire, whose diverse communities of Watara elites and Dyula merchants represent the southernmost cultural expansion of Medieval Mali.
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F50ee0416-f4ce-4fbf-80bb-3b401759a828_1000x646.jpeg)
_Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso._
**The kingdom of Bamum created West Africa’s largest corpus of Graphics Art during the early 20th century, which included detailed maps of the kingdom and capital, drawings of historical events and fables, images of the kingdom's architecture, and illustrations depicting artisans, royals, and daily life in the kingdom.**
**Please subscribe to read about the Art of Bamum in this article where I explore more than 30 drawings preserved in various museums and private collections.**
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"tokens": 6955
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A history of the Massina empire (1818-1862) | the sucessor of Songhai | https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818 | Buried in the pages of an old west African chronicle is a strange prophecy foretelling the emergence of a charismatic leader from the region of Massina in central Mali. According to the chronicle, the Songhai emperor Askiya Muhammad was transported into a spiritual realm where he was told that he would be suceeded as ‘Caliph’ of west Africa by one of his descendants named Ahmadu from Massina.
The empire of Massina emerged in 1818 and conquered most of the former territories of Songhai, ending the two centuries of political fragmentation that had followed Songhai's collapse. From its capital of Hamdullahi, the armies of Massina created a centralized government over a vast region extending from the ancient city of Jenne to Timbuktu, and nurtured a vibrant intellectual community whose scholars composed many writings including the chronicle containing the 'prophesy' related above.
This article explores the political history of the Massina empire, and its half a century long attempt to restore the power of Songhai.
_**Map of central Mali showing the extent of the Massina empire.[1](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-1-133913518)**_
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**West Africa from the fall of Songhai to the rise of the revolution movements.**
After the collapse of Songhai in 1591, the empire’s territories reverted to their pre-existing authorities as the remaining Moroccan soldiers (Arma) were confined to the cities of Djenne and Timbuktu where they established a weak city-state regime that was independent of Morocco. This state of political fragmentation continued until the early 18th century, when the Bambara empire expanded from its capital of Segu, and came to control much of the Niger river valley from Jenne to Timbuktu during the reign of N'golo Diara (1766-1795). At the turn of the 19th century, most of the region was under the Bambara empire’s suzeranity, but wasn’t fully centralized as local authorities were allowed to retain their pre-conquest status, these included the Arma of Jenne and Timbuktu, and the Fulbe/Fulani aristocracy of Massina.[2](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-2-133913518)
A reciprocal relationship existed between the (muslim) elites Djenné, the Arma, the Fulani, and their (non-Muslim) Bambara overlords, all of whom supported and legitimized each other to maintain the status quo. By the late 1810s the rising discontent over the political situation of Massina, characterized by the dominion of the powerful Bambara emperors and the local Fulani aristocracy, led an increasingly large number of followers to rally around Ahmadu Lobbo, a charismatic teacher who had spent part of his early life near Djenne where he had established a school.[3](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-3-133913518)
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Djenne street scene, ca.1905/6
The antagonistic relationship between the elites of Djenne allied with the local Fulbe prince named Ardo Guidado against Ahmadu Lobbo and his followers eventually descended into open confrontation between the two groups that ended with prince Guidado's death. Ahmad Lobbo had by then written a polemic treatise titled _Kitab al-Idtirar_, in which he outlined his religious and political grivancies against the local authorities and against what he considered blameworthy practices of Jenne's scholary community.[4](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-4-133913518)
The political-religious movement of Ahmadu was part of a series of revolutions which emerged across west Africa’s political landscape in the 18th and 19th century. Prior to these revolutions, political power was in the hands of “warrior elites,” such as the Bambara of Segu, the Fulani aristocracy of Massina, and the Arma in Jenne and Timbuktu. while scholars/clerics occupied a high position in the region’s social hierachy, they were often barred from holding the highest political office. But as the power of the warrior-elites weakened, more assertive political theologies were popularized among the scholars who advocated political reform and made it permissible for their peers to hold the highest office. The scholars then seized power and established distinct forms of clerical rule in Futa Jallon (1725), Futa Toro (1776), Sokoto (1804) Massina (1818), and Tukulor (1861), where religious authorities become the government and attempt to exercise secular power with the weapons of religious ideology.[5](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-5-133913518)
