what we have been told by Arab authors and the writers from
Timbuktu, existed in Ghana, Diara, Gao, and in Manding, as well
as what could formerly be observed in Coomassie, Abomey, in
certain States of sub-equatorial Africa, and also what can be
studied in some of the little kingdoms of the Senegal, principally
the Wolof, and elsewhere. This seems to constitute the type, per-
haps more perfected at Mossi than elsewhere, of all the States
worthy of that name, great or small, that have been developed all
across Negro Africa since the most remote antiquity. Without
doubt it is not inopportune to remark in this matter: if the Empires
of Ghana and Gao pass for having been founded by whites,
without, however, the fact being absolutely certain, if they were
later headed by Sarakolle dynasties (the Sisse at Ghana, the Toure
at Gao) who claimed to have whites among their ancestors, if the
Mandinka Empire, founded and directed by Negroes probably of
pure race, could nevertheless have benefited by some foreign
influence through the canal of Islam, if the kingdoms of Ashanti
and Dahomey, as those of the Senegal and of the Congo, might
have received some inspiration from the Europeans, it seems very
certain that the Mossi empires have always been sheltered from all
non-Negro interference as well as non-Negro influence and conse-
quently the political institutions which characterise them and which
are found almost all over Negro Africa are of indigenous origin.
At most, it might be suggested that the first in date of these States,
that of Ghana, had afterwards been more or less imitated by its
neighbours, then by the neighbours of these, without the latter
being conscious of the imitation.
Contrary to the Empires of Ghana, of the Songhoy and of
Manding, the Mossi States were not distinguished by extensive
territorial conquests. However, that of Yatenga asserted its power
on more than one occasion: in 1333, the year following the death
of Gongo Mussa, the mohro-naba of the Yatenga attacked
Timbuktu and sacked the city; in 1477, one of his successors
made incursions into the Massina and the Bagana and pillaged
Walata in 1480. Later, the Mossi victoriously resisted the askia of
Gao, then the pashas of Timbuktu, and troubled the sovereigns of
Manding and the Bambara kings of Segu. But their distant expedi-
tions were only ephemeral attacks not followed by annexation.
The history of these States unrolls almost entirely within their own
frontiers but, to counterbalance this, they were never seriously
attacked, and even the French occupation respected them,
contenting itself with imposing a sort of protectorate on the
morha-nabaof the Wagadugu and of the Yatenga.
The Mossi empires are curious for still another thing; they have at all
times constituted an impregnable rampart against the extension of
Islam, which has never had any hold on them. Although counting
among their subjects a certain number of Muslims, all of whom were
foreigners, and having created for these Muslims a special minister
at the court of the morha-naba, they have remained profoundly
attached to the old local religion and rightly pass as representing, in
all its integrity, a civilisation which is uniquely and really Negro.This is, briefly sketched, almost all that we know of the history of
Negro Africa during the Middle Ages. Assuredly, there have existed,
during this long period, other Negro States than those which we
have mentioned; but either they were States of the second order
whose history there is little interest in recounting in a general work,
or else we know nothing of them but their name and, more often,
we are ignorant even of this much. Thus it is, that what it is possible
to say of the African Negroes before the 15thcentury is reduced
approximately to what concerns the Negroes of the western Sudan.For the rest, aside from some notions about Bornu, we barely know
anything except what we have been told by Arab authors about
the prosperity of the colonies founded by their compatriots and the
Hindu traffickers on the coast of Zanzibar, a prosperity which
seems to have attained a high degree in the Middle Ages, but
which had its principal source in the slave trade and from which
the civilisation of the African peoples in no way profited.Nden fubara funerary screen (Kalabari).
Nigeria.
Wood, cane, raffia, natural pigment, 127 x 94 x 40.5 cm.
The Trustees of the British Museum, London.The Kalabari, from the 15thcentury on, were important middlemen of the
Atlantic trade. Ivory, slaves, palm oil, and pepper; brassware imports,
gunpowder, alcohol, and other Western goods all passed through the rival
houses which controlled the trade. Positions of prominence were taken by
members of the slave trading houses and Amachree I assumed kingship in the
late 18thcentury and was the first to be given this title in this way.
Shrines of this sort appear to have been based on two-dimensional images
of European design. The families of the pilots of the European vessels made
these screens because they were able to observe European attitudes towards
royal and religious images. The screens were maintained in the meeting-house
which was the headquarters of the trading group and it was believed that the
spirits of the dead returned every eight days to receive offerings and appraise
the affairs of the house. Here, the feather headdress of Alagba is represented as
each screen depicts a particular ancestor in a masquerade outfit. Flanking
figures wear headpieces of the Otoba(hippopotamus) masquerade, coral beads,
and imported satin or floral textiles.