SONGHAY: an INTERPRETIVE ESSAY the Physical Milieu the History of Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire Is Embedded in the Broader
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TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTION SONGHAY: AN INTERPRETIVE ESSAY The Physical Milieu The history of Timbuktu and the Songhay empire is embedded in the broader history of the Middle Niger, and is intimately linked to the existence of that river and its regime. The Middle Niger may be roughly defined as that segment of the river which begins when the Niger takes a sharp northward turn around the present city of Segu, and ends approximately where the river enters the modern state of Nigeria. This great arc is often referred to as the Niger Bend, or in French la boucle du Niger. For most of this distance—close to one thousand miles—it is navigable by shallow-draft boats and canoes, except during the low-water season at Labbezenga on the eastern reaches of the great bend in the river at 15° N, where rapids impede progress. Throughout this long stretch the river is flowing through arid or semi-arid lands, where average annual rainfall at the twentieth century has varied between 750 mm. (30 in.) in the southern reaches, and less than 250 mm. (10 in.) in the northerly areas, mostly falling between June and September.1 Timbuktu averages 9.1 in. (231 mm.) of rainfall, mainly in July and August, the three preceding months being the hottest season of the year, with daily high temperatures averaging between 41° C. (105° F.) and 43.5° C. (110° F.). Gao scarcely differs. The vegetation produced by such a rainfall and temperature regime is either of the savannah or semi-desert type. In the semi-desert region, where the soil is lateritic, often overlaid with sand, trees are few and far between, except along the dry river-beds. Elsewhere some thorny acacias and fan palms (Songhay: kangow, Latin: Hyphæne thebaica) may be found in favoured spots; otherwise the vegetation consists principally of short spreading bushes, suitable for goats and camels to browse on. During the short rainy season grasses rapidly spring up, and some of these provide seeds that are eaten in a lean season (e.g. cramcram—Cenchrus biflorus, and askanit or haskanit—Cenchrus 1 It must be remembered that these are only averages. The annual variation is considerable, and as Rouch (1953b), 135-9, points out, ‘The Songhay region suffers from a very unstable rainfall pattern, pitilessly alternating years of famine with years of abundance’. echinatus). In the savannah lands a wider variety of trees may be found, including the baobab (Adansonia digitata), and the shea- butter tree (Butyrospermum parkii; Songhay: karite).2 Bushes are larger and may form thickets, while grasses are more varied and more abundant. In the savannah regions lion, hyena, giraffe and gazelle are to be found, and migratory elephants still exist in the lacustrine region, moving to south of Hombori during the driest season of the year. In the south-east of the region (Dendi) vegetation is the most luxuriant, and the humidity allows the tsetse fly to breed in some areas, creating a danger to horses and cattle. It is also in this region that the caïlcédrat tree (Khaya senegalensis Juss.) grows, providing wood for the building of boats.3 Most of the inner lands of the Niger Bend experience a temporary respite during and after the rainy season when streams or small rivers are briefly in spate, and pools fill up. Some of these pools last through the dry season, and water may be obtained by shallow digging in dry wadis or from regular wells. In such an inhospitable climatic zone, the river is truly a lifeline, providing year-round drinking water for humans and their domestic animals, and pasture, not only at the water’s edge, but in the very river itself where a plant known as burgu (Echinochloa stagnina) provides fodder, especially for horses living along the Niger’s banks, but also for the ‘river horse’—the hippopotamus—living in the river.4 The bulk of the water that flows through the bend in the Niger originates in the highlands of Guinea, the Futa Jallon, where the river has its source, and is augmented by other rivers such as the Sankarani and the Bani that flow into it. In the Futa Jallon, rains begin in late March and continue until late October. By July, the rain that fell in Futa Jallon in March and April is beginning to reach the Segu area. As it flows past Segu it enters a broad flat plain where the river has a gradient of only 6 cm. per km. (3.5 in. per mile).5 As a result of the continual flood of water over several months, both rivers, the Niger and the Bani, overflow their banks and a huge Inland Delta is formed, stretching from a little downstream from Segu to close to Timbuktu, a distance of some 300 miles, with a width of up to 150 miles. Much of the volume of water the Niger brings down is deposited in this area, but a still considerable flood pushes on 2 Barth (1965), iii, Ch. LXIV, gives an incidental account of the flora of the lacustrine region during his journey narrative. 