Historical links between West Africa and the Maghreb: diplomatic exchanges and the west African diaspora in north Africa, ca. 1200-1900. (Patreon)

" In the year 655 [1257] Sultan Al-Mustansar [of Tunis] received a rich present from the king of the Blacks, ruler of Kanem and king of Bornu, located at the longitude of Tripoli. Among the donations to him was also a giraffe, whose outward appearance was very strange. The inhabitants of Tunis ran in masses in order to see it. The place was crowded with people, who felt a deep astonishment when looking at the quadruped whose shape appeared so strange and yet its appearance reminded at the same time of the distinctive marks of several animals of various species.”

Ibn Khaldun, Tarikh al-kabir, 1377 CE.

The story of the arrival in Tunis of a Kanem embassy and their exotic gift maybe the first documented account of an official diplomatic visit by a west African kingdom to the Maghreb, but its only one of many embassies that travelled from the bilād al-Sūdān to the bilād Maghrib since the middle ages.

While much of the historical inquiry into relations between west Africa and the Maghreb is focused on the Moroccan invasion of Songhai and the lesser-known Kanem invasion of Libya, there's less interest in the diplomatic links between the two regions, which were not only older and more frequent, but also greatly shaped the cultural and political links between the two regions.

These diplomatic links were established by the many west African envoys, and scholars who travelled in ambassadorial capacity to the cities of Tunis, Tripoli, Fez and Marrakesh, creating political and cultural ties that led to the formation of a disporic community of west Africans in the Maghreb.

This article explores the historical links between west Africa and North Africa from 1200 to 1900 CE, focusing on the diplomatic activities of the west African empires like Mali and Bornu, as well as the multiple internal accounts documenting the travel of west Africans through the Maghreb.

Zawiya of Ahmad al-Tijânî in Fez, Morocco, a major site for Tijani scholars from Senegal and Mali.

Pilgrims praying at the tomb of Ahmad Tijani.

A brief background on the cultural links between west Africa and the Maghreb during the late middle ages.

During the early second millennium, the political landscape of west Africa was dominated by many complex societies including large empires like Kanem, Mali, and Ghana, as well as kingdoms like Gao, Takedda, and Takrur which were marginally engaged in commercial and cultural exchanges with the Maghreb, Andalusia and the rest of the Islamic world.

Following the gradual adoption of Islam among the kingdoms of west Africa, the presence of west african pilgrims, scholars (such as Muhammad al-Kanemi in Spain) and even royals from Kanem, Takrur, and Mali across the Magreb, Egypt, Andalusia and the rest of the Islamic world begun to be noted by contemporary geographers and historians, who also hint at the formation of small communities of west african diaspora in these lands.

By the early 13th century the rapid expansion of the empire of Kanem across a vast territory stretching from the shores of lake Chad to southern Libya, led to the establishment of a chain of settlements from the Kawar oasis of northern Niger, to the Fezzan region of Libya that were populated by Kanuri migrants and local allies like the Tebu who recognized the authority of Kanem's Seyfuwa rulers.

Its during this period that Kanem sent the aforementioned embassy to Tunis, right after the assassins sent by the ruling Kanem sultan, Mai Dunama Dibalami (1210-1248AD) had killed an unpopular Mamluk governor of the Fezzan that had rebelled against the Hasfid ruler of Tunis al-Mustansir.

The Kanem expansion into the Fezzan highlights the role of the kingdom's regional allies and its diasporic communities who forged links between their host society and their society of origin. Such links enabled the creation of commercial, religious and political networks that were often used by west African rulers and their subjects. The migrants exported an image of their kingdoms and leaders that enhanced their rulers' legitimacy throughout the Muslim world, an image which is further confirmed by the regular appearance of pilgrims and scholars from their home countries into these regions.

(Du lac Tchad pg 192-193, Kanem, Bornu, and the Fazzān pg 19-21)

Map of the Kanem empire.

