The Mali Empire (1240-1645) of West Africa was founded by Sundiata Keita (r. 1230-1255) following his victory over the kingdom of Sosso (c. 1180-1235). Sundiata's centralised government, diplomacy and well-trained army permitted a massive military expansion which would pave the way for a flourishing of the Mali Empire, making it the largest yet seen in Africa.
The reign of Mansa Musa I (1312-1337) saw the empire reach new heights in terms of territory controlled, cultural florescence, and the staggering wealth brought through Mali's control of regional trade routes. Acting as a middle-trader between North Africa via the Sahara desert and the Niger River to the south, Mali exploited the traffic in gold, salt, copper, ivory, and slaves that crisscrossed West Africa. Muslim merchants were attracted to all this commercial activity, and they converted Mali rulers who in turn spread Islam via such noted centres of learning as Timbuktu. In contrast to cities like Niani (the capital), Djenne, and Gao, most of the rural Mali population remained farmers who clung to their traditional animist beliefs. The Mali Empire collapsed in the 1460s following civil wars, the opening up of trade routes elsewhere, and the rise of the neighbouring Songhai Empire, but it did continue to control a small part of the western empire into the 17th century.
Sundiata Keita & Government
Sundiata Keita (aka Sunjaata or Sundjata, r. 1230-1255) was a Malinke prince, whose name means 'lion prince', and he waged war against the kingdom of Sosso from the 1230s. Sundiata formed a powerful alliance of other disgruntled chiefs tired of Sumanguru's harsh rule and defeated the Sosso in a decisive battle at Krina (aka Kirina) in 1235. In 1240 Sundiata captured the old Ghana capital. Forming a centralised government of tribal leaders and a number of influential Arab merchants, this assembly (gbara) declared Sundiata the supreme monarch and gave him such honorary titles as Mari Diata (Lord Lion). The name Sundiata gave to his empire, Africa's largest up to that point, was Mali, meaning 'the place where the king lives'. It was also decreed that all future kings would be selected from the Keita clan, although the title was not necessarily given to the eldest son of a ruler, which sometimes led to fierce disputes among candidates.
The Mansa, or king, would be assisted by an assembly of elders and local chiefs throughout the Mali Empire's history, with audiences held in the royal palace or under a large tree. The king was also the supreme source of justice, but he did make use of legal advisors. In addition, the king was helped by a number of key ministers such as the chief of the army and master of the granaries (later treasury), as well as other officials like the master of ceremonies and leader of the royal orchestra. Nevertheless, the Mansa acted as a supreme monarch and monopolised key trade goods, for example, only he was permitted to possess gold nuggets, traders had to make do with gold dust.
Trade & Timbuktu
Like its political predecessors, the Mali Empire prospered thanks to trade and its prime location, situated between the rain forests of southern West Africa and the powerful Muslim caliphates of North Africa. The Niger River provided ready access to Africa's interior and Atlantic coast, while the Berber-controlled camel caravans that crossed the Sahara desert ensured valuable commodities came from the north. The Mali rulers had a triple income: they taxed the passage of trade goods, bought goods and sold them on at much higher prices, and had access to their own valuable natural resources. Significantly, the Mali Empire controlled the rich gold-bearing regions of Galam, Bambuk, and Bure. One of the main trade exchanges was gold dust for salt from the Sahara. Gold was in particular demand from European powers like Castille in Spain and Venice and Genoa in Italy, where coinage was now being minted in the precious metal.
Timbuktu, founded c. 1100 by the nomadic Tuaregs, was a semi-independent trade port which had the double advantage of being on the Niger River bend and the starting point for the trans-Saharan caravans. The city would be monopolised and then taken over by the Mali kings who made it into one of the most important and most cosmopolitan trade centres in Africa. Through Timbuktu there passed such lucrative goods as ivory, textiles, horses (important for military use), glassware, weapons, sugar, kola nuts (a mild stimulant), cereals (e.g. sorghum and millet), spices, stone beads, craft products, and slaves. Goods were bartered for or paid using an agreed upon commodity such as copper or gold ingots, set quantities of salt or ivory, or even cowry shells (which came from Persia).
Mansa Musa I
After a string of seemingly lacklustre rulers, the Mali Empire enjoyed its second golden era during the reign of Mansa Musa I in the first half of the 13th century. With an army numbering around 100,000 men, including an armoured cavalry corps of 10,000 horses, and with the talented general Saran Mandian, Mansa Musa was able to maintain and extend Mali's empire, doubling its territory. He controlled lands up to the Gambia and lower Senegal in the west; in the north, tribes were subdued along the whole length of the Western Sahara border region; in the east, control spread up to Gao on the Niger River and, to the south, the Bure region and the forests of what became known as the Gold Coast came under Mali oversight. The Mali Empire thus came to include many different religious, ethnic, and linguistic groups.
