The Ghana Empire (Wagadu) - Africa's Land of Gold
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- čas přidán 24. 05. 2024
- The Empire of Wagadu (Ouagadou), more commonly known as the Ghana Empire, was a powerful state in the Medieval Sahel of West Africa, and one of the earliest in written record. With origins in antiquity and a reputation for wealth and glory in contemporary sources, it has long been an icon of Black history, though today it tends to be overshadowed by the later Mali Empire.
This video is part of Untold Black History, a collaboration organized by Jabari from From Nothing with the intention of shedding light on the history of Africans and the African diaspora. Check out the full playlist here:
• Untold Black History
Special thanks to@schrodingersmoose for providing the voice of al-Bakri, @KenKwameWrites for providing the voice of al-Zūhri, and @MostlyMiSinging for providing the collaboration theme!
Maps based on this video: • The History of Ghana, ...
Sources:
Bennison, Amira K. “The Almoravids: Striving in the Path of God.” In The Almoravid and Almohad Empires, 24-61. Edinburgh University Press, 2016. www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j....
Burkhalter, Sheryl L. “Listening for Silences in Almoravid History: Another Reading of ‘The Conquest That Never Was.’” History in Africa 19 (1992): 103-31. doi.org/10.2307/3171996.
Conrad, David, and Humphrey Fisher. “The Conquest That Never Was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. I. The External Arabic Sources.” History in Africa 9 (1982): 21-59. doi.org/10.2307/3171598.
D'Andrea, A.C., Casey, J. Pearl Millet and Kintampo Subsistence. African Archaeological Review 19, 147-173 (2002). doi.org/10.1023/A:1016518919072
Ehret, Christopher. The Civilizations of Africa a History to 1800. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2016.
Gomez, Michael. African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019.
Hopkins, J.F.P, and Nehemia Levtzion. Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History. Cambridge , England: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
Kevin McDonald, Robert Vernet, Dorian Fuller and James Woodhouse, "New Light on the Tichitt Tradition" A Preliminary Report on Survey and Excavation at Dhar Nema," pp. 78-80.
Mauny, Raymond. “Campagne De Fouilles à Koumbi Saleh .” Bibliotheque Numerique sur la Mauritanie, 1951. web.archive.org/web/201107262....
Mauny, R. A. “The Question of Ghana.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 24, no. 3 (1954): 200-213. doi.org/10.2307/1156424.
McDougall, E. Ann. Review of Research in Saharan History, by James L. A. Webb Jr. The Journal of African History 39, no. 3 (1998): 467-80. www.jstor.org/stable/183363.
McIntosh, Susan Keech. “A Reconsideration of Wangara/Palolus, Island of Gold.” The Journal of African History 22, no. 2 (1981): 145-58. doi:10.1017/S002185370001937X.
Munson, Patrick J. “Archaeology and the Prehistoric Origins of the Ghana Empire.” The Journal of African History 21, no. 4 (1980): 457-66. www.jstor.org/stable/182004.
“State Building in Ancient West Africa: From the Tichitt Neolithic Civilization to the Empire of Ghana (2,200BC-1250AD.).” State building in ancient west Africa: from the Tichitt Neolithic civilization to the empire of Ghana (2,200BC-1250AD). African History Extra, March 27, 2022. isaacsamuel.substack.com/p/st....
00:00 Introduction
01:01 The Basics of Wagadu
01:55 The Sahel
03:13 The Salt-Gold Trade
05:15 Government in Wagadu
06:52 The Capital
09:21 Archaeology
11:55 Religion
14:55 Islam in Wagadu
17:06 The Almoravids
21:14 Decline and Fall
22:53 Conclusion
Twitter: / somas_academy
This video is part of Untold Black History, a collaboration intended to shed light on the history of Africans and the African diaspora. Check out the full playlist here:
czcams.com/play/PLivC9TMdGnL93RMFHi6DnoJP_tYYXqQbR.html
Special thanks to @schrodingersmoose for providing the voice of al-Bakri, @KenKwameWrites for providing the voice of al-Zūhri, and to @MostlyMiSinging for providing the collaboration theme! Their channels can be found here:
MostlyMiSinging: czcams.com/channels/MZ0SXd9OQ_M5sw1oHsu0ew.html
Schrodinger's Moose: www.youtube.com/@schrodingersmoose
Ken Kwame: czcams.com/channels/hkErBP823aJbf1awvOu84A.html
Another gem of a video just like the one in the last collab. Thanks for joining me again and contributing this masterpiece! I love seen the cumulative knowledge from the community manifested in the maps as well as new and independent research conducted by you. Well done!
