West Africa (820 – 963 CE): Ghana’s Rise, Sahel–Forest Gateways, and River Towns

Geographic and Environmental Context

West Africa includes Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and western–central Nigeria (Hausaland).

• Anchors: the Senegal–Gambia valleys, the Niger Bend and Inland Delta, the Volta and Benue corridors, and forest margins from Guinea to Ghana–Benin.

Climate and Environmental Shifts

• The Medieval Warm Period brought generally favorable rains to the Sahel and Sudan belts.

• Flood-recession farming in the Inland Niger Delta and lower Senegal supported cereals, fish, and pastures.

Societies and Political Developments

• Ghana (Wagadu) consolidated between the Senegal and upper Niger, taxing caravans at nodes around Koumbi Saleh.

• Takrur formed in the lower Senegal valley as an early riverine state.

• Towns at Gao on the Niger Bend grew into a commercial polity (Songhay ancestors).

• Forest–savanna margins (Mande and early Akan ancestors) supplied gold, kola, and ivory to Sahelian markets.

• In Hausaland (northwest–central Nigeria), early urban kernels (e.g., Kano, Katsina) emerged as walled towns within a mosaic of farming chieftaincies.

Economy and Trade

• Trans-Saharan caravans linked Ghana to Sijilmassa and Awdaghust (gold for salt, copper, cloth).

• Savanna agriculture (millet, sorghum) and floodplain gardens fueled surplus; cattle herds grazed Sahel pastures.

• Forest exports—gold (Bambuk, Buré), kola, ivory—moved through Mande brokers northward.

Subsistence and Technology

• Dryland grains with iron hoes and ard ploughs; river fisheries and flood-recession plots in the Inland Delta.

• Iron smelting furnished tools and weapons; donkeys and oxen moved farm goods; camels dominated the desert legs.

Movement and Interaction Corridors

• Sahara–Sahel axes: Sijilmassa ⇄ Awdaghust ⇄ Ghana; Air–Azawad ⇄ Gao.

• Niger River tied Gao to Inland Delta fisheries and pasture markets; Senegal River sustained Takrur.

Belief and Symbolism

• Indigenous religions centered on earth shrines, ancestor veneration, and river spirits.

• Early Islamic presence (merchants, scholars) clustered in caravan towns and separate quarters, without displacing local cults.

Adaptation and Resilience

• Ecological complementarity—Sahel grains, river fish, forest gold and kola—buffered shocks.

• Toll-taking states (Ghana, Takrur) maintained caravan security; when one route faltered, traffic shifted to alternatives.

Long-Term Significance

By 963, West Africa was a Sahelian–riverine commonwealth: Ghana dominated gold–salt corridors; Gao and Takrur anchored the Niger and Senegal; forest margins fed northbound trade that would power later state formation.

West Africa (964 – 1107 CE): Ghana’s Zenith, Sahelian Towns, and Forest Gateways

Geographic and Environmental Context

West Africa includes Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria (western and central).

• The Sahelian belt (Senegal–Niger valleys) anchored kingdoms like Ghana (Wagadu) and Takrur.

• The Niger Bend and inner Niger delta supported riverine farming, fishing, and trade, with towns such as Gao rising to prominence.

• The forest–savanna frontiers of modern Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana served as entry points for gold, kola, and ivory into Sahelian networks.

• In the east, Hausaland (northern Nigeria) consolidated into a mosaic of town-based polities linked to desert and savanna routes.

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Climate and Environmental Shifts

• The Medieval Warm Period (c. 950–1250) brought more stable rainfall to the Sahel, supporting millet, sorghum, and livestock across wide zones.

• Flood-recession agriculture in the inner Niger delta flourished, producing cereals, vegetables, and fish surpluses.

• Periodic dry years still occurred, but ecological diversity across Sahel, savanna, and forest buffered subsistence.

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Societies and Political Developments

• Ghana (Wagadu):

  • Reached its peak by the late 10th–11th centuries, ruling from Koumbi Saleh, with dual cities for indigenous and Muslim merchant populations.

  • Controlled the Awdaghust–Sijilmāsa caravan axis, extracting tribute and tolls on gold, salt, copper, and slaves.

  • Kings of Ghana patronized indigenous rituals but hosted Muslim scholars and traders, balancing dual authority.

