Latest / The Songhai Empire: Africa's Powerful Forgotten Kingdom — Fexingo History
The Songhai Imperial Currency That Never Existed
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the surprising absence of a standardized currency in the Songhai Empire, despite its vast trans-Saharan trade networks. They discuss how the empire relied on barter, cowrie shells, salt bars, and gold dust (tubal) rather than minted coins, and how this system worked across diverse regions from Gao to Timbuktu. The conversation touches on the Almoravid dinar that circulated in trade, the limited minting under Askia Muhammad, and the insights of travelers like al-Hasan al-Wazzan. They also examine how the Saadian invasion disrupted these trade networks…
The skinny
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