The askia Mohammed, however, had become blind and, on
15 August 1529, he was dethroned by his own son Mussa.
With this latter began a series of intestine struggles, civil wars,
pillage and debauches, odious massacres, and useless military
expeditions which desolated the Songhoy and little by little
ruined the magnificent edifice built up by the first askia. One of
the sons of the latter, Daoud, who reigned from 1549 to 1583,
tried to react against the habits of sanguinary tyranny and
extravagant expenditures that had been introduced at the court
of Gao since the time of his brother Mussa; he reawakened
interest in agriculture, encouraged science and study, and was
able to gain the friendship of the Sultan of Morocco, Ahmed Ed-
Dehebi, who wore mourning garments at his death. He further
became celebrated by acts of charity and generosity. But the
days of the Songhoy were counted.
Languishing Manding was no longer to be feared. This State had
fallen so low that Daoud could, in 1545-1546, before mounting
the throne of Gao, push the Songhoy army as far as the Mandinka
capital – we do not know whether it was Niani or Kangaba –
which he entered after having put the mansa to flight, remaining
there a week and making the soldiers of the imperial residence
fulfill his orders.
TThhee PPaas shhaas s oof f TTi immb buukkt tuu
But it was from Morocco that the fatal blow came to the Empire
of Gao. For a long time, the Sultans of the Maghreb envied
the Songhoy emperors for their possessions of salt at Tegaza,
in the neighbourhood of those which are today exploited at
Taodeni, to the southwest of the Tuat. At his accession (1578),
the Sultan Ahmed Ed-Dehebi^11 obtained from the askia Daoud,
for 10,000 gold dinars, the privilege of exploiting these salt
beds for his own account during one year. The profit that he
obtained was such that he resolved to make himself sole
master of them and, after the death of Daoud, he sent to Gao,
to the court of the latter’s successor, an embassy whose mission
it was to gather information about the military forces of the
Songhoy; at the same time he sent out an army of 20,000 men
in the region of Tegaza which, however, was completely
decimated by hunger and thirst. In 1585, he had 200 infantry
occupy the salt lands but, not being able to nourish themselves
there, they soon returned to Morocco. However, he held to his
project and became even more ambitious; he no longer
coveted only the salt of the Sahara, but also the gold of
Sudan, this gold whose so-called conquest gained for him the
surname by which he is known.In 1590, he sent out a column of infantry armed with muskets,
the majority of whom were not Moroccans, as was for a long
time believed, but Spanish renegades commanded by one of
them named Juder, who was promoted for the occasion to the
rank of pasha. The Spaniards received from the Arabs or
Arabised inhabitants of Timbuktu the surname of Rumat or Arma
(throwers of projectiles), and the latter word is still borne today
in this city and this region by the members of a sort of noble
caste who, although now true Negroes, claim to be descended
from the warriors of Juder.These warriors had left Marrakech on 29 October 1590, in the
number of 3,000. When they arrived at the banks of the Niger
on 1 March 1591, they were no more than a thousand but they
had firearms, a thing until then unknown in Sudan. Thanks to their
muskets, they could easily triumph over the imposing army of the
askia Issahak or Ishak II near Tondibi between Burem and Gao on
12 March 1591. The latter numbered 30,000 infantry and
12,500 cavalry according to the Tarikh es-Sudan, but only 9,700
infantry and 18,000 cavalry according to the Tarikh el-Fettach,
and they had only swords, javelins, lances and shields of leather
or braided straw to oppose the balls of the Spanish renegades.
The askia had indeed taken the precaution to have cows put
between the enemy and his own troops, in order to cover them,
but the unfortunate beasts, maddened by the fire of the musketry,
took flight, precipitated themselves with lowered heads on the
Songhoy warriors and only contributed to hasten their rout, which
was complete.The askia, abandoned by his ministers and relatives, took refuge
at Gurma, where he was assassinated by the inhabitants. Juder
entered Gao without meeting any new resistance but, only moder-
ately charmed by the aspect of this Negro village and finding, as
he wrote to the Sultan Ahmed, that the house of the chief of the
ass-drivers of Marrakech was worth more than that of the palace
of the askia, he went on to establish himself at Timbuktu, which he
entered on 25 April 1591. The empire of the Songhoy had
become such that a thousand Spaniards armed with guns sufficed
to lay it low.Head from Benin, 16thcentury.
Brass, height: 22 cm.
The 16thcentury heads from Benin are characterised by the collar which covers
the neck but leaves the chin open. Arriving on the occidental market towards
the end of the 19thcentury, the sophistication and delicacy of the casting
continue to intrigue scholars and amateurs alike.