Latest / The Songhai Empire: Africa's Powerful Forgotten Kingdom — Fexingo History
The Battle of Tondibi: How Songhai Fell to a Few Hundred Men
In 1591, the Songhai Empire—one of the largest empires in African history—was crushed at the Battle of Tondibi by a tiny Moroccan army armed with arquebuses and cannons. But the story is not a simple case of technology vs. tradition. This episode dives into the political intrigues that weakened Songhai before the invasion: the civil war between Askia Ishaq II and his brother Askia Muhammad al-Baqri, the devastating Saadian campaign that crossed the Sahara with just 4,000 men, and the fateful decision to use cattle as a shield—a tactic that backfired catastrophically. We also explore the…
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