Then began what was very improperly called the “Moroccan
domination of Sudan”: first, there was no domination except over
a small part of the former Songhoy, in the riparian region of the
Niger from Djenné to Gao, all the upstream region, called Dendi,
having preserved its autonomy with an independent askia at its
head; moreover this domination lasted only 70 years, at the end
of which the authority of the pashas had become entirely null
outside of the city of Timbuktu; finally it could not be called
“Moroccan”, because only the pashas of the first 22 years
(1591-1612) were, in part at least, designated by the Sultan of
Morocco; the orders of the latter were never executed, even by
the first pashas, and the taxes levied on the inhabitants were
never sent to Marrakech; the other pashas, who succeeded one
another to the number of 21 during 48 years (1612-1660), were
brought to power either by themselves or by their soldiers and,
like them, were so little Moroccan that the majority of them did
not understand Arabic, the language they made use of among
themselves being Spanish, later becoming Songhoy, as we are
told by the Tarikh el-Fettach.
The mansa Mamudu III, in 1599, wanted to profit by the anarchy
which had reigned since the defeat of the askia Issahak II and
attempted, with the aid of Hamadu-Amina, chief of the Fulani of
the Massina, to capture the Djenné. The pasha Ammar sent his
soldiers against them. The Mandinka and the Fulani bravely
resisted the fire of the Arma, but the intervention of the inhabitants
of Djenné, who sided against Mamudu, obliged him and his allies
to beat a retreat. At all events, this demonstration of the Mandinka
emperor sufficed to cause the pashas to respect him in the future.
In reality, the conquerors led to Sudan by Juder and his first
successors, formed a troop of men who, after having put
themselves at the orders of the Sultan of Morocco, in denying
their faith and their country with the hope of profitable adventures,
gave free course to their instincts, once left to themselves in
Sudan. They were especially notable for their anarchy and their
lack of discipline, their pillage, cupidity, debauchery, their per-
secutions of Muslims and scholars, and their talent for disorgani-
sation. The intervention of this scum of Europe was one of the
saddest blows given to the Sudanese civilisation. According to
the best Muslims of Timbuktu, the regime of the pashas, if it had
lasted longer, would have brought total ruin to what had been
painfully erected by the mansa of Manding and some of the
askias of Gao.
After 1660, this regime no longer raged except at Timbuktu,
which had to submit to the caprices of these mixed Spaniards and
Negroes for another 120 years. The Tedz-kiret en-nisian
enumerated 128 of these pretended pashas for the period of 90
years from 1660-1750: these figures eloquently characterise the
regime. From about 1660, all the petty tyrants who had the
audacity to have public prayers said in their name at the mosques,
conserved a semblance of authority only on condition of paying
tribute to the Bambara king of Segu, who made the law to the
south, or of pouring forth heavy contributions to the Tuareg
Oulmidden who ruled in the north and who did not abstain from
pillaging Timbuktu each time that hunger pressed them. After
1780, the very title of pasha disappeared and there was nothing
more in Timbuktu than a sort of mayor, chosen among the Arma,
sometimes by the Bambara, sometimes by the Tuareg, sometimes
by the Fulani of the Massina, according as one or the other was
master for the day. For the city it was a period of continual in-
security and profound misery which was not to come to an end
until a little more than a century later, in 1894, with the occupation
of the old Sudanese city by Major Joffre, who was Marshal of
France in 1922.TThhee BBaammbbaarraa KKiinnggddoommss
I have just spoken of the Bambara as exercising the authority to
the south of Timbuktu, dating from about 1660. This people, a
branch of the Wangara group, spread out on both sides of the
Niger from Bamako to the region of Djenné and the Massina,
had been at first subject to Manding, becoming, at least in part,
vassal to the Songhoy from the epoch of the Sonni Ali the Great
and especially that of the askia Mohammed. Having gained their
independence towards the middle of the 17thcentury, they then
formed two States. One had its capital at Segu and extended
along the Niger between this river and the Bani; the other called
Kaarta, had its domain to the west of the first, at the north of the
upper Senegal. At first, both were governed by princes of the
same family, that of the Kulubali, the western portion bearing the
name of Kulubali-Masasi.Towards 1660, the king Biton Kulubali settled at Segu. The mansa
of Manding, who was then Mama-Magan, wanted to destroy in
his nest this neighbour whom he guessed to be dangerous andHead (Ashanti), King Kofi-Karikari’s treasure, 1867-1874.
Ghana.
Gold, investment casting, 18 cm.
Wallace Collection, London.