Songhai's Water Spirits: The Sorko Navy

The Songhai Empire: Africa's Powerful Forgotten Kingdom — Fexingo History · Oct 24, 2026 · 5m · transcript

While much has been written about the Songhai Empire’s land-based armies and its vast desert trade routes, this episode turns our attention to the Niger River itself. We explore the Sorko people, a distinct ethnic group who served as the empire’s naval architects, pilots, and warriors. For centuries, they controlled the waterways that connected Gao to Timbuktu, mastering the seasonal floods of the Inland Delta. We examine how their specialized boats, the hiyo, allowed Songhai to project power deep into the marshlands and maintain supply lines when overland routes were blocked. We also look at…