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_**Map of the 19th century ‘revolution’ states in west Africa.**_ (map by LegendesCarto)
Having openly defied the authorities, Ahmad Lobbo's followers prepared for war. The local Fulbe chief Ardo Amadou, whose son (prince Guidado) had been killed by Lobbo's followers, successfully sought the support of the Bambara king Da Diarra (r. 1808-1827), as well as other Fulbe warriors, including Gelaajo, the chief of Kounari. Their combined army moved against Ahmad Lobbo and his followers, who had retreated to Noukouma. The battle between Lobbo's followers and the Bambara army occurred in March 1818, ended with the defeat of the Bambara who had attacked before the arrival of Arɗo Amadou and Gelaajo. Discouraged by this, the latter decided to abandon the war. By contrast, the ranks of Ahmad Lobbo swelled substantially after the victory at Noukouma, such that by mid-May 1818 Ahmad Lobbo emerged as the leader of a new state centered in Masina.[6](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-6-133913518)
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copy of the _**Kitab al-Idtirar**_ by Amhadu Lobbo
[Share](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share)
**Empire building and Government in Massina during the reign of Ahmadu I (1818-1845)**
Like the Songhai armies centuries earlier, Lobbo's expansion was primarily conducted along the middle section of the Niger river between Djenne and Timbuktu, where he could combine overland and riverine warfare to capture the region's main cities. The city of Djenné was conquered twice, in 1819 and 1821 after some minimal resistance, and Ahmadu's son, named Ahmadu Cheikou was appointed its governor.[7](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-7-133913518) By 1823, Ahmadu had defeated the armies of al-Husayn Koita at Fittuga, where a competing Fulbe movement had emerged, instigated by Sokoto’s rivary with Massina.[8](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-8-133913518)
Lobbo's armies also advanced northwards beginning in 1818, when they were initially defeated by a Tuareg force which controlled the area. But by 1825, Massina's army crushed the Tuareg forces at the battle of Ndukkuwal and incorporated the region from Timbuktu to the city of Gao into the Massina empire. An insurrection in Timbuktu was crushed in 1826 and Lobbo appointed Pasha Uthman al-rimi as governor, while San Shirfi became the imam of the Djinguereber Mosque.[9](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-9-133913518)
Internal challenges to Ahmadu's rule came primarily from the deposed Fulbe aristocracy such as Buubu Arɗo Galo of Dikko whose army was defeated in 1825. More threatening was the rebellion of Gelaajo of Kounari who controlled the region extending upto Goundaka in the bandiagara cliffs of Dogon country. After around seven years of intense fighting, Gelaajo was defeated and forced to flee to Sokoto.[10](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-10-133913518)
By the mid-1820s Ahmadu Lobbo had consolidated his control over most of the Middle section of the Niger river upto the Bandiagara cliffs, as well as the region extending northwards to Timbuktu. He established his capital at Hamdullahi, which was founded around 1821, and developed as the administrative center of the state. The walled city was divided into 18 quarters with a large central mosque next to Lobbo's palace, it also included a “parliament” building (called 'Hall of seven doors'), a court, a market, 600 schools and the residences of Massina's elite.[11](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-11-133913518)
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Ruins of Hamdullahi’s walls, the third photo includes the mausoleum of Ahmad I and Nuh al-Tahir, and a roofed structure where the ‘Hall of seven doors’ was located. [12](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-12-133913518)
The administration of Massina was undertaken by the Great Council (batu mawɗo), an institution composed of 100 scholars that ruled the empire along with Ahmad Lobbo. This council was the official state assembly/parliament, and it was further dived into a 40-person house of permanent members headed by 2 scholars closest to Ahmad Lobbo, named Nuh al-Tahir and Hambarké Samatata. The council oversaw the governance of the empire's five major provinces and appointed provincial governors that were inturn assisted by their own smaller councils. The Great council made their rulings after consulting various (Maliki) legal and political texts used across the wider Muslim world including those written by west African scholars such as the Fodiyawa family of Sokoto. The council permanently resided in the capital, they regulary assembled in the parliament building, and also oversaw the policing of the capital.[13](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-13-133913518)