To govern these diverse peoples, Mansa Musa divided his empire into provinces with each one ruled by a governor (farba) appointed personally by him and responsible for local taxes, justice, and settling tribal disputes. The administration was further improved with greater records kept and sent to the centralised government offices at Niani. With more tribute from more conquered chiefs, more trade routes under Mali control, and even more natural resources to exploit, Mansa Musa and the Mali elite became immensely rich. When the Mali king visited Cairo in 1324, he spent or simply gave away so much gold that the price of bullion crashed by 20%. Such riches set off a never-ending round of rumours that Mali was a kingdom paved with gold. In Spain c. 1375, a mapmaker was inspired to create Europe's first detailed map of West Africa, part of the Catalan Atlas. The map has Mansa Musa wearing an impressive gold crown and triumphantly brandishing a huge lump of gold in his hand. European explorers would spend the next five centuries trying to locate the source of this gold and the fabled trading city of Timbuktu.
Decline
The Mali Empire was in decline by the 15th century. The ill-defined rules for royal succession often led to civil wars as brothers and uncles fought each other for the throne. Then, as trade routes opened up elsewhere, several rival kingdoms developed to the west, notably the Songhai. European ships, especially those belonging to the Portuguese, were now regularly sailing down the west coast of Africa and so the Saharan caravans faced stiff competition as the most efficient means to transport goods from West Africa to the Mediterranean. There were attacks on Mali by the Tuareg in 1433 and by the Mossi people, who at that time controlled the lands south of the Niger River. Around 1468, King Sunni Ali of the Songhai Empire (r. 1464-1492) conquered the rump of the Mali Empire which was now reduced to controlling a small western pocket of its once great territory. What remained of the Mali Empire would be absorbed into the Moroccan Empire in the mid-17th century.
Full Article on the Mali empire
- 🐻Link to all Hexbear comms https://hexbear.net/post/1403966
- 📀 Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube](https://live.hexbear.net/c/movies
- 🔥 Read and talk about a current topics in the News Megathread https://hexbear.net/post/5882504
- ⚔ Come talk in the New Weekly PoC thread https://hexbear.net/post/5894084
- 🏳️⚧️ Talk with fellow Trans comrades in the New Weekly Trans thread https://hexbear.net/post/5881812
- 👊 New Weekly Improvement thread https://hexbear.net/post/6011591
- 🧡 Disabled comm megathread https://hexbear.net/post/5819594
- ☕ Parenting Chat https://hexbear.net/post/5882839
- 🐉 Anime & Manga discussion thread https://hexbear.net/post/6011723
reminders:
- 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
- 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears
- 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
- 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog
Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
Aid:
Theory:
I think my takeaway from the whole Adam Friedland thing is that ultimately the Anti-Zionist Jewish diaspora perspective on this is going to come off myopic and trite two years into a genocide committed by a Jewish ethnostate and it is, without saying, better to center Palestinian voices. On the other hand, the current state of US media landscape beyond the left alt-media carve-out is MegaHitler levels of dehumanization and discrediting towards Muslim self-advocacy and Muslim dignity. Because of this, the primary opening that wedges against the mainstream narrative—and thus what gets the most play—is still this confrontation of Anti-Zionist Jews vs. Zionists.
This has lead to a lot of rote arguments that would specifically originate from that flank—particularly ones which are, in my experience, meant to primarily be used for anti-Zionist agitation within the Jewish community (e.g. Israel is actually boosting antisemitism, how can you stand a genocide in our name)—getting more room to breathe in the mainstream zeitgeist than Palestinians advocating for themselves, and thus it emanates a feeling of inauthenticity and narcissism from anyone still using those arguments two years in.
I don’t know how to square this circle myself for my own advocacy. It’s essentially class traitor politics, there’s a level of preachiness and patronization with a rich man talking about the need for emancipation of the proletariat, but that guy is going to get the most play on mainstream feeds, outside of the workers movement on the ground, because he has the most bandwidth and privilege in the discussion. The best thing I think I can do is continue to assert the humanity and dignity of the Palestinian people and their right to self-advocate without inherently being discounted. Though, I want to defer to the Palestinian & Muslim comrades here on this, because my own perspective is similarly myopic.
All good thoughts. If this interview gets pushed to the right audience though, it might put the brakes on Torres' political ambitions. In the past month, I've seen a lot of Rabbis (e.g. Ismar Schorsch and R. Yosef Blau who self identify as zionists calling for regime change, or at least conditioning aid to the Zionist entity to force a change of strategy. So, I think rubber-stamping billions of dollars of weapons to a government committing genocide is even going to become a liability among Torres diehards in places like Riverdale.
What happened with Adam?
his TAFS sitdown with Ritchie Torres where he tries to articulate the anti-Zionist Jewish perspective that devolves into Ritchie Torres firing off talking points and lecturing Adam about how he doesn’t understand the Jewish experience while Adam is in tears trying to get a single response out of him that reveals a fraction of empathy and humanity
it got a good amount coverage outside of its normal circles and this is commentary on the discussion around it following
A non-jew was telling the incredibly jewish Adam he doesn’t understand the Jewish experience? sounds pretty anti-semitic
It was so weird to watch Adam trying so desperately to connect with him and Ritchies soul has been shrivel and replaced with something else