West Africa

Western Sahel and Sudan

First written record of Ghana in 8th century by Arabs "Ghāna, the land of gold"

Diafunu, Jiafunu, Jafunu, Diafuqu, Zafun?, Zafunu?, Diafanu, Diaghan

expansion and apex of Ghana, Gao - Ghana's collapse, Sosso - rise of Mali, Jolof, Songhai, Great Fulo

Sosso -> Jalo/Concho, Sankaran, and Do -> Futa Jallon??

Hausa and Kano, Jolof, Mossi

There is ample room for research on Ghana/Wagadu's expansion and reign, including on the vassals under Ghana, and as such details remain scarce, however the turn of 6th century saw Ghana continue their dominance. To the west, the Takrur kingdom acceded in the 6th century along the Senegal River, dominating the region, however seeing periods under Ghanian suzerainty. In the 7th century the Gao Empire of the Songhai people rose in the east to rival Ghana, which had at least seven kingdoms accepting their suzerainty. Gao grew rich through the trans-Saharan trade route linking their capital and Tadmekka with Kairouan in North Africa through commanding the trade of salt, which was used as their currency, and controlled a salt mine north in the Sahara via cavalry. ^[1] An early written record of Ghana came at the end of the 8th century, mentioning "Ghāna, the land of gold". ^[2] In 826 a Soninke clan conquered Takrur, installing the Manna dynasty. In northern modern-day Nigeria, Hausa tradition holds that Bayajidda came to Daura in the 9th century, and his descendants founded the kingdoms of Daura, Kano, Rano, Katsina, Gobir, Zazzau, and Biram in the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries, with his bastard descendants founding various others.

By the 10th century, the wet period that birthed Ghana was faltering. With the gradual advance of the Sahel at the expense of the Sudan, desert consumed grassland, and epicentres for trade shifted south towards the Niger river, and east from Aoudaghost to Oualata following the shifting of gold source southeast from Bambouk to Bure, strengthening Ghana's vassals while weakening its core. Gao's king converted to Sunni Islam in the early 10th century, having been nominally Muslim prior. At the turn of the 11th century, Ghana expanded north to encompass the Sanhaja trading city of Aoudaghost. ^{[3]: 120–124} In 1054, after having united the Saharan Sanhaja prior to their conquest of the Maghreb, the Almoravid Sanhaja sacked and captured Aoudaghost, at the time a royal seat for Ghana. During this, some of Ghana's vassals achieved independence such as Mema, Sosso, and Diarra/Diafunu, with the last two being especially powerful. ^{[4] [5]: 34} Takrur thrived at this time, controlling the gold of Galam, and had close relations with the Almoravids. The Almoravids retained influence over Ghana's court for the next few decades, possibly supporting Muslim candidates for the throne, with Ghana converting to Islam in 1076. Oral sources hold that, intent on invading Ghana, which was elsewhere stated to have had a 200,000-man force, the Almoravid army found the king respectful of Islam, and he willingly adopted Islam with the exchange of gold for an Imam relocating to Ghana. ^{[6]: 23–24} Meanwhile, Mossi traditions hold that a princess left the southern Kingdom of Dagbon in the forest region to found Ouagadougou, with her children founding the kingdoms of Tenkodogo, Fada N'Gourma, and Zondoma. Circa 1170, internal conflict within the Ouagadougou dynasty induced the founding of Yatenga to the north, which later conquered Zondoma. After regaining full independence as the Almoravids lost influence in Aoudaghost, the Ghana Empire resurged, reasserting suzerainty over its former vassals throughout the 12th century. This was not to reverse the climatic and economic progression however, and at the turn of the 13th century, Sosso, having come under the rule of a general and former slave following dispute within the Diarisso dynasty, united the region and conquered a weakened Ghana from its south, occupying Wagadu and propelling Soninke migration. According to some traditions, Wagadu's fall is caused when a nobleman attempts to save a maiden from sacrifice and kills Bida before escaping the population's ire on horseback, annulling Wagadu and Bida's prior assurance and unleashing a curse causing drought and famine, sometimes causing gold to be discovered in Bure. The Soninke generation that survived the drought were called "a jara nununa" ("it has been hard for them"). ^{[7]: 56, 64} The tradition of Gassire's lute is an account of a prince of Wagadu who gives up his ambition to become king, and instead becomes a diari amid the empire's fall. ^[8]

