This Week in Black History

Special Report The Fall Of Ancient Ghana & The End Of Black Power In The World

The Curse of the Almoravids
By Robert N. Taylor
Thursday, January 19, 2006

A strong historical and pragmatic argument can be made that in the year AD 1076, Africa and all people of African ancestry were cursed by the military conquest of an army of religious zealots known as the Almoravids. Further, it can be reasonably argued that until this very day black peoples still suffer from the devastating impact of that nearly 1,000 year-old “curse.”

The year 1076 is when the fervently Islamic Almoravids (Arab Berbers) completed a jihad (holy war) against the ancient West African empire of Ghana . In a nutshell, that conquest had the effect of removing from the world stage the last truly great black African empire capable of resisting the onslaught of European colonialism and the resulting slavery and economic exploitation of black peoples.

With the powerful Ghana out of the way, Europe was pretty much able to roll through Africa doing as it pleased and condemning blacks to exploitation, slavery and under-development – the after-effects of which last to this very day.

Some historians will argue that this thesis cannot be true because there were other major African empires after the fall of Ghana – most notably Mali and Songhay. I counter that while these great empires were “black” they were not truly “African” in the sense of being governed by indigenous African institutions and black-based religions. Both Mali and Songhay were heavily influenced by Arab institutions and religions and thus had far less of a commitment to Africa and black people than Ghana . Truly, the demise of Ghana ended black power in the world.

A brief bit of history is necessary here: The ancient empire of Ghana arose around 400 AD. Its actual name was Wagadugu. It was the Arabs who took the name for ruler or leader – “ Ghana ” – and applied it as the name of the empire. Wagadugu was a giant empire on par with anything that existed at that time in Europe , Arabia or even China . It was twice the size of Great Britain stretching into southern Mauritania and western Mali and located roughly between the Niger and Gambia rivers.

Ghana had the strength, organization and wealth (it controlled the West African gold trade) to resist the European advances which began in the mid-to-late 1400’s. But before those advances could be addressed, the empire got involved in a nearly 40-year war with the Almoravids who declared holy war against Ghana because its peoples maintained their traditional African institutions and religions and refused to convert to Islam.

Around 1054, the booming trading center of Audaghost fell to the Almoravids under the leadership of Abu Bakr. The draining war continued and 22 years later the capital city of Koumbi Saleh also fell. The Almoravids were unable to maintain control of Ghana . Indeed, the empire continued to exist in a divided form for well over a hundred years. Finally however, in 1240, Ghana was conquered by Mali under Sundiata who had converted to Islam. Later Mali is conquered by Songhay led by another black Arab Sunni Ali. When Morocco defeats Songhay in 1590, the last black empire is gone forever.

The net result of these various conquests is that fighting between blacks and Arabs and then African blacks and Arab blacks so weakened Africa that it made it possible for Europeans to meet very weak resistance when they began looking for gold, setting up trading posts and invading West Africa in the late 1400’s. The initial search for gold led to slavery and then a generalized economic exploitation which I argue laid the foundation for the conditions of black peoples in the world down to this very day.

A credible argument can be made that this slavery and exploitation would not have occurred if the Almoravids had not conquered Ghana (Wagadugu) in 1076 – the year the black “race” was cursed with 1,000 years of disrespect, slavery and exploitation.

 

(Robert N. Taylor is a researcher and editor of the Black History Journal. He welcomes comments and suggestions regarding the above or any other black history topic at SirajT12@yahoo.com or 202-486-8103.)