Mossi

The Mossi kingdoms lay in the upper Volta basin in present-day Burkina Faso. Ouagadougou was the largest, while Yatenga and Tenkodogo had rulers of their own; kinship and ritual linked the kingdoms despite their rivalries.

In 1497 the Songhai ruler Askia Mohammad I defeated Mossi forces during a campaign to spread Islam. After Morocco conquered Songhai in 1591, the Mossi states regained their independence, and in the eighteenth century their trade and military power expanded.