Songhai's Hidden Women: Power Beyond the Harem

The Songhai Empire: Africa's Powerful Forgotten Kingdom — Fexingo History · Oct 22, 2026 · 7m · transcript

We often picture the Songhai Empire through the lens of its male rulers—Sonni Ali’s conquests, Askia Muhammad’s administrative genius, or the tragic fall at Tondibi. But beneath the surface of this vast Sahelian power lay a complex web of female agency that shaped politics, economy, and religion for centuries. In this episode, we move past the sensationalized notion of the royal harem as merely a place of intrigue to explore the tangible political influence of women like Kankou Sangone, who founded the Mali Empire’s golden age precursor, and Della Kebda, whose marital alliances cemented…