C
Another great ruler, Askia Muhammad, was a master organizer, a devout
Muslim, and a scholar. He organized Songhai into administrative districts and
appointed officials to govern, collect taxes, and regulate trade, agriculture, and
fishing. Under his rule, Timbuktu regained its reputation as an important educa-
tion center as it attracted scholars from all over the Islamic world.
At its height in the 1500s, Songhai’s power extended across much of West
Africa. However, it did not control the forest kingdoms. Songhai’s cavalry might
easily thunder across the savanna, the region of dry grassland, but it could not
penetrate the belt of dense rain forest along the southern coast. Protected by the
forest, peoples such as the Akan, Ibo, Edo, Ifi, Oyo, and Yoruba lived in kingdoms
that thrived in the 1400s and 1500s.
BENIN
Although the forests provided protection from conquest, they neverthe-
less allowed access for trade. Traders carried goods out of the forests or paddled
them along the Niger River to the savanna. The brisk trade with Songhai and
North Africa, and later with Portugal, helped the forest kingdoms grow. In the
1400s one of these kingdoms, Benin, dominated a large region around the Niger
Delta. Leading the expansion was a powerful oba (ruler) named Ewuare.
Stories that have been passed down to the present day recall Ewuare’s
triumphs in the mid-1400s.
A PERSONAL
VOICE CHIEF JACOB EGHAREVBA
“ He fought against and captured 201 towns and
villages. . . . He took their rulers captive and he caused the
people to pay tribute to him. He made good roads in Benin
City. . . . In fact the town rose to importance and gained
the name of city during his reign. It was he who had the
innermost and greatest of the walls and ditches made
round the city, and he also made powerful charms and had
them buried at each of the nine gateways of the city so as
to ward against any evil.
”
—A Short History of Benin
Within this great walled city, Ewuare headed a highly
organized government in which districts were governed by
appointed chiefs. Through other appointed officials, the oba con-
trolled trade and managed the metal-working industries such as
goldsmithing and brass-smithing. He also exchanged ambassadors
with Portugal in the late 1400s. Under the patronage of Ewuare and
his successors, metalworkers produced stunning and sophisticated
works of art, such as bronze sculptures and plaques.
KONGO
Within another stretch of rain forest, in West Central
Africa, the powerful kingdom of Kongo arose on the lower Zaire
(Congo) River. In the late 1400s, Kongo consisted of a series of small
kingdoms ruled by a single leader called the Manikongo, who lived
in what is today Angola. The Manikongo, who could be either a man
or a woman, held kingdoms together by a system of royal marriages,
taxes, and, when necessary, by war and tribute. By the 1470s, the
Manikongo oversaw an empire estimated at over 4 million people.
The Bakongo, the people of Kongo, mined iron ore and produced well-
wrought tools and weapons. They also wove palm leaf threads into fabric that
reminded Europeans of velvet. The Portuguese sailors who first reached Kongo in
1483 were struck by the similarities between Kongo and their own world. Its sys-
tem of government—a collection of provinces centralized under one strong
king—resembled that of many European nations at the time.
Three Worlds Meet 17
C. Answer
Both were high-
ly organized and
used appointed
officials to
administer
districts and
control econom-
ic activity.
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
C
Comparing
How was the
government in
Benin similar to
that of Askia
Muhammad?
An unknown Yoruba artist in the
kingdom of Ife produced this
bronze head of a king in the
1100s. The highly developed
bronze artistry of Ife was
handed down to the kingdom
of Benin, which arose later in
the same area.
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