Kingdoms of Mali and Songhay

 

 

Discuss the kingdoms of Mali and Songhay
Why do Americans still have so little credible knowledge of Africa

Sample Solution

Songhay was an empire which arose in the 15th century as a challenge to the empire of Mali, in the West-Central Sahel. Since the 13th century Mali had controlled trade routes linking the region to North Africa and beyond, with gold the prime commodity. The emperor of Mali, Mansa Musa, performed a famous pilgrimage to Mecca with a retinue of 10000, passing through Cairo with so much gold that rampant inflation occurred in the economy; he became widely known throughout the Mediterranean world and is depicted on the 1375 Catalan Atlas. Songhay’s importance is fundamental to many aspects of West African history. Not only did the Songhay Askias (Emperors) expand upon the Soninké traditions of kingship which characterised the empires of Ghāna and Mali, but it was also under the Askias that the role of Islamic scholars became ever more central to the articulation of political and religious power in West Africa.

Interpretation in history is the act of describing, analyzing, evaluating, and creating an explanation for previous events. It heavily relies on primary and secondary sources to form its base. The historian must analyze his sources to create a dynamic pattern of pictures that reflects the shape of the historical event. A good history interpretation is not measured by the ability of the historian to include all the facts into his narrative but rather the ability of him to fill in the gap of his sources with inference or speculation. Once the history is interpreted, the historian’s explanation will be evaluated whether it is objective or subjective that aligns with reality. A prominent example of this is the history of prehistoric society. One of the primary sources of this is the cave drawing of Lascaux cave that shows a vivid illustration of various animals such as horses and bison. Based on this painting, many historians and researchers have drawn different historical interpretations of it. The common would be that this painting symbolizes the lifestyles of the previous human species that depend on hunting and serve as the ceremonial purpose of a successful hunt. Other than that, a German researcher, Dr. Michael Rappengluck interpreted this painting as the representation of a historical star map. He explained that the drawing of a bird, a birdman, and a bull is the symbolism of the stars Altair, Deneb, and Vega. We may see that both interpretations are based on the same subject but have a different outcome. In this manner, we can not say that either one of them has a bad interpretation because both are aligned with reality and therefore shows the use of inferences and speculations making both of them a good interpretation.

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