The administrative units of Massina were towns and villages called ngenndis, an conglomeration of these formed a canton (lefol leydi), which were inturn grouped together to form provinces (leyde). Each province was governed by an amir chosen by the Great Council, and was to be in charge of collecting taxes, overseeing the forces of each province. He was assisted by a Qadi appointed by the Great council to oversee provincial judicial matters that didn’t need to be sent to the Qadi in the capital.[14](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-14-133913518)
**The intellectual tradition of Massina**
The centralization of Massina was possible due to the substantial development of literacy in the region. literacy became the crucial tool for the development of an administrative apparatus based on orders that emanated from the capital and circulated through a capillary system of letters and dispatches to the different local administrative units. Members of the Great coucil were all highly accomplished scholars in their own right, and all provincial governors down to the lowest village were required to be literate.[15](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-15-133913518)
The scholary community of Massina produced many prominent figures and reinvigorated the region’s intellectual production as evidenced by the manuscript collections of Djenne. In Hamdullahi, most notable scholar from Massina was Nuh al-Tahir al-Fulani, one of the two leaders of the Great council, and the author of the famous west-African chronicle; _the tarikh al-Fattash_. Nuh al-Tahir was in charge of Hamdullahi's education system that managed the over 600 schools in the capital. Like most contemporary education systems in Muslim west-Africa, the schools of Hamdullahi were individualized, led by highly learned scholars who received authorization from Nuh al-Tahir to teach various subjects ranging from theology to grammar and the sciences.[16](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-16-133913518)
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Nuh al-Tahir’s commentary on the _**Lamiyyat al-af‘al of Ibn Malik**_ (d. 1274), and a short treatise titled _**Khasa’is al-Nabi**_, manuscripts found at the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research, photos by M. Nobili.
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_**Kitāb fī al-fiqh by Sīdī Abūbakr b. ‘Iyāḍ b. ‘Abd al-Jalīl al-Māsinī**_ written in 1852, now at Djenné Manuscript Library.[17](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-17-133913518)
**Intellectual disputes between Massina and Sokoto, and the creation of a west African chronicle**
Both the political movement of Ahmadu, and the scholary community at Hamdullahi were in close contact with the Sokoto movement of Uthman Fodio in northern nigeria. Uthman Fodio had intended to expand his political influence over the middle Niger region, especially through his connection with the Kunta clerics and the scholars of Masina. Although Lobbo and Uthman never met, the influence of the latter's movement on the former can be gleaned from the correspondence exchanged between the Fodiyawa family of Uthman Fodio that closely corresponded with Ahmadu before and after Massina was founded.[18](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-18-133913518)
Ahmadu Lobbo reportedly sent a delegation to Uthman requesting the latter's support in his impending war against Segu, and the delegation came back with a flag representing his authority. But Lobbo's eventual military success and Uthman's death obfuscated any need for him to derive authority from Sokoto, and following the sucession disputes in Sokoto, Lobbo even made attempts to request that Sokoto submits to Massina prompting the then Sokoto leader Muhammad Bello (sucessor of Uthman Fodio) to inspire the abovementioned rival movement of al-Husayn Koita at Fittuga. The ideological and intellectual disputes between the two states eventually led to the creation of the _Tarikh al-Fattash_ by Nuh al-Tahir, which contained sections which legitimated Lobbo's claim of being a Caliph and a sucessor of the Songhai emperor Askiya Muhammad.[19](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-19-133913518)
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_**Letters by Sokoto ruler Muhammad Bello to the Massina ruler Ahmadu Lobbo on various questions of government including that of Massina’s allegiance to Sokoto,**_ copy from 1840 now at National Archives Kaduna, Nigeria.[20](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-20-133913518)
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_**Letter on the Appearance of the Twelfth Caliph**_ by Nuh b. al-Tahir, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Ms. Arabe 6756. (Photo by M. Nobili)
