Songhai

Songhai was a kingdom centred on Gao at the Niger bend. Mali had captured Gao around 1300, and in 1337 its Songhai rulers held the city as Malian vassals.

Gao had regained independence by the 1390s. Sonni Ali built an empire, taking Timbuktu in 1468 and starving Djenné into surrender in 1475 after a long siege. His general Askia Muhammad seized the throne in 1493, promoted learning at Timbuktu and made a gold-laden pilgrimage to Mecca before his sons deposed him in 1528. In 1591 a Moroccan army armed with firearms destroyed the Songhai host at Tondibi.