Thank you, and thanks for organizing the collab!
This is my people soninke people today you can find us only in few countries like mali gambia senegal and Mauritania but we do travel all over the world to find this money 💰 🤑 so we still got the love for the cash and we still Muslims we are ethnic that has no other blieve but Islam
Can you seriously pride yourself on being firstly colonized by Muslims. Not unless you are actually the descendants of an Arabian invader?
I don't know that you know anything about the facts in regards to the collapse of the Wagadu or Soninke Kingdom along with the Malian Kingdom.
If you are yet another lying half-breed or European then no such Empire existed. No Native Africans invaded Europe. You are still the problem.
If you are native then you should learn to speak.
Fantastic video. The attention you pay to West African history is both unparalleled and appreciated!
Thank you!
I've always been curious about this empire since it always appeared on a lot of historical maps, but I could never be bothered to look more into it.
This video was great source of information.
Thank you!
I didn't realise Wagadu was so influential.
8:45 sounds like Jenne. I've seen many writings about Jenne being surrounded by water depending on the time of year. Still haven't finished watching but I'll comment more after!
Found your channel trying to find pre-colonial history vids about the African continent! I watched a video by Economics Explained and immediately saw ommissions and inaccuracies. (Bringing up Mobutu but completely failing to mention Lumumba and how he was assassinated with CIA involvement). Then I saw your critique of an Economics Explained vid. Awesome stuff. Sick of the colonial version of events.
Thank you! I plan to cover a lot more pre-colonial African history in the future, so stay tuned!
Fascinating.
The more reason why Nkrumah adopted the name Ghana so that it will always be remembered in akan history that their ancestors originated from old Ghana empire
Indeed. How both bury their kings are too similar to ignore. Even the style of dressing and courtship are similar.
That's not true.. Akan people didn't even originate from the Ghana empire. The people of the Ghana empire were Soninke people of the Mandé group in present day Mali, Senegal, Mauritania. Akans are not Soninke or even Mandé.
@@sarauniyaGHsince when do Politicians motivate their plays eith only facts
Excellent video! You went more into depth than any video I’ve seen on the Ghana Empire. Often times they either focus the basics of Wagadu or mainly mention it and focus on the Mali, or Songhai empire. Again good video. 😄👍
Thank you! I've noticed that a lot of videos on Wagadu are pretty surface-level, so I did my best to bring something new to the table.
great overview of this often forgotten history
Cool I saw this in connection to the other videos regarding African history!
Thank you for watching!
@@SomasAcademy You make good content! 👍
Great video. Love the illustrations!
Thank you!
i love learning about these empires, there so much to discover about them.
This was a pleasant watch Soma, keep up the good work! 👍🏿
Thank you!
Another excellent video
Thanks!
Thank you so much for contributing to this Untold Black History playlist! I feel like I've learned something new today!
I'm glad, thank you for watching!
Very good, thanks you
Thanks for watching!
you always have the most faithfully done stuff about obscure topics that don't get much if any attention on here
Thank you so much!
I know your channel is small but thanks for the hard work and for the time spent to make these videos, keep on making these videos!
Thank you so much!
Interesting love it
The first empire of west Africa was this one ❤, soninkara alive.
Wow this was so well done, I learned more about west African history in this one video then i ever learned in school i hope to see more videos like this archaeology is a wonderful thing.🎉
Thank you! West African history (and African history in general) unfortunately tends to get overlooked in schools, I plan to cover more West African history in future videos to help shine a spotlight on it. If you haven't seen it yet, I also have a video about the Kingdom of Benin on my channel if you'd like to learn about some more West African history!
There is also a story of a multi-headed snake in an East African legend. Its been years since I read it but I think it was titled Rubiya.
