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706 SONGHAY
villages and towns of this hot and semiarid region of West Africa, the name
"Songhay" (also Songhoi, Songhai, Sonhrai) still evokes through popular legend
and songs the epic days of migration, conquest and empire of long ago. The
cycle of events, though at some points hazy, is clear in its main outlines.
Original congeries of riverine people, among them fishermen (Sorko) and
hunters (Gow), moved from the "W" region upstream and settled in the Dendi
area between Say and Bourem; eventually in the seventh century, they formed
a rudimentary nation under the leadership of the house of Za (Dia). The Za
resided at first in Koukya and later moved to Gao, a growing center of Sudanese
trade and trans-Saharan traffic. The Za here embraced Islam (ca. 1010), even
though his people remained faithful to the spirits which governed their relations
with the river, the wild game and the soil. For centuries they lived simply as
subjects of states ruled by others: first the Soninke (ca. 900-1077), later the
Manding (ca. 1260-1400).
The decline of the Manding left a power vacuum. Rising to the occasion,
Sonni Ali (Ali Ber, 1465-1492) audaciously set out to reclaim the Mali empire
under Songhay rule and to control the routes of commerce and trade in the name
of Islam. Songhay warriors took Timbuktu in 1468, Djenne in 1473, Mopti a
few years later and Oualata, a Mossi outpost, in 1483 (see Mossi).
Sonni Ali was a fierce leader and an astute politician, but he was no religious
man, although Islam served his cause. He certainly was more feared than lauded
by the Muslim notables. When he died in battle, the succession was settled by
a coup in favor of a more pious servant of Allah, Mamadu Toure (1493-1529),
who reigned as the first askia, soon enthroned as Askia el-Hadj Muhammad by
the caliph of Egypt in Cairo. He and his successors ruled with luster over a vast,
well-administered expanse, the boundaries of which reached Agadez and Kano
in the east, Djenne in the south, Oualata in the west and Taghaza in the north.
Ahmad ad-Dehebi, sultan of Morocco, attracted by mirages of gold and treasure,
sent a mercenary force armed with muskets across the Sahara in 1590. Six
months later the Askia was killed in flight at Tondibi, Bao was devastated and
Timbuktu sacked and looted. In Morocco the sultan, upon the sad reports of
mud-brick settlements and arid spaces in lieu of fabulous cities and gold mines,
soon decided to abandon the project.
Thus, the Songhay state disappeared and the Songhay nation broke up, reverting
to the previous condition in which cultural dissimilarities asserted themselves
in the different ecological settings to which the various groups wandered
or returned. Certain cultural elements would remain to be shared, among these
the Songhay language (of the Nilo-Saharan group), which allowed for several
dialects and regional variations, a mixed and uneven adherence to Islam and
above all, perhaps, the legend of a great past, which allowed for eclectic memories—in
Ayorou and Tera, the Mayga's boasted blood ties to the noble Askia.
Elsewhere, among the Sohantie, the Sorko or the Gow, the claim of being of
the original nucleus, "where it all began," was frequently invoked.
It would hardly be possible to draw the demographic map of the groups and