Songhai people
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The Songhai people are an ethnolinguistic group in West Africa who speak the various Songhai languages. Their history and lingua franca is linked to the Songhai Empire, which dominated the western Sah
Songhai woman at a festival
A stele found in Gao-Saney, now in the National Museum of Mali
A Gorom-Gorom market selling Songhai pottery.
Mali
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Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the eighth-largest country in Africa and the 23rd largest country in the world, with an area of 1,240,192 square ki
Songhai people
…which dominated the western Sahel in the 15th and 16th centuries. Predominantly adherents of Islam, the Songhai are primarily located in Niger and Mali. Historically, the term "Songhai" did not denote an ethnic or linguistic identity but referred to the ruling caste of the Songhay Empire known as the…
The pages above are from Timbuktu Manuscripts written in Sudani script (a form of Arabic) from the Mali Empire showing established knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. Today there are close to a million of these manuscripts found in Timbuktu alone.
Griots of Sambala, king of Médina (Fula people, Mali), 1890. Photo by Joannès Barbier.
Cotton being processed in Niono into 180 kg (400 lb) bales for export to other parts of Africa and to France, c. 1950
WWI Commemorative Monument to the "Armée Noire"