Songhai's Architect: The Life of Sunni Ali Ber

The Songhai Empire: Africa's Powerful Forgotten Kingdom — Fexingo History · Sep 23, 2026 · 11m · transcript

Before Askia Muhammad reorganized the empire, there was Sonni Ali Ber, the warrior-king who built Songhai into a continental powerhouse. This episode moves past the later administrative reforms and religious tensions to explore the man himself. We look at how Sonni Ali used his mastery of the Niger River to conquer Timbuktu and Djenné in the late 1400s, creating an empire that stretched from the Atlantic to beyond Hausaland. We examine the historical evidence from the Tarikh al-Sudan regarding his military tactics, particularly the use of the Sorko river fleet, and contrast this with local…