The Sahelian kingdoms were a series of centralized kingdoms or
empires that were centered on the
Sahel, the area of grasslands south of the
Sahara, from the 8th century to the 19th. The wealth of the states came from controlling the trade routes across the desert. Their power came from having large
pack animals like
camels and
horses that were fast enough to keep a large empire under central control and were also useful in such kind of battle. All of these empires were also quite decentralized with member cities having a great deal of autonomy.
The Sahel states were limited from expanding south into the
forest zone of the
Bono and
Yoruba as mounted warriors were all but useless in the forests and the horses and camels could not survive the diseases of the region.
Economy
There were integrated kingdoms and empires, with substantial cities and significant towns; and less organised territories with large scattered populations. People practised agriculture, stock-rearing, hunting, fishing, and crafts (metalworking, textiles, ceramics). They navigated along rivers and across lakes, traded over short and long distances, and used their own currencies.
History of Sahel kingdoms
The first major state to rise in this region was the
Ghana Empire. Established in c. the 3rd century, it was centered in what is today
Senegal and
Mauritania. Ghana grew wealthy through the
trans-Saharan trade routes linking
Aoudaghost with
Tahert and
Sijilmasa in north Africa following the introduction of the
camel to the western Sahel in the 3rd century AD. Ghana was the first to benefit from the introduction of pack animals by
Wolof traders. Ghana dominated the region between the 3rd century and the 13th century. Smaller states in the region at this time included
Takrur to the west, the
Malinke kingdom of Mali to the south, and the Songhai centred on
Gao to the east.
When Ghana collapsed in the face of invasion from the
Almoravids, a series of brief kingdoms followed, notably that of the
Sosso; after 1235, the
Mali Empire rose to dominate the region, which traded with
Bono state at the far south. Located on the
Niger River to the west of Ghana in what is today
Niger and
Mali, it reached its peak in the 1350s, but had lost control of a number of vassal states by 1400.[1]
The most powerful of these states was the
Songhai Empire, which expanded rapidly beginning with king
Sonni Ali in the 1460s. By 1500, it had risen to stretch from
Cameroon to the
Maghreb, the largest state in African history. Its territory diminished to cover only the
Dendi province in 1591 as a result of the invasion by the
Saadi Dynasty ofMorocco. The empire collapsed in 1901 when the French deposed the last askia.
Far to the east, on
Lake Chad, the state of
Kanem-Bornu, founded as Kanem in the 9th century, now rose to greater preeminence in the central Sahel region. To their west, the loosely united
Hausa city-states became dominant. These two states coexisted uneasily, but were quite stable.
In 1810, the
Sokoto Caliphate rose and conquered the Hausa, creating a more centralized state. It and Kanem-Bornu would continue to exist.
Maps
African states between 500 BCE and 1500 CE
The main slave trade routes in Africa during the
Middle Ages.
Trade routes of the western
Saharan Desert c. 1000 – 1500 Goldfields are indicated by light brown shading.
Carte des peuplades du Sénégal de l'abbé Boilat (1853): an ethnic map of Senegal at the time of French colonialism. The pre-colonial states of Baol, Sine and Saloum are arrayed along the southwest coast, with the inland areas marked "Peuple Sérère".