Most of the links between the Maghreb and west Africa were of commercial character, and often involved the exchange of relatively light but valuable commodities. The most valuable export commodity throughout most of west Africa's history was gold, often traded by the Wangara merchants, whose nextworks extended to Morocco. These commodities were transported via carravans comprising dozens or even hundreds of camels, like the remnants of a 12th century carravan found in northern Mauritania that contained over 2,000 copper and brass roads, and six camel-loads of cowries.

(On trans-Saharan trails pg 71, 74, 206-273)

There are atleast two internal accounts written by local merchants describing the logistics of the carravan trade in the western side of the Sahara during the 19th century. In 1850, Leopold Panet, a merchant of mixed Senegalese and French descent who spoke several African languages, wrote a detailed travelogue reporting the trading activities of the merchants between Senegal and Morocco. Nine years later, Rabbi Mardochee Aby Serour, a native of Aqqa in southern Morocco documented his perilous desert crossing to the city of Timbuktu which was at the time controlled by the Massina empire.

(On trans Saharan Trails pg 40-41)

Despite the relatively recent composition of these two accounts, they provide some of the most important internal sources for the organization and conduct of carravans across the Sahara. Fortunately, written accounts about the activities of diplomats and pilgrims from west Africa in the maghreb were relatively more common and older. Many of these took advantage of the logistics of caravans and the security they provide to cross the desert, before arriving in north Africa, where they were hospitably received by their Maghrebian peers.

Map of the Maghreb in 1360, these terrirories were briefly all under the control of the Marinid sultan Abu al-Hasan at the time of Mansa Musa.

The diplomatic activities of the Mali empire during the 14th century: Mali envoys in Tlemcen and Fez.

One such Maghrebian who hosted the west Africans was the Tunisian-born Arab scholar Ibn Khaldun cited in the introduction, who corresponded with shaykh Uthman of Mali, the informant who provided him with the history of the Mansas of the Mali empire. Besides the account of the embassy from Bornu to Tunis that is mentioned in the introduction, Ibn Khaldun also notes another west African embassy from then kingdom of Takedda (in eastern Mali) at the city of Biskara (in northern Algeria), that was then under Morrocan control.

He writes that "in the year 754 [1353] in the days of Sultan Abu Inan [of Morocco] I went to Biskara on royal business and encountered there the ambassador of the ruler of Takedda at the residence of Yusuf al-Muzani, emir of Biskara." he adds that "This country is subject to the sultan of Mali of the Sudani as is the case at present with the rest of the desert regions known as the land of the veiled men [berbers]."

(Medieval west Africa pg 98)

Ibn Khaldun's account describes the extensive foreign relations of the Mali empire that were established by Mansa Musa (r. 1312–37) . These include relations with the ruler of Tlemcen, Abu Tashfin (1318-1337), as well as the Marinid empire of Morocco and Algeria, which conquered Tlemcen during the reign of sultan Abū ’l-Ḥasan (r. 1331–1351). The sultan Abū ‘l-Ḥasan, who is also known as "the Black" because he was born to a Sudani mother, enjoyed a long reign which overlapped not just with Mansa Mūsā, but also extended into the reigns of Maghā (r. 1337-1341), and Sulaymān (r. 1341–60).

Ibn Khaldūn speaks of “diplomatic relations and exchanges of gifts,” and that “high-ranking statesmen of the two kingdoms were exchanged as ambassadors.” He explains that Mansa Musa sent his embassy to Abū ‘l-Ḥasan in 1337 specifically because the latter had defeated Abu Tashfin. He adds that the Malian envoys were accompanied by an interpreter drawn from the "veiled men" [berbers], and they congratulated the Marinid sultan on his victory. The latter "received them with honour" and sent them back to Mali “the rarest and most magnificent objects of Maghribī manufacture,” along with a secretary of his chancellery and a freed eunuch named ‘Anbar.

(Medieval west Africa pg 99)

The Marinid delegation was honorably received in Mali, and sent back to Abū ‘l-Ḥasan "accompanied by a deputation of Mālī grandees who lauded his authority, acknowledged his rights, and conveyed to him that with which their master [Mansa Maghā] had charged them, namely [the expression of] humble submission and readiness to pay the sultan his due and act in accordance with his wishes." Maghā's sucessor, Mansa Sulaymān later also sent a delegation to Abū ‘l-Ḥasan in 1348 in celebration of the latter’s recent conquest of Ifrīqiya and capture of Tunis.