• Takrur (Senegal valley):

  • Consolidated as a kingdom rivaling Ghana; rulers adopted Islam earlier than Ghana’s kings, fostering closer ties with North African merchants.

• Gao (Songhay ancestors):

  • Emerged as a rival Sahelian power on the eastern Niger; by the 11th century, Gao was a recognized kingdom with a Muslim ruling elite, noted in Arabic sources.

• Forest–savanna margins:

  • Mande-speaking traders and Akan ancestors channeled gold (Bambuk, Bure), kola nuts, and ivory northward.

  • Lineages in Upper Guinea and the Gold Coast consolidated towns, creating durable supply networks.

• Hausaland:

  • Urban communities at Kano, Katsina, Zaria grew into organized towns, each with ruling dynasties and fortified walls.

  • Early Hausa polities integrated farming, craft, and caravan trade.

• Benin region:

  • Edo-speaking communities clustered around chiefs; early forms of the Benin polity emerged in the 11th century.

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Economy and Trade

• Gold–salt trade: Ghana mediated the movement of gold from Bambuk/Buré to Sijilmāsa and beyond, while Saharan salt moved south.

• Copper and iron: copper from Takedda and Air supplied smiths; local ironworking thrived in savanna belts.

• Agriculture: millet and sorghum in Sahel; African rice in Upper Guinea; yams and oil palm in forest margins.

• Livestock: cattle, sheep, and goats grazed in the Sahel; horses (imported from the Maghreb) became symbols of elite power.

• Slaves: captured in frontier wars, traded north across the Sahara, and incorporated into Sahelian households.

• Craft production: raffia cloth, iron tools, wooden sculptures, and leatherwork enriched markets.

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Subsistence and Technology

• Farming systems: intensive irrigation and flood-recession farming in Senegal and Niger valleys.

• Pastoralism: transhumant cycles linked Sahel pastures with riverside gardens.

• Iron technology: bloomery furnaces supplied hoes, axes, spearheads, and ornaments.

• River transport: dugout canoes on the Senegal, Gambia, and Niger moved goods and people.

• Caravan technology: camels carried gold, salt, ivory, and textiles across the Sahara in organized trains.

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Movement and Interaction Corridors

• Awdaghust ⇄ Sijilmāsa ⇄ Koumbi Saleh: Ghana’s critical trans-Saharan axis.

• Niger Bend ⇄ Gao ⇄ Air: eastern routes carrying copper, salt, and slaves.

• Senegal River ⇄ Takrur ⇄ Atlantic littoral: opening Sahelian trade toward the ocean, centuries before European contact.

• Forest tracks ⇄ Sahel towns: Mande and Akan traders linked forest resources to Sahel markets.

• Hausaland ⇄ Air ⇄ Sahara: Hausa towns connected to Saharan gateways for copper and textiles.

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Belief and Symbolism

• Indigenous religions: earth shrines, ancestral spirits, and sacred groves legitimized land and kingship.

• Islam:

  • Spread among merchants, scholars, and some rulers (notably Takrur and Gao).

  • Muslim quarters in Ghana’s Koumbi Saleh flourished, while Ghana’s kings retained indigenous rituals.

• Symbolic economy: horses, gold ornaments, and elaborate burials marked elite power.

• Festivals synchronized agricultural and trading calendars, reinforcing community bonds.

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Adaptation and Resilience

• Ecological complementarity: gold from forests, grain from Sahel, salt from Sahara ensured resilience.

• Political dualism: rulers balanced indigenous ritual authority with Muslim merchant literacy and diplomacy.

• Caravan redundancy: shifting routes ensured continuity even when climate or politics disrupted one path.

• Lineage networks: in forest and savanna, kin-based alliances stabilized trade and subsistence.

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Long-Term Significance

By 1107 CE, West Africa stood at a high point of Sahelian power and trans-Saharan integration:

• Ghana (Wagadu) controlled the gold–salt axis at its zenith.

• Takrur rose in the Senegal valley as an Islamic kingdom.

• Gao emerged as a Muslim-led Sahelian power.

• Forest frontiers provided gold, kola, and ivory through Mande traders.

• Hausaland and Benin laid the foundations of durable polities.

This era established West Africa as a pivot of Afro-Eurasian trade, blending indigenous traditions with the growing influence of Islam, and setting the stage for the decline of Ghana and the rise of Mali in the 13th century.