Interesting! I wish there was more comparative religion material on Africa, I've heard a bunch of examples of stories with similar characteristics between different African cultures, but no solid investigation into these similarities.
Great video. I hope videos about the Jafunu kingdom, Mali and Songhay empires etc.
Mali and Songhai are on the list, but I'm not familiar with the Jafuna Kingdom, could you tell me a bit about them?
@@SomasAcademy Jafunu is a Soninké state like Wagadou and which emerged after him and became very powerful even more powerful than the declining Almoravids. An author in Arabic, a slave of Byzantine origin by the name of Yaqut al Hamawi wrote a book Mu'jam al-Buldan (= dictionary of countries) around 1224. He is our source about the Jafunu. The King of Diafounou on his way to Mecca probably towards the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century was passing through Marrakech, capital of the Almoravid empire. The Lemtouna traders were the main customers of the Diafounou traders and at that time they depended on the Sudanese states because they were weakened by internal struggles and quarrels between Saharan Berbers to such an extent that the Lemtouna had to accept the status of vassals of the Diafounou Kingdom. This explains the respect with which the King was received and the humility of Prince Almoravid in front of him who greets him on foot while the King of Jafunu enters his palace on horseback. Historian Tadeusz Lewicki wrote an article in French available in Persée.fr which is called "the kingdom of Zāfūn, an unknown medieval Sudanese state."
@@Buurba_Jolof Interesting stuff, I'll definitely put Jafuna/Diafounou/Zafun on my list and look into it further after I've improved my French skills, it seems like an underdiscussed topic.
@@SomasAcademy If I have more time I will translate it for you
@@SomasAcademy Zafunu was sonnike state like Wagadu, located in Mali.According to an eyewitness account recorded by Al Yaqut this state would have dominated the Almoravids for a while. it should also be noted that Al zuhri says that the capital of the Almoravids is Ghana, and mention that the elite of Ghaba comes from a Sudanese tribe. All this assumes that Ghana and Zafun were allies of Ghana and that the Almoravids when they became weak, they were forced to become vassals of Ghana
Great Video as always
And @12:45 just a small tidbit/Factoid, Serpent worship is also seen in Diaspora Religions such as Voodoo
Thank you!
Cool*
Next make a video on the Sosso empire!
Good job. You've made one of the better videos on this subject
Thank you! I found that most older videos I could find about it were a bit surface-level and tended to repeat the same information, so I tried to bring something new to the table.
@@SomasAcademy Yeah, sadly the vast majority of CZcams content on African history is surface-level or insane Afrocentrists. We need more serious content creators
My only suggestion would be to have incorporated some ethnographic sources on the Soninke people today and to try to get your hands on Abdoulaye Bathily's article (very hard to find)
@@MsFrancois1 Some ethnographic sources might have been a good idea. I'm not familiar with Bathily, what is the article in question?
@@SomasAcademy "A discussion of the traditions of Wagadu with some reference to ancient Ghāna, including of review of oral accounts, Arabic sources and archaeological evidence" but good luck trying to find it. I think a university with a good inter-library loan system might be able to get you a copy
Beautiful history of north west Africa 🌍 mauritania
Let's go
Thanks for this interesting video, But please how can I edit or do a video like this
The editing software I use is Hitfilm Express. All the editing I do uses simple tools from that; you can find lots of tutorials online showing you how to do different things. Most of my editing just uses three basic features; layering images, making images move/slide, and making images grow or shrink. It takes some practice (if you look at my older videos, you'll see that I've figured out some more tricks over time), but those basic things are how you get started. Before you consider getting Hitfilm Express, I'd suggest searching CZcams for some tutorials on how to make things move, grow/shrink, etc. with the editing software you currently have, in case it has similar features! Also, I use a lot of images with transparent backgrounds, like whenever you see a person slide onto screen over a map in this video; those images I make with GIMP, which is a free image editing software you can also find tutorials for online.
I'm glad you enjoyed my video, and best of luck in your own work!
@@SomasAcademy wow thank you so much for the Explanation And I really do appreciate 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
It's really a fascinating topic, and your videos always show quality and care for doing proper research.
Edit: Also, first! 😁
Thank you!