Upon Abū ‘l-Ḥasan’s death in 1351, Mansa Sulaymān reportedly busied himself “collecting wonderful and strange objects of his country,” but only managed to send them north in 1359, several years too late, and a full year after the reign of Abū ‘l-Ḥasan’s sucessor Abu Inan (r. 1351-1358). Sulaymān's embassy, which included a gift of a giraffe, just like Kanem-Bornu's, arrived in Fez in 1361, the envoys of Mali "affirmed their friendship and sincere friendship", they were honorably received, and after several months at the capital were escorted back to Mali.

(Medieval west Africa pg 100-101)

Historians argue that while the embassies sent by Mali's rulers to the Marinid sultan Abū ‘l-Ḥasan claim to have acknowledged his norminal suzeranity, they did not actually regard themselves as his subjects. This is something Ibn Baṭṭūṭa observed when arrived in Mali in 1351 as a Marinid emissary, anticipating a certain level of accommodation from the reigning Mansa, but only experienced the opposite. Most importantly, he noted that the only the King and queen of Mali were mentioned “from the pulpit,” [ie khuṭba] of the main mosque at the capital when he was present, leaving little doubt about Mali's autonomy. He neverthless notes that the Mansa organised a memorial feast for Abū ‘l-Ḥasan who had died a year prior. Given the reception of the Malian embassy of 1361, it likely that the Marinids and Malians continued to acknowledge each other as equals for the remainder of the period, when both empires declined during the 15th century.

(African dominion pg 145-147)

the empires of medieval west africa

The diplomatic activities of the Bornu empire from the 16th to the 17th century: Bornu envoys in Tunis, Tripoli and Marrakesh.

On the other side of the sahara, the era of the Kanem empire's dominance of southern Libya collapsed in the late 14th century during a lengthy period of dynastic conflict lasting upto the mid 15th century that forced the Seyfuwa rulers to move to Bornu on the western shores of lake Chad. During this period, the Hafid dynasty of Tunis expelled the Marinids and reestablished themselves in the city, ensuring its continued importance to the Bornu whose rulers and subjects continued to travel to the maghreb despite the prevailing conflict back home.

(Le Kanem Borno pg 541-542)

Documentary evidence for the diplomatic relations between Bornu and Tunisia comes from the brief period of Tunis' Spanish occupation and the Ottoman period. In 1526 and 1535, the Bornu sultan Muḥammad b. Idris (1519-1538), sent an embassy to the Christian rulers of Tripoli, his sucessor Alī b. Idrīs (1538-1539) sent a delegation to the ottoman controlled city of Tajura in 1538 inorder to bypass Tripoli, likely due to shifting political and commercial intrests.

Immediately after the Ottoman conquest of Tripoli in 1551, the Sultan of Bornu sent an embassy to establish trade relations with the new occupants, who send it back with a gift of firearms from the ruler of Tripoli. Another embassy would later be sent to Tunis in 1561 by the Bornu sultan 'Abdallāh b. Dūnama (1557-1564), likely for with the same objectives. This diplomatic activity would continue in the late 16th century, according to the account of Lorenzo of Anania in 1582, whose informants personally saw "a letter that the King of Bornu wrote to the Pasha of Tripoli with great eloquence and art"

(Du lac Tchad pg 29-30, 154)

By this time, the politico-religious opposition between Istanbul and Morocco, as well as the former's invasion of the Fezzan, resulted in a period of intense diplomatic activity by the Bornu sultan Idrīs b. Alī, led by his envoy al-Ḥāǧǧ Yūsuf who travelled to Istanbul in 1574-1577, and then to Marrakesh in 1582.

Officially, the Sultan of Borno asked for help in firearms, while the Moroccans Sultan Aḥmad al-Manṣūr requested that the Bornu ruler recognize him as the sole caliph. Just like Mali's envoys had done, Moroccan suzeranity was never acknowledged in Bornu, where the reigning sultan Idris b. 'Alī simply took advantage of the opposition between Aḥmad al-Manṣūr and the Ottoman Murād III to solve a local problem in the Fezzan by assassinating a local Ottoman garrison and installing local ally.

