The Songhai Empire: A History of Conquest and Commerce

[@admirekashiri9879]

Very impressive, its a shame the Songhai had opportunities to modernize and get fire arms but, they refused to so and it cost them. Lesson if your friends and enemies are innovating you best do.the same amd not fall behind. Btw have you heard of the king Konta Kotal who betrayed the Askia and became king of Kebbi in Hausa land?

[@infographicsafrica]

I have heard of it but didn’t dig deeper. If you want I can make a video on hausaland later! Thanks for watching 🙏🏿

[@silverbullet537]

I dont have a problem with playing as Yasuke and in Assassins Creed Shadows, but its setting like these where the franchise should be going to, primarily because THIS is actually what the fans want, Yasuke should've been a DLC character for shadows, This should be the setting for a new fully fledged AC game with a west African protagonist

[@infographicsafrica]

Hopefully one day Africa produces our own heroes stories

[@ragnarok9876]

Fantastic presentation. Thanks !!

[@aa.xviiii]

Where did you learn to edit videos like this, and for how long, its fire! (And not just the Ai stuff)

[@infographicsafrica]

Thanks Abiola! Appreciate the kinds words. Been editing for years for other youtube channels, learning on the web and I keep trying to add more things to the videos to make it more engaging. Hopefully the next videos will be even better.

[@GuardianoftheGoldenStool]

Really love the video, images in combination with content!!!!!! So, I’m guessing you meant the only naval fleet in West Africa opposed to North Africa, correct??? This is concerning your statement about the Songhai at 4:47 in the video.

[@infographicsafrica]

Yes I meant west Africa! I try my best to minimize this type of mistake. Thanks for pointing it out

[@KhalidX7156]

🔥🔥🔥

[@Rena2869]

Good video! Keep going mate! What's the name of the song at the 6:00 minute?

[@infographicsafrica]

Thank you Renato! Unfortunately I don’t keep track of the music used no more 🫤

[@Smitty753]

So Morocco will always come in to invade a West African Kingdom. They tried to do it with the African Kingdom of Ghana, but they did not succeed but basically just broke the nation into two. Then, they did it with the Songhai Empire. Which they should have modernized. I wonder why they didn't. They had the ability to and the trade routes to get the goods. Also, if these great empires never fail, I think the way we look at West African history would be a lot different. The Navy of the Songhai Empire was very good, and it fought against a lot of European navis undefeated them. But my real question is that where the rifles and guns at that point that much of a Advantage for Morocco because the way African military units were deployed were scattered so a rifle at that time accuracy wasn't really better than a bow and arrow or spear. The Cannons may have been the main Ace in the Hole because they talked about it not until the gambling gun Europeans really didn't have a superior weapons technology then there's also the stories of African's re-engineering the rifle. The great channel and great video I enjoyed it.

[@infographicsafrica]

Morocco as been a great power for a long time. Songhai really didn’t modernize in time and were took by surprise.

[@FromNothing]

I only made it about 10 seconds in and already saw 2 errors: 1) Songhai wasn't "one of the largest in Africa." It was THE largest in Africa. 2) Sunni Ali was not a hostage under Mansa Musa. Mansa Musa died over 100 years before Sunni Ali took the throne. Just some constructive criticism. I'll watch the rest and I hope and wish for all the best!

[@infographicsafrica]

Hey! Thanks for watching and sharing! 2) Can you share a reliable source telling the story of sunni Ali? Everything points out to the domination of The Mali empire over Songhai territories. Mansa had a habits of taking a large amount of hostages during his reign and the Mansa after him did the same. 1) being the largest doesn’t exclude you from being part of the largest list. I have no conclusive sources on empires frontiers in Africa. If influence can be counted as territory, Ancient Egypt was the biggest empire in africa by far! I appreciate constructive criticism and feedback! But I also love sources and link, if you have some, I will gladly add it to the process to get the most accurate videos possible.

[@supahotjoe6493]

Defo not the largest empire. Kemet and Aksum we’re larger.

[@FromNothing]

Sorry I never noticed this reply until just now. 1) You're right, being the largest doesn't exclude it from being "among" the largest but it is definitely worth noting it as THE largest if it is. Imagine saying that the British Empire was "One of the largest." Seems a little disingenuous but maybe just me. Just a nitpick I suppose. 2.) Everything you mentioned in this comment about Mansa Musa and Mali's control over Songhai was correct. It's just that you seemed to have gotten confused about Sunni Ali. Mansa Musa reigned from 1311-1337 while Sunni Ali reigned from 1464-1492. There is over a century discrepancy. He's the one credited with much of Songhai's early imperial expansion. The Songhai ruler that was in power during Musa's conquest was Ali Kulun. Lastly New Kingdom Egypt and Songhai were roughly 3.4 square kilometers but the problem is that ancient and medieval borders are not an exact science so it's hard to say which one is bigger if they are nearly identical in size. Additionally the overwhelming majority of Egyptian territory was barren desert so it is hard to say who even controlled it back then (or why). While Songhai also included lots of desert within it's territory, it was not nearly as much as Egypt and it's population was much more dispersed rather than just hugging on river. I've seen relatively few sources claim that New Kingdom was THE largest. I've seen quite a few make this claim about Songhai though. In the end though, I guess that argument could go either way. I think there tends to be a bias towards Egypt though because of its influence and popularity but Songhai to my knowledge was larger, more densely populated, more wealthy, and more centralized than New Kingdom Egypt. As for sources, you are welcome to connect with me via email or preferably my Discord server and I can share my sources with you as well as videos I've made on my own channel that elaborate. Also bear in mind that all of my videos have peer-reviewed sources.

[@FromNothing]

@@supahotjoe6493 Neither was larger. Egypt (New Kingdom specifically) was roughly the same size. Aksum was much smaller.

[@opakular]

There's a timeframe issue with this video. Mansa Musa was born in 1280 and ruled the Mali Empire from 1312 to 1337. Sunni Ali ruled from 1464 to 1492. Sunni Ali would never have been Mansa Musa's hostage since the former was not yet born.

[@infographicsafrica]

The time frame issue is not just in my video but in history. The information we have on african history is based on writing from arabs scholars and oral stories. So, exact time is variable and hard to confirm. As you saw in the video a lot of our important cities (timbuktu, Gao...) and libraries were sacked and burned to the ground. This is all before the drama of slavery and colonialism. Here is a good link that tells the story. www.csun.edu/~jyb32380/PTP/TPE7Aartifact.html Thank you for sharing and watching! Really appreciate it 🙏🏿

[@opakular]

@@infographicsafrica Thanks for the link. I'm looking to more videos. I would especially like to see videos on the military histories of the Mali and Benin empires.

[@infographicsafrica]

Great video idea. Will add it to the list.

[@kamakat8295]

.15 seconds. Grew up as a hostage or a slave? Mansa Musa had slaves and dealt in slave trades. A lot.

[@WorkerAndy]

They were a Hebrew people be they went to Islam. Why no one would say that?

[@infographicsafrica]

Because no one believes that

[@amirfarshadashrafi3141]

Karma

[@johnsonchikachika2318]

Benin Empire is a fake history because is very small,Benin is not up to one State.