@@SomasAcademy Incredible video that finally puts some nuance on that subject. However, I thought Gao or kawkaw would be bigger (even "subjugating" the sanhaja amazigh):
"Then there is the kingdom of the Kawkaw, which is the greatest of the realms of the Sudan, the most important and powerful. All the kingdoms obey its king. Al-Kawkaw is the name of the town. Besides this there are a number of kingdoms of which the rulers pay allegiance to him and acknowledge his sovereignty, although they are kings in their own lands. Among them is the kingdom of al-MRW, which is an extensive realm. Its king has has a town called al-HYA. Also, the kingdom of MURDBH, the kingdom of al-HRBR, the kingdom of Sanhaja, the kingdom of TDHKRYR, the kingdom of the Zayanir, the kingdom of 'RWR, and the kingdom of BQARWT. " - Al-Yaqubi, Tarikh (872-873 AD)
And I thought ghana conquered the capital of Gao? (idk if the capital payed tribute or if the Gao king moved his capital)
@@saratmodugu2721 You could be right, I largely worked off of the maps presented in From Nothing's mapping video for my own maps, so I couldn't tell you the primary sources for the borders I show. I didn't see anything about Wagadu conquering the capital of Gao in any of the sources I read, so I can't confirm whether or not that happened.
@@SomasAcademy now that you mention it, i wonder why from nothing ever show ghana conquering Gao on his map
@@saratmodugu2721 The source is page 26-27 of African Dominion. Like all events it's one of several possibilities that had to be picked.
❤️❤️❤️
In both Koumbi Saleh and the Moplah we see the same thing. Come as traders, then convert the whole town and distort local traditions. It's actually crazy how much ideology can drive people to get the same results in several places across geography. We should learn the good and reject the bad from this all.
You are just describing the Ashante people of Ghana 🇬🇭.
How the leader sits in state to settle disputes and also the matrilineal system…
Wow
And gold was traded with salt?!
Who knew?!
Yes, the same system was also used among the Fante, another group of Akan peoples also focused in modern day Ghana. There's some evidence that the Akan people may have once lived in the Empire of Wagadu before migrating south into modern-day Ghana some time after the empire began to decline, so the similar cultural elements might reflect this connection, although this isn't known with absolute certainty!
Modern Ghana has nothing to the ancient Ghana empire. The similarities of the west African cultures are well known.
@@SomasAcademy we truly are one people even with all the borders.
This is a wealth of information!
Thank you 🙏🏽
@@diawaraoussey9091 As I said, we just don't know for sure. It certainly shouldn't be taken as a given that the people of modern Ghana have roots in the Empire, but it also shouldn't necessarily be dismissed. It's just one possibility.
@@diawaraoussey9091
U so but hurt that modern day ghana is said to be part of ancient Ghana 😂
Cry more because the Akans were part of ancient Ghana
15:33 This is funny because Ibn Battuta centuries later does exactly that: bow to the king and put some dust on his face. And many centuries later european travellers did the same on the further kingdom of Kaabu, so this tradition was widespread and indicate common cultural origins or most probably indicate how much the big ones (Ghana, Mali) influenced their vassals.
Yes I'm soninke and we still around, since the fall of our Empire we split all around the world, ❤
Does that mean soninkes are the distant brothers of the Akans?
I would have thought one reason for the introduction of Islam is the introduction of writing.
Much as in central and northern Europe, the power on the Christian church lay to a substantial extent in the usefulness of the clergy as civil servants, through their literacy useful for record keeping and diplomatic communications with far away lands, so too I would imagine that Muslim clerics could have served a similar role in the empires of West Africa.
I couldn't tell you for sure, but that seems like a very plausible explanation as to why the Ghana would favor Muslim ministers and treasury officials even while continuing to practice local religion himself.
You didnt reflect Sheryl Burkhalters stronger counter arguments properly, was very vague with her while you went into details with fishers works as if they had the stronger arguments.
My greater coverage of Conrad and Fisher is the result of me reading their work earlier in the script-writing process, and the fact that their work counters a narrative I frequently saw taken for granted during my research; I didn't have the time to do a similar summary of Burkhalter's points, but mentioned her by name just so that the audience would have a place to start if they wanted to look into the specific counterarguments against Conrad and Fisher.