(Du lac Tchad pg 32-35, Le Kanem Borno pg 552-554)

For the seventeenth century, most of the accounts describing the links between west africa and the maghreb come from a document dated 1675, that was written by an enslaved French surgeon residing in Tripoli. Besides the various diplomatic activities of the states that will be described below, the "slave surgeon" notes the presence of a west African diaspora in Tunis comprised of both free and enslaved people “from Wangara,” [in Mali] as well as from Bornu, and Timbuktu.

(Du Lac Tchad pg 14-15, On trans Saharan Trails pg 92)

Ottoman attempts to reestablish control over the Fezzan would continue to feature in its relations with Bornu. By 1637, the Ottoman Pasha (governor) of Tripoli, Muḥammad Saqīzlī (1631-1649) sent an embassy to the Sultan of Bornu 'Umar b. Idrīs (r. 1619-1639) and the ruler of Fezzan, proposing that merchants coming from Bornu should only sell their products to himself rather than at Tunis or in Cairo. To entice the Bornu rulers to accept his monopoly, he sent gifts of great value that include renegades (ie: European slave soldiers) and attacked carravans travelling to Cairo through the oasis of Awǧila.

While the agreement seems to have been accepted by the Bornu Sultan 'Umar b. Idrīs, his successor, 'Alī b. 'Umar (r. 1639-1677), seems to have rejected it, compelling the Pasha to send another embassy to Bornu in 1647, that also received a negative answer. The Pasha tried to attack the Sultan of Bornu on his return from the 1648 pilgrimage but failed, resulting in a Bornu banning trade to Tripoli, and Muḥammad Saqīzlī death at the hands of his officers. His successor, 'Uṯmān Pasha Saqīzlī (1649-1672), sent an embassy to the Sultan of Bornu to request the restoration of trade, who reciprocated by sending an embassy to Tripoli carrying porcelains in 1653.

(Du lac Tchad pg 36-38)

However, by this time, Bornu's gradual loss of control over the Kawar to the Tuaregs of Agadez contributed to the decline of its interests in the Maghreb, as well as the increased influx of slaves from Bornu in Tripoli. By 1655, the still powerful Sultan of Bornu is denied entry in Tripoli by the Pasha for fear of having to free the "negro slaves, subjects of this prince or his allies", as well as his fear "that the Arabs would take the opportunity to revolt against him, seeing in their country a king, African and who lived in the opinion of holiness among the Mahometans."

(Du lac Tchad pg 194, 322)

Its in the context of the wars between the Agadez Sultanate of Aïr and Bornu, in 1667, the Sultan's nephew 'Alī b. 'Umar [Medicon], is taken prisoner, ending up on the island of Djerba as a slave. The Sultan of Bornu thus sent an embassy to the Pasha of Tripoli requesting the latter to redeem his nephew, relying on the tradition of redeeming slaves that was common in the mediteranean and likely in west Africa.

"Osman [sultan of Bornu] made incessant diligent efforts to find Medicon, and more than a year was uselessly employed in this search, both in the kingdom of Tripoli and in that of Tunis. But he was at last found on the island of Gerby, from where Osman took him and had him taken to Tripoli, where he treated him according to his quality, gave him clothes, servants and an apartment in the castle."

(Du lac Tchad pg 185)

It therefore likely that Bornu maintained ties with both the rulers of Tripoli and the diasporic community of the city, even though most of the latter group was now comprised of slaves and freed slaves. However, outside the Bornu community which acknowledged the Bornu ruler's authority and his semi divine legitimacy (which reportedly included transforming into a cat), the other west Africans in the diaspora rejected such claims of authority. According to the “slave surgeon”:

"The Negros of Ethiopia, Agadez, and other neighboring countries which are not subject to this King, when they have some quarrel with the Bornus, contemptuously call Mahi-Hagi-Hali, sultan el Gatous, it is that is to say, the 'King Cat', which I noticed several times when I was at Tripoli, in the disputes which the Bornus had with the other Negros"

(Du lac Tchad pg 324)

Accounts of west African travellers in Morocco during the 18th and 19th century, and the bi-directional book trade between the Maghreb and west Africa.