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Nuh al-Tahir’s _**Tarikh al-Fattash**_ (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)
**The expansion of Massina under Amhadu I and the city of Timbuktu.**
Massina owed much of its expansion to its armies, divided into the five major provinces of the empire. It was led by five generals (_**amiraabe**_), below whom were the pre-conquest war chiefs that had submited to Lobbo's rule. The soldiers were divided into infantry, cavalry and a river-navy, and their equipment, horses and rations were largely supplied by the state. Most of the soldiers were recruited by the individual war-chiefs, but a permanent cavalry corps was also maintained in garrisons on the outskirts of important cities such as Hamdullahi, Ténenkou, Dienné, and Timbuktu. Owing to the nature of its formation as an outgrowth of Lobbo's movement, the army's command structure was relatively less centralized with each unit fighting more or less independently under their leader albeit with the same goals.[21](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-21-133913518)
Massina's conflict with Segu continued on its western and southwestern fronts, with several battles fought around Djenne especially with the Bambara provinces of Sarro and Nyansanari. While Sarro largely remained at war with Massina, Nyansanari eventually surrendered to Massina and was incorporated into the state, with its leader being formally installed by Amhad Lobbo.[22](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-22-133913518)
Massina's expansion into the region between the Mali-Niger border and north-eastern Burkina Faso was more sucessful, and marked the southernmost limit of the empire, which it shared with the Sokoto empire. The various chiefdoms of the region, most notably Baraboullé and Djilgodji, were subsumed in the late 1820s after a serious of disastrous battles for the Massina army that ultimately ended when threats from the Yatenga kingdom forced the local chieftains to place themselves under Massina's protection. The conflict that emerged with the Bambara state of Kaarta, however, was more serious, with Massina's army suffering heavy casualties, especially in 1843–44. every attempt by to expand westward proved equally futile.[23](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-23-133913518)
After the first conquest of the north-eastern regions between Timbuktu and Gao in 1818-1826, Arma and the Tuareg who controlled the region rebelled several times, trying to escape the imposition of direct rule by Lobbo’s appointed governor Abd al-Qādir (who took over from Pasha Uthman al-rimi). This prompted Massina to firmly control the town in 1833 when a Fulbe governor was appointed that controlled the entire region upto Gao.[24](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-24-133913518) A Tuareg force drove off the Massina garrison in 1840 but were in the following year defeated and expelled. The Tuareg then regrouped in 1842-1844 and managed to defeat the Massina forces and drive them from Timbuktu, but the city was later besieged by Massina and its inhabitants were starved into resubmitting to Massina's rule by 1846. Disputes between Massina and Timbuktu were often mediated by the Kunta scholary family led by Muhammad al-Kunti and his son al-Mukhtar al-Saghir .[25](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-25-133913518)
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A letter from Mawlāy ‘Abd al-Qādir to Aḥmad Lobbo, which includes at the bottom the response of the caliph of Ḥamdallāhi. Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research, photo by Mohamed Diagayété
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Folios from two letters sent by Muhammad al-Kunti addressed to Ahmadu Lobbo, advising the latter on good governance, written around 1818-1820, now at the Djenné Manuscript Library.[26](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-26-133913518)
**The reign of Ahmadu II and the consolidation of Massina (1845-1853)**
In the later years of Ahmadu's reign, the ageing ruler asked the Great Council to nominate his sucessor. The choice for the next ‘Caliph’ of Massina was narrowed down to two equally qualified candidates; an accomplished general named BaaLobbo, and the Caliph’s son, Ahmadu Cheikou who was a renowned scholar and administrator. The Great council picked Ahmadu Cheikou, who suceeded his father in March 1845 as Ahmadu II, and they chose BaaLobbo as the head of the military inorder to placate him and avoid a sucession dispute.[27](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-27-133913518)
Throughout his reign, Ahmadu II had to fight against the Tuaregs in the region of the Niger river’s bend near Timbuktu, as well as the Bambara empire of Segu which had resumed hostilities with Massina. However, none of the expansionist wars of Ahmadu’s reign were undertaken by Ahmadu II, who chose to retain the status quo especially between the Segu empire and the rebellious Tuareg-Kunta alliance near Timbuktu. This was partly done to prevent BaaLobbo from accumulating too much power, but it may have undermined Massina’s ability to project its power in the region. [28](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-28-133913518)
