Songhai
Songhai (spoken about son-rai with nasalem - on and uvula-R ) is a people and was a kingdom of the same name in West Africa between the 15th and 17th centuries. It was mainly in what is now Mali .
The Songhai are an autochthonous black African people, with around 750,000 members today. They live as farmers ( gabibi ), fishermen ( sorko ) and traders on the banks of the Niger . Its villages, which stretch from the Nigerian border to the lake region west of Timbuktu , are the main attractions for today's Mali travelers , along with the old trading cities of Gao , Timbuktu and Djenné . This is especially true for the villages around Bandiagara near Mopti .
The language of the Songhai, which is also called Songhai , is so far disputed in its classification. It is either assigned to different branches of the Niger-Congo languages or counted to the very controversial "family" of the Nilo-Saharan languages , whose relationship is extremely questionable. Songhai is spoken in Mali, northern Burkina Faso and Niger , where it is the second most common language after Hausa .
The history of the Songhaire empire was first researched and described by the German Africa explorer Heinrich Barth , who from September 1853 to spring 1854 in Timbuktu had the opportunity to analyze old manuscripts in detail. This is the real beginning of scientific research into African history .
Well-known Songhai
- Djéliba Badjé (1941–2018), Nigerien storyteller
- Mohamadou Djibrilla Maïga (1908–1975), Nigerien politician
- Ali Farka Touré (1939–2006), Malian musician
- Vieux Farka Touré (* 1981), Malian singer and guitarist
- Yansambou Maïga Diamballa (1910–1976), Nigerien politician
- Boubé Zoumé (1951–1997), Nigerien writer
literature
- Rudolf Fischer: Gold, salt and slaves: the history of the great Sudanese empires Gana, Mali, Songhai. Erdmann, Tübingen 1982. ISBN 3-88639-528-6 .