After the death of his father, Sosso's Soumaoro Kante forced Wagadu to accept their suzerainty, and he conquered Diarra, Gajaaga, vassalized Takrur, and subdued the Mandinka clans of Manden, who were early adopters of Islam, to the south where the goldfield of Bure was located. In accordance with the traditional Epic of Sundiata, Sundiata Keita, a prince of local origin but in exile, held a position in the Ghanian vassal of Mema and returned to Manden aided by the king of Mema to liberate his people from the tyrannical Sosso king. Sundiata allied and pacified the Madinka clans, and defeated Soumaoro Kante in battle in 1235, and conquered Kante's ally Diarra, proclaiming the Kouroukan Fouga of the nascent Mali Empire. Allied kingdoms, including Mema and Wagadu, retained leadership of their province, whilst conquered leaders were assigned a farin, with provinces retaining a great deal of autonomy. At the same time as Sundiata's campaigns in the north subjugating ancient Ghana's former vassals, the Malian military campaigned to the west in Bambouk and against the Fula in the highlands of Fouta Djallon. Sundiata saw to equip the army with horses purchased from the western kingdom of Kita, however the Wolof king arrested Mandinka caravan traders, inflaming conflict which culminated in the conquest of the Wolof and Serer, who had resisted Islamisation during the Almoravid period, extending to the Atlantic coast in modern-day Senegal, with the Malian general continuing to campaign in Casamance and against the Bainuk and Jola kings in the highlands of Kaabu, forming various subordinate kingdoms. Sundiata passed in 1255 and his son conquered Gajaaga and Takrur, and brought the key Saharan trading centres under his rule. The cessation of his reign culminated in a destructive civil war, only reconciled with a militaristic coup, after which Gao was conquered and the Tuareg subdued. ^{[9]: 126–147} In 1312 Mansa Musa came to power in Mali after his predecessor had set out on an Atlantic voyage. Musa supposedly spent much of his early campaign preparing for his infamous hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca. Between 1324 and 1325 his entourage of 60,000 men, including 12,000 slaves, and hundreds of camels, all carrying around 18 tonnes of gold in total, ^[10] travelled 2700 miles, giving gifts to the poor along the way, and fostered good relations with the Mamluk sultan, garnering widespread attention in the Muslim world. On Musa's return, his general reasserted dominance over Gao and he commissioned a large construction program, building mosques and madrasas, including the Djinguereber Mosque, with Timbuktu becoming a centre for trade and Islamic scholarship, however Musa features comparatively less in the Mandinka oral traditions than in modern histories. ^{[11]: 147–152} Despite Mali's fame being attributed to its riches in gold, Mali's prosperous economy was based on arable and pastoral farming, as well as crafts, and they traded commonly with the Akan, Dyula, and with Benin, Ife, and Nri in the forest regions. ^{[12]: 164–171} To the east, the Kano king converted to Islam in 1349 after da'wah (invitation) from some Soninke Wangara, and later absorbed Rano. ^[13]: 171

Amid a Malian king's successful attempt to coerce the empire back into financial shape after the lacklustre premiership of his predecessor, Mali's northwestern-most province broke away to form the Jolof Empire and the Serer kingdoms. Wolof tradition holds that the empire was founded by Ndiadiane Ndiaye, and it later absorbed neighbouring kingdoms to form a confederacy of the Wolof kingdoms of Jolof, Cayor, Baol, and Waalo, and the Serer kingdoms of Sine and Saloum. In Mali after the death of Musa II in 1387, vicious conflict ensued within the Keita dynasty. In the 1390s Yatenga sacked and raided the southern trading city of Macina in Mali. The internal conflict weakened Mali's central authority. This provided an opportunity for the previously subdued Tuareg tribal confederations in the Sahara to rebel. Over the next few decades they captured the main trading cities of Timbuktu, Oualata, Nema, and possibly Gao, with some tribes forming the northeastern Sultanate of Agadez, and with them all usurping Mali's dominance over the trans-Saharan trade. ^[14]: 174 In the 15th century, the Portuguese, following the development of the caravel, set up trading posts along the Atlantic coast, with Mali establishing formal commercial relations, and the Spanish soon following. Previously under Malian suzerainty and under pressure from the expansionist Jolof Empire, a Fula chief migrated to Futa Toro, founding Futa Kingui in the lands of Diarra circa 1450. Yatenga capitalised on Mali's decline and conquered Macina, and the old province of Wagadu. Meanwhile Gao ruled by the Sonni dynasty expanded, conquering Mema from Mali, in a struggle over the crumbling empire.

South of Niger bend

In the forested regions of southern west Africa, tropical rain and swamp forest inhibited dense human settlement and the urbanisation necessary for state formation.