3 The caïlcédrat is an evergreen tree, growing to as high as 30 m (90’) under favourable conditions. It flourishes in areas with 650-1300 mm. of rainfall over seven months, and produces a fine-grained wood, easily worked; see Giffard (1974), 260-2. 4 Burgu has a syrupy sap and rhizomes rich in sugar; its seeds, which resemble wild rice, are edible. Burkhill notes: ‘The plant is deemed to be the most useful of all wild plants in the Timbuktu area of Mali, providing as well as food and drink, fodder, thatch, caulking for boats, vegetable salt after calcinating which is used to make soap and indigo dye’; see Burkhill (1985- 95), ii, 236-8. 5 See Morgan & Pugh (1969), 252. eastwards past Timbuktu and through the gorge of Tosay before turning abruptly to the south around the present town of Bourem. Downstream from there the Niger does not flood extensively, but during the high water season from January to March, the river is often one kilometre (1,000 yards) wide, and there are numerous inlets and creeks. As the floodwaters abate in the Inland Delta, a network of creeks and narrower waterways reveals itself, and in the northern half of the delta a large number of lakes, especially to the north-east of the delta, but also many of lesser size to the north-west, and in the far north the great Lake Faguibine bordering the desert. This flood regime creates a moist agricultural terrain where grains and vegetables can be grown and cattle pastured, forming a breadbasket for Timbuktu and its desert and riverine hinterland. The river Niger and the lacustrine zone both support an abundant aquatic life—hippopotami, manatees and many species of fish. Agriculture is also possible, but on a much smaller scale, along the banks of the eastern sector of the Middle Niger as the water recedes, and in the creek areas. South of latitude 15° N, where annual rainfall excedes 500 mm. (20 in.), rainfed agriculture is possible during the short rainy season from July to September, and this, of course, becomes more viable farther south. The Human Milieu This huge swathe of river and floodplain was a natural refuge for populations responding to the increasing dessication of the Sahara after 5,000 BC. At first moving into seasonally flooded north-south valleys, they eventually moved farther south as the Inland Delta slowly transformed itself from a vast permanent swamp into the more accessible floodplain it now is. By 250 BC we have the earliest evidence of urbanisation in the region. Archaeological work in the 1970s and 1980s at Jenne-jeno has revealed the site of a complex society that developed into a considerable regional centre over the next millenium, and was ultimately ‘captured’ by the nearby rising town of Jenne around 1200 AD.6 The first millenium AD was climatically a relatively benign period for this region with increased rainfall allowing for sufficient tree growth in Mema, to the immediate west of the Inland Delta, for example, to support an iron industry towards its end.7 This was also the period of the development of the state of Ancient Ghana, and the period during which the Zuw dynasty of ancient Songhay emerged at Kukiya, later relocating to Gao. Since about 1100 AD reduced rainfall and increasing dessi- cation have been the general pattern for the Middle Niger region, and 6 See McIntosh, R.J. & McIntosh, S.K. (1988), for an overview of settlement patterns and material culture in the first millenium AD. 7 Håland (1980). for West Africa as a whole, with significant long and short term deviations from the pattern both in terms of increased and decreased humidity. The sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, for example, appear to have been an era of relatively favourable climatic conditions, whereas the period c. 1650-1850 was generally more arid. Our knowledge of the history of the various ethnic groups of the Middle Niger region is slight, though it is evident that there has been a good deal of stability as regards named ethnic units between the sixteenth century and the present.8 Rather than attempt any historical reconstruction of specific groups, the following discussion will look at ethnicity through the lens of environment and occupation. The populations of this region fall into three broad categories, according to their economic base, which is in turn determined by the ecological niche they inhabit. Along the desert fringes are pastoral nomads; along the river, sedentary hunting and agricultural populations, segments of which engage in inter-regional trade; and on and along the river Niger and the lakes, populations that engage in fishing and hippopotamus hunting, and supply water-borne transportation for persons and goods.