A high degree of urbanization appears in Yorubaland, in the southeast of present Nigeria, by the eleventh century.

The Yoruba and …

…Bini, or Edo, people produce highly sophisticated bronze and brass sculptures.

Much of present-day Nigeria is divided long before 1500 into states, which can be identified with the modern ethnic groups that trace their history to the origins of these states.

These early states include the Yoruba kingdoms, the Edo kingdom of Benin, the Hausa cities, and Nupe.

In addition, numerous small states to the west and south of Lake Chad are absorbed or displaced in the course of the expansion of Kanem, which is centered to the northeast of Lake Chad.

Borno, initially the western province of Kanem, will become independent in the late fourteenth century.

Other states probably exist as well, but oral traditions and the absence of archaeological data do not permit an accurate dating of their antiquity.

West Africa (1108 – 1251 CE): Ghana’s Decline, Sundiata’s Revolution, and Benin’s Consolidation

Geographic and Environmental Context

As above.

Climate and Environmental Shifts

• Generally favorable rains, with localized dry spells.

• Flood-recession agriculture in the Inland Delta remained productive.

Societies and Political Developments

• Ghana (Wagadu) declined under internal fissures, shifting trade, and pressure from nomads and rival states.

• In the upper Niger, Sundiata Keita forged the Mali polity (crowned after the Battle of Kirina, c. 1235), uniting Mande chiefdoms and seizing the goldfields’ arteries.

• Gao persisted as a Songhay kingdom; Takrur remained an Islamic river state.

• Hausaland: city-states expanded walls, markets, and dynastic courts.

• Benin region: Ogiso-era town clusters consolidated toward the early Oba monarchy.

Economy and Trade

• Mali’s control of Bambuk–Buré gold routes shifted the balance from Ghana; salt from Taghaza/ Taoudenni supplied the Sahel.

• Caravans: copper from Takedda, textiles from Ghadames–Ghat, and horses from the Maghreb flowed south; gold, slaves, ivory, and kola moved north.

• Agriculture: Sahel grains; Inland Delta rice and fish; forest yams and oil palm.

Subsistence and Technology

• Irrigation and floodplain management in Inland Delta; iron hoes and sickles increased yields.

• Camel logistics refined; caravanserais multiplied along trunk routes.

Movement and Interaction Corridors

• Upper Niger trunk (Niani–Kangaba) under Mali;

• Gao–Air–Takedda copper axis;

• Senegal–Takrur routes to the Atlantic edge;

• Hausa corridors through Kano and Katsina toward the Sahara.

Belief and Symbolism

• Islamic courts in Mali, Gao, Takrur sponsored mosques and jurists; indigenous rites persisted in rural hinterlands.

• Griots preserved royal epics (e.g., Sundiata), legitimating rule.

Adaptation and Resilience

• Political succession from Ghana to Mali preserved caravan security.

• Ecological spread—Sahel grains + floodplain rice + forest kola—hedged climate risk.

Long-Term Significance

By 1251, Mali had supplanted Ghana; Gao, Takrur, Hausa, and Benin matured—setting up a 14th-century boom in gold, cities, and Islamic learning.

The Yoruba placate a pantheon headed by an impersonal deity, Olorun, and include lesser deities, some of them formerly mortal, who perform a variety of cosmic and practical tasks.

One of them, Oduduwa, is regarded as the creator of the earth and the ancestor of the Yoruba kings.

According to a creation myth, Oduduwa founds the city of Ife and dispatches his sons to establish other cities, where they reign as priest-kings and preside over cult rituals.

Formal traditions of this sort have been interpreted as poetic illustrations of the historical process by which Ife's ruling dynasty extends its authority over Yorubaland.

The stories are attempts to legitimize the Yoruba monarchies—after they had supplanted clan loyalties—by claiming divine origin.

Ife is the center of as many as four hundred religious cults whose traditions are manipulated to political advantage by the oni (king) in the days of the kingdom's greatness.

The Yoruba have been the dominant group on the west bank of the Niger as far as historical memory extends.

Of mixed origin, they are the product of the assimilation of periodic waves of migrants who evolve a common language and culture.

The Yoruba are organized in patrilineal descent groups that occupy village communities and subsist on agriculture, but from about the eleventh century, adjacent village compounds, called ile, began to coalesce into a number of territorial city-states in which loyalties to the clan became subordinate to allegiance to a dynastic chieftain.