@@SomasAcademy That’s the point you covered the counter to the traditional narrative very well, but the most conclusive works to date have been mostly ignored. A laymen watching this video would feel it’s very disputed and inconclusive when Fisher just has limitations in his understanding of the Arabic language and instead resorted to a standard not held to any other campaign in west Africa, a question of archeology as if the almoravids would have had to destroy everything
@@vaktus3380 At the end of the day it IS disputed, and Burkhalter's response to Conrad and Fisher isn't the final word as you seem to suggest, just one argument. I ran the first draft of my script by a friend who focuses on the Sahel and took his comments into account, and in this case he noted that Burkhalter wasn't a specialist in a relevant field and pointed me to Bennison. That's the best I can do.
@@SomasAcademy everything is disputed, it’s about measuring the evidences and claims against one another. You presented this video as if Fishers work is the stronger conclusion while brushing Burkhalter who actually knows the Arabic language. The mistakes Fisher made were very embarrassing from basic Arabic structure and it’s clear that there was a pre conceived bias to make it appear a fable when the Arabic sources are clear. You could try to do the reading instead of dismissing work don’t by someone who actually bothered learning the language of the original texts
@@vaktus3380 Again, I'm not a specialist in the Sahel, I'm not qualified to that weighing; I can just repeat what I've read and been told by scholars in relevant fields. I didn't see anything about Fisher and Conrad (who I'm not sure why you keep omitting) being unable to read Arabic; if that's the case then that's fairly damning, but I didn't see anything in my research to lead me to that conclusion (unless you're being hyperbolic about Burkhalter's grammatical criticisms of their readings). I did my best to illustrate the fact that Fisher and Conrad's conclusions have been contested and don't represent the final word, that's why I pointed to Burkhalter and Bennison. I'm sorry I didn't cover Burkhalter's arguments in the same level of detail, I already told you why.
Has anyone played The Wagadu Chronicles?
Isn't it still in development?
@@SomasAcademy oh okay.
You flash the text WAY TOO FAST. I would like to read it, but It means I have to pause constantly, which makes a 24 minute video into something more like a 40 minute video and is extremely annoying. Your content is great, and eventually your channel will get big, but please stop doing that with the text.
Most of the text I display in this video is not strictly important to read - like the screenshots from Conrad and Fisher's paper, which I largely included just because I didn't have any better visuals (I summarize all the important information in the script). I'll definitely keep this comment in mind for future videos though, thank you for your feedback and I'm glad you mostly enjoy my content!
There where two kombi salleh one is the economic capital and the other is where the kings live but is not known or opened to strangers
Many animals like birds or squirrels find the shiny objects like gold and silver nuggets or gemstones interesting enough to take to their nest. Just like humans I suppose.
I never really wondered why, they don't really have any purpose for survival as far as I understand.
Who do you consider the greatest ruler of Ghana?
Unfortunately we only know a handful of the names of Wagadu's rulers, and little about their reigns, so there's not a lot to go off of in ranking them! However, Al-Bakri spoke highly of a king named Basi, who ruled before Tunka Manin; according to al-Bakri, Basi "led a praiseworthy life on account of his love for justice and friendship for the Muslims," and said that in his old age Basi had gone blind, but concealed this by having his advisors use coded phrases to indicate how he should react when asked to look at things. Not a lot of information, but it's an interesting tidbit!
@@SomasAcademy Thank you for replying!
I think dinga cisse the founder or tunka manin the diplomat
Bring back Wagadu paganism 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Current GHANA 🇬🇭 can be traced back to the Ghana Empire through the Ashanti Kingdom and the rest of Akans. That’s why the leaders named the country GHANA 🇬🇭
Those puppil less drawings look so creepy.
Egypt also used to believe in 🐍snake which is the proof of their Egyptian origin. Number two, the name (sonin+ke) the suffix kè=inhabitant of (asuani) asuani is precisely where we are originated from.
...The Old Norse, Ancient Greeks, and Hindus also all believed in giant snakes, so by the same logic one could claim the Soninke had origins in Scandinavia, Greece, or India. And the suffix "ke" does not mean "inhabitant of" in Egyptian.