In 1847, Ahmadu II re-imposed the ruinous blockade of Timbuktu to weaken the Tuareg-Kunta alliance which had resumed its revolt against Massina soon after Ahmadu’s death. This blockade partially sucessful politically, as some of the Kunta allied with Massina against their peers led by Ahmad al-Bakkai al-Kunti who suceeded al-Mukhtar al-Saghir. al-Bakkai later travelled to Hamdullahi, negotiated a truce and Timbuktu resubmitted to Massina. But commercially, the blockade, which lasted nearly the entirety of Ahmadu II’s reign, ruined Timbuktu and drained the old city of its already declining fortunes.[29](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-29-133913518) When the German explorer Heinrich Barth visisted Timbuktu and Gao around 1853-4, he provided a detailed description of both cities which were now long past their glory days, with Gao having been reduced to a village, while Timbuktu was a shadow of its former self.[30](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-30-133913518)
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Illustration of Timbuktu by Heinrich Barth (1853)
**The reign of Amhadu III and the collapse of Massina** (1853-1862)
Ahmadu II died in 1853, and the problem of succession reemerged even more strongly than before. The best candidates to succeed him were, again, BaaLobbo and another of Ahmad Lobbo’s sons named Abdoulay, as well as Ahmad II’s son named Amadou Amadou. Feeling sidelined again, BaaLobbo quickly formed an alliance with Amadou Amadou who had been close to him and he considered easy to influence than Abdoullay. BaaLobbo then requested his allies on the Great council to consider his proposition, which was accepted by the majority and Amadou Amadou was installed as Ahmadu III.[31](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-31-133913518)
Ahmadu III inaugurated a less austere form of government in Massina that was harshly criticized by his contemporaries, and was immediately faced with rebellion from Abadulay which was only diffused after a lengthy seige of the capital and negotiation[32](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-32-133913518). He also centralized all the power that had been divided between the caliph and the Great Council. In this way, he alienated the veteran leaders of the empire, transforming the Great Council into a mere mechanism for approving his decisions. Hence, most of its members abandoned both Ahmadu III and the Great Council shortly after his ascension. Ahmadu III lost the support of the Kunta when Ahmad al-Bakkai broke off his relationship with Hamdullahi. With little support from inside the capital or from Timbuktu, Ahmadu III initiated a policy of rapprochement with the Bambara rulers of Segou who became allies of Massina.[33](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-33-133913518)
This open alliance between a clerical Muslim state and a non-Muslim state was soon challenged by the Futanke movement of al-Hajj Umar Tal, a powerful cleric whose nascent empire of Tukulor had expanded from Futa jallon in Guinea to take over the kingdom of Kaarta in 1855 that had eluded Massina. The capture of Kaarta opened the road for the Tukulor armies to conquer Kaarta’s suzerain; the Segu empire, which threatened Massina despite both Umar and Amhadu III drawing legitimacy from the same political-religious teachings. Ahmadu III moved Massina’s armies to confront Tukulor’s forces in 1856 at Kasakary and in 1860 at Sansanding, all while exchanging letters justifying each other’s expansionism and challenging the legitimacy of either’s authority. Segu was eventually conquered by Umar in March 1861 forcing its ruler to flee to Hamdullahi for protection.[34](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-34-133913518)
After a series of diplomatic exchanges between Umar Tal and Ahmadu failed to secure the release of Segu’s deposed ruler, Umar decided to declare war against Massina. The Tukulor marched on Massina in April 1862 and the empire’s capital was occupied in the following month after Ahmadu III’s divided forces had treacherously abandoned him and the beleaguered leader had died from wounds sustained during the battle. The ever ambitious BaaLobbo had surrendered to Umar Tal hoping the latter would retain him as ruler of Hamdullahi, but Umar instead appointed his son (also called Ahmadu). Enraged by Umar’s duplicity, BaaLobbo raised a rebellion, laid siege on Hamdullahi, and forced Umar to flee to his death in 1864.[35](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-history-of-the-massina-empire-1818#footnote-35-133913518)
The capital of Massina would be reduced to ruins after several battles as it switched between Umar’s sucessors and the “rebels”. The empire of Massina was erased from west-Africa’s political landscape, ending the nearly half a century long experiment to restore Songhai.
