104 Atlantic African, American, and European Backgrounds to Contact, Commerce, and EnslavementGhana, or as it was called by its inhabitants, Wagadu/
Wagadou, was founded around ce 100 by the Soninke,
who according to their tradition, migrated from the city of
Sonin/Aswan in upper Egypt to the region of southeastern
Mauritania. Fleeing the domination and racial discrimina-
tion of their Greco-Roman colonizers, these Nubians heard
of a Bilad-al Sudan or “Land of the Blacks” where they
could settle comfortably among their own, and because
of their advanced knowledge and military skills, become a
powerful nation in the West. True to the prophecy of the
Bida, the serpent-djinn who became the guardian spirit of
Wagadu, the empire did become great, expanding its terri-
torial authority according to oral history, from the Atlantic
coast all the way to Lake Chad.
Mama Dinga, the legendary founder and hero of Wa-
gadu, was a general of a massive army in southern Egypt
(Nubia) who migrated with his army to the Western Sahel
where he established political hegemony. Mama Dinga,
however, did not remain in Wagadu; he left his empire to
his son Djabe Cisse and returned to Nubia. Th e Tarikh Al-
Fettash, one of the few surviving texts of the Songhay Em-
pire, states that 22 kings had ruled Wagadu before the birth
of the Prophet Muhammad, which places the inception
of the empire around ce 100. A land rich in gold, copper,
iron, and diamonds, Wagadu was a center of trade enter-
ing North and West Africa through bridges of caravans tra-
versing the Sahara. Th e tran-Saharan trade was a lucrative
market economy whose network spread across the Mediter-
ranean into Europe and eastward across North Africa into
Asia. Th e gold of ancient Ghana was inexhaustibly plentiful
and well known in the international trade world.
Arab historian Al-Bakri, who wrote a detailed ethnog-
raphy of Ghana during the mid-11th century, describes the
capital of Ghana, Kumbi Saleh, as a densely populated city
with a vibrant commercial center and houses made of stone
and acacia wood. Excavations carried out by archaeologists
since 1904 confi rm the existence of a populous commercial
city with an international trade network. Wealth that was
based at that time on the gold standard put Ghana in the
echelon of one of the wealthiest nations in the world.
By the late 11th century, the Sahara-dwelling Sanhaja,
Lamtuna, and Massufa groups coming under the unifying
military infl uence of Umar Ibn Yasin merged into the impe-
rial army of the Almoravids and attacked the Soninke rul-
ers of Ghana in 1076. Th is was the fi rst blow of a series of
disasters that led to the demise of a great empire. Th oughappropriately. Th eir experience as warriors gave them the
courage and willingness to take on a colony. Th is was not
fl ight—it was open defi ance that expressed a collective
yearning for freedom. Although their strike for freedom
was quelled before it could come to fruition, it sent a mes-
sage to South Carolinians that their slaves were not to be
underestimated.
Th e legal response to the Stono Rebellion was swift
and damaging. Among the most important changes to the
law was the status of the slaves. Whereas previously con-
sidered freehold property (slaves of an estate), slaves were
now relegated to “chattel” (the personal property of their
owners). In addition to a change in status, slaves were pro-
hibited from gathering in groups, and in direct response to
specifi c actions taken during the Stono Rebellion, taking
part in rebellion, coercing others to rebel, and acts of arson
were considered felonies punishable by death; drums and
horns were also prohibited. Aft er the Stono Rebellion, the
slaves in South Carolina were rendered nearly immobile;
however, their fl ights toward freedom continued.
See also: Angolan/Kongolese; Carolinas; Destination, Flor-
ida; Slave Resistance
Jarett M. FieldsBibliography
Littlefi eld, Daniel. Rice and Slaves: Ethnicity and the Slave Trade in
Colonial South Carolina. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Uni-
versity Press, 1981.
Smith, Mark, ed. Stono: Documenting and Interpreting a Southern
Slave Revolt. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press,
2005.
Wood, Peter. Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina
from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion. New York: W. W. Nor-
ton, 1974.
Sudanic Empires
Th e Sudanic empires is the name given by Western histori-
ans to the West African empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai
that spanned the period from the fi rst century ce to the end
of the 16th century in a politically hegemonic continuum.
Th e earliest, the Empire of Ghana, was the imperial model
for the succeeding empires of Mali and Songhai, inheriting
similar social hierarchies, political and economic organiza-
tion, cultural and religious practices, and ethnic groups.