The Timbuktu Climate Crisis That Reshaped the Sahara

Timbuktu: Africa's Forgotten Center of Knowledge — Fexingo History · Jul 11, 2026 · 5m · transcript

In the 16th century, Timbuktu faced a prolonged drought that devastated the Sahel and transformed West African politics and trade. This episode explores how the great drying of the 1500s, tied to the Little Ice Age, led to food shortages, the collapse of the Songhai grain economy, and the rise of new power dynamics. Lucas and Luna discuss the role of the Niger River's shrinking floodplains, the strain on the salt-gold trade, and how scholars like Ahmad Baba documented the crisis in the Tarikh al-Sudan. They also examine the Tuareg raids during the famine and the long-term shift toward…