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8e588407-c3e3-42c1-8fff-203d65fa997a_768x612.png)
When Europe was engulfed in one of the history’s deadliest conflicts in the early 17th century, **the African kingdoms of Kongo and Ndongo took advantage of the European rivaries to settle their own feud with the Portuguese colonialists in Angola**. **Kongo’s envoys traveled to the Netherlands, forged military alliances with the Dutch and halted Portugal’s colonial advance**. Read more about this in my recent Patreon post:
[HOW KONGO EXPLOITED EUROPEAN RIVARIES](https://www.patreon.com/posts/how-kongo-and-85683552)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F18f2c1a1-d6b5-4a4a-be08-7ef756f64cd2_782x605.png) | 2023-07-09T15:05:06+00:00 | {
"tokens": 9577
} |
a brief note on the origin of African civilizations | plus, the Nok Neolithic culture. | https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-brief-note-on-the-origin-of-african | Beginning around 12,000 years ago, a wide-ranging set of developments emerged independently in several societies across the world. Plants and animals were domesticated, pottery and advanced tools appeared, and settlements were established. This archeological period, often refered to as the 'Neolithic' or 'Late stone Age', was protracted and diverse, with different features appearing in different regions at different time periods —and no region exhibits this diversity more than Africa.
The earliest domesticates, advanced tools and permanent settlements in Africa first appear in the Upper and Middle Nile Valley in what is today Egypt and Sudan between 9,000-5,000 BC. This region was home to [several ancient cultures that were part of a shared Neolithic tradition](https://www.patreon.com/posts/75102957?pr=true) that eventually gave rise to the first states, with dynastic Egypt around 3,000BC and the Kerma kingdom around 2,500BC. A similar process in the Northern Horn of Africa saw [Neolithic cultures emerging around 2,700BC](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/demystifying-the-ancient-land-of), prior to the rise of the D'MT polity around 900BC and the Aksumite kingdom by the turn of the common era.
In West Africa, Neolithic cultures emerged between the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC. This was a dynamic period with substantial changes of settlement systems, economy, technology, and land use. Due to increasing aridity, human occupation gradually shifted from the drying Sahara into the more humid areas of West Africa. There was considerable variability in these developments, with pottery, livestock and cereal agriculture appearing as early as the 6th millennium BC, thus preceeding permanent settlements and iron tools by several millennia. The period was later suceeded by the emergence of large sedentary communities, the first cities (eg; Jenne-Jeno) and early states (eg; the Ghana empire) during the 1st millennium BC and 1st millennium CE.
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F230d3127-753e-4cf1-b49c-79e7f38f5db2_1048x548.png)
_**Map showing Africa’s oldest Neolithic cultures as well as sites with early archaeobotanical evidence for the spread of major African crops. (**_original map by Dorian Fuller & Elisabeth Hildebrand_**)**_
Only a few West African Neolithic cultures with complete archaeological traditions, including material culture, settlement and socio-economic systems, have been studied for this period. The most distinctive are the [Tichitt tradition of southern Mauritania](https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/state-building-in-ancient-west-africa) (2200-400 BC), the Kintampo culture of Ghana (2100–1400 BC), the Gajiganna culture of North-east Nigeria (1800–800 BC), and the Nok culture of central Nigeria (1500–1 BC). The Nok culture is unique and renowned because of its elaborate terracotta sculptures, as well as providing the earliest evidence of iron smelting in west Africa.
My latest Patreon article explores the history and significance of the Nok culture in the origins of African kingdoms, institutions and inventions:
[THE ANCIENT NOK CIVILIZATION](https://www.patreon.com/posts/91819837)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe954ab68-a8c4-49f5-bc03-11a364f32b94_595x1255.png)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdac928fe-1629-4c7e-878f-2f5e5392e92d_709x469.jpeg)
[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1f264bba-fe2e-47fe-8b33-647bb5fdd787_567x376.jpeg)
Ruins of the ancient town of Dakhlet el Atrouss-I in south-eastern Mauritania, that was built during the classic Tichitt phase (1600BC-1000BC). Measuring over 300ha and with an estimated population of 10,000 at its height, the town is one of Africa’s oldest urban settlements.
(photos by Robert Vernet)
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Demystifying the land of Punt and locating ancient Egypt's place in African History | On early state formation in the northern Horn of Africa (2700BC-800BC) | https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/demystifying-the-ancient-land-of | "_**“Why have you come here in this land, which the people do not know? Did you come down on this (...TRUNCATED) | 2022-11-27T15:01:03+00:00 | {
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a brief note on the history of Music in Africa | plus an overview of Ethiopian musical traditions | https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/a-brief-note-on-the-history-of-music | "The continent of Africa is home to some of the oldest and most diverse range of musical traditions,(...TRUNCATED) | 2023-11-12T16:25:14+00:00 | {
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