This transition produces an urbanized political and social environment that is accompanied by a high level of artistic achievement, particularly in terra-cotta and ivory sculpture and in the sophisticated metal casting produced at Ife.

The brass and bronze used by Yoruba artisans is a significant item of trade, made from copper, tin, and zinc imported either from North Africa or from mines in the Sahara and northern Nigeria.

West Africa (1252 – 1395 CE): Mali’s Gold Age, Songhay’s Ascent, and Hausa–Benin City Networks

Geographic and Environmental Context

As above.

Climate and Environmental Shifts

• The onset of the Little Ice Age (~1300) introduced greater rainfall variability in the Sahel; core river basins and floodplains remained productive.

• Caravan viability continued with route adjustments to oasis conditions.

Societies and Political Developments

• Mali Empire reached its zenith: Mansa Musa (r. 1312–1337) centralized power, reformed finances, and performed the celebrated hajj (1324–1325), projecting Malian prestige across the Islamic world; Mansa Sulayman (r. 1341–1360) maintained stability.

• Songhay at Gao expanded autonomy under the Sonni dynasty (pre-Sunni Ali), positioning for later takeover of the Niger Bend.

• Hausa city-states (e.g., Kano, Katsina, Zaria) entrenched urban courts, craft guilds, and caravan diplomacy.

• Jolof confederation rose in Senegambia (mid-14th c.), shaping Atlantic-edge politics.

• Benin Kingdom consolidated the Oba monarchy (late 13th–14th c.), strengthening city walls, palace rituals, and regional trade.

Economy and Trade

• Gold from Bambuk–Buré and Wangara networks sustained Mali’s coin and credit circuits;

• Salt from Taghaza fed the Sahel; copper from Takedda supplied smiths; horses from the Maghreb armed elites.

• Agriculture: Sahel grains; Inland Delta rice/fish; forest kola, pepper, and palm products.

• Urban craft: cloth weaving, leatherwork, metalwork, and manuscript culture in Sahelian towns.

Subsistence and Technology

• Floodplain irrigation and rice paddies in the Inland Delta; millet–sorghum rotations across the Sahel; orchard and garden plots near cities.

• Camel caravans optimized with relay oases; riverine canoes moved grain and fish.

Movement and Interaction Corridors

• Niani–Timbuktu–Gao trunk within Mali; Gao–Air–Takedda; Takrur–Senegal; Hausa–Saharan routes through Air and Ajjer into the Maghreb; Benin–Nupe forest–savanna corridors to the Niger.

Belief and Symbolism

• Islam deepened in courts and trading towns (mosques, jurists, scholars); Timbuktu and Walata matured as centers of learning.

• Indigenous ritual remained strong in rural communities (earth shrines, rainmaking).

• Court pageantry—gold regalia, horse trappings—signaled sovereignty; griots preserved dynastic memory.

Adaptation and Resilience

• Route redundancy across Sahara and Sahel hedged against drought/war.

• Plural economies—grain, rice, fish, gold, salt, kola—spread risk.

• Urban institutions—guilds, mosques, market courts—stabilized exchange; kin/clan systems secured rural production.

Long-Term Significance

By 1395, West Africa was a constellation of powerful states and city networks—Mali at its height, Songhay rising, Hausa and Benin consolidating, Jolof emerging—bound into Afro-Eurasian circuits by gold, salt, and scholarship, and resilient enough to carry this prosperity into the 15th century.

Ife also lies at the center of a trading network with the north.

The oni supports his court with tolls levied on trade, tribute exacted from dependencies, and tithes due him as a religious leader.

One of Ife's greatest legacies to modern Nigeria is its beautiful sculpture associated with this tradition.

The oni is chosen on a rotating basis from one of several branches of the ruling dynasty, which is composed of a clan with several thousand members.

Once elected, he goes into seclusion in the palace compound and is not seen again by his people.

Below the oni in the state hierarchy are palace officials, town chiefs, and the rulers of outlying dependencies.

The palace officials are spokesmen for the oni and the rulers of dependencies who had their own subordinate officials.

All offices, even that of the oni, are elective and depend on broad support within the community.

Each official is chosen from among the eligible clan members who have hereditary right to the office.

Members of the royal dynasty often are assigned to govern dependencies, while the sons of palace officials assume lesser roles as functionaries, bodyguards to the oni, and judges.