GHANA, MALI, SONGHAY
Soma means eldest son in Soninke language.
Translate to french please
I don't speak French, but I can google translate the transcript into French to add French subtitles. Is that what you mean?
Okay, I've now added auto-translated French subtitles, hopefully they're accurate!
Awaggadun empire has an antiquity which goes back 15000 BC
Source?
@@SomasAcademy books that only exist in the hearts and minds if the great African griots of whom I had great access to one.
@@SomasAcademy it is mythical speculation like most antiquated history.
@@RPNDWORLDWIDE Okay so you heard it from some guy who was making a guess, got it.
@@SomasAcademy I'm African. Griots are ancient historical reference in African communities. You got it now.
Nok civilization is earliest civilization in west africa
The Tichitt culture emerged around 2200 BCE, while the Nok culture emerged around 1500 BCE, so the Tichitt culture is about 700 years older. The Kintampo complex is also similarly old, though we don't have a firm estimate on exactly when it was founded - we just have an estimate range of 2500-1400 BCE, so it could be older than Tichitt, younger than Nok, or somewhere in between.
Niger-Congo is tentative at best, and it's validity is far from being proven but great video otherwise
Thank you! Yes, though taken for granted by many scholars including in the sources I drew from, Niger-Congo is not a firmly established language family, but simply a proposed grouping between the better established Atlantic-Congo language family and a collection of languages from in and around the Niger River, including Mande languages like Soninke. I learned this after making this video, because Niger-Congo is so widely discussed that I never realized it wasn't firmly established, even though I know some other even less firmly established language family proposals (like Nilo-Saharan, which originated as a wastebasket taxon, and Khoisan, which is widely recognized by linguists to be a completely invalid grouping of languages based on a single shared feature) are also taken for granted in many scholarly sources! At some point I may make a video about Africa's major proposed language families and talk about that, and I intend to avoid referencing "Niger-Congo" without providing some kind of disclaimer or contextualization in the future.
Thats where our forefathers came from to present day Ghana after the fall of the empire.
They moved from Israel to Egypt ,southern egypt to old Ghana Empire before settling in modern Ghana land
Your forefathers did not come from Ghana Empire. Stop stealing the history and culture of others. Nkrumah appropriated the name "Ghana" for your country. That's it.
@@MrSivram28some Ivorian and Ghanaian tribes like the ancient Akan tribe of Begho now know as Bono people among the first settlers in Ghana came from there. other people from the northern part of Ghana like Dagombas of Moshi tribe also largely found in Burkina Faso. Tribes like the Nzulezu people of Ghana also trace their origin from Mali as other trace their roots from Gao /Kawkaw in the Ancient stone age era. Most tribes came to Ghana in avoidance of Arab invasion
There actually is a legitimate hypothesis that the Akan originated in the Wagadu Empire before migrating south. However, narratives of Israelite or Egyptian origins stem from unfounded colonial era claims which sought to deny the indigenous origins of great West African civilizations.
@@SomasAcademy there is no connection between modern Ghana and ancient Ghana. Nkrumah appropriated the name
@@MrSivram28 As I said in my comment and in a written note in the video, there may be a genuine connection, although this isn't known for certain; it's just a hypothesis. But yes, the main reason the name was chosen for the modern state of Ghana was just because it was a historically significant name, not because of a percieved direct connection.
Mr. Soma, why do you draw yourself to look so much like a woman?
...I just have long hair?
The Almoravid and Almohads were "black". Regardless of the contention around the physical description of Moors as a whole, the one thing that isn't disputed is whether the Almoravids and Almohads in particular were "black". You can consults "Berbers"/"Amazigh"/whatever you want to call them about the make up of lamtuna, masmuda etc.
No Almoravids and almohads were "white" berbers
No they wasn't Blood
@@akachiikenga617 they were for sure, they were a coalition of tuareg, toucouleur, and sahaja berbers.
Why are you erasing Amazigh history?
@@moderatecanuck because its a lie
we love fortnite we love fortnite
Beautiful history of north west Africa 🌍 mauritania