On the other side of the Sahara, the late 17th and early 18th centuries saw renewed efforts by the Moroccans to expand into the western regions of the Sahara, particulary during the reign of Sultan Mulay Ismail (1672–1727), who was himself born to a Sudani (ie west African) mother. His campaigns directed at the regions surrounding the towns of Shinqit and Tichitt resulted in the leaders acknowledging his suzeranity, and their occasional travel to Marrakesh for their leadership to be confirmed.

However, the era of Moroccan rule in this region was shortlived, though it served to reinvigorate the pre-existing links between the two regions. This ultimately enabled the travel of west african scholars like Sàlih al-Fullànì (1752–1803) from his native Futa Jalon (in Guinea) to Shinqit, and then onwards to Morocco, Tunis, Egypt and Medina where he finally established himself as one of the prominent teachers of the era.

(On trans Saharan Trails pg 95-96, The Transmition of learning pg 132-133)

The 19th century travelogue (rihla) of southern Mauritania scholar named al-Talib Ahmad b. Tuwayr al-Janna (d. 1849), describes his round-trip through Morocco to Mecca between 1829 and 1834. In Morocco, he discovered by chance a relative seven times removed, and he swore allegiance to the reigning Sultan Mulay, who assisted him in his travel arrangements and with whom he had numerous exchanges. He sailed back from Egypt bearing four hundred books, he also passed by French and British officials in Algiers and Gibraltar, before returning to his native Wadan with over thirty camels loaded with many gifts, books, and commodities.

(On trans Saharan trails pg 32)

the ruined city of Wadan in Mauritania

The presence in Morocco of scholars and pilgrims from the south-western region of the Sahara known as Bilàd Shinqìt (the ‘land of Shinqìt), during this period attests to the latter region's emergence as an important intellectual center. Wealthy scholars organized special caravan trips northward bound for Moroccan book markets such as Marrakech or Fez, eg the scholar Sidiyya al-Kabìr (1775–1868) from Gebla (in southern Mauritania), who went on a book shopping spree to Morocco in 1830, where he purchased two hundred books in Marrakech. The purchase of books from Morocco by west Africans resulted in the inclusion of such books in local libraries, such as a copy of a manuscript by the 12th-century Moroccan jurist al-Qà∂ì ‘Ìyà∂, presently located in the Mahmùd Ka‘ti library in Timbuktu, was purchased in 1486 at 45 mithqàls of gold.

Similary, books written in Bornu, especially the Quran, were also sold in the Maghreb according to 19th century accounts by the explorer Hugh Clapperton. The latter estimated their cost at between 40-50 silver thalers, thus indicating that the book trade between west Africa and the Maghreb wasn't mono-directional. This book trade between Bornu and the Maghreb indicates that while Bornu's loss of the Fezzan and Kawar regions curtailed its political interests in the north, it neverthless maintained informal links with the region, and may have continued to send its envoys to Tripoli and Tunis, even though these trips arent well documented.

(The Transmition of Learning pg 39-53, Doubt, Scholarship and Society, pg 33, n.22)

Bornu Qur’an written in old kanembu and arabic, 18th century, SOAS london.

The west African diaspora in Tripoli and Marrakesh from the late 18th century to the early 20th century.

In 1789, the wife of the British consul in Tripoli, mentioned the presence of a Bornu prince visiting the city with his three wives, she notes that "one of them, in her travels with the prince, has learnt enough of the Italian language to express herself in lingua franca." She also adds that "the prince of Bornou, considering he comes from the interior of Africa, is extremely well informed, and much acquainted with the state of Europe… his attendants were composed of Turks and blacks, and all are perfectly well accoutred".

( Narrative of a Ten Years' Residence at Tripoli pg 201-203)

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This passage is one of several references to communities of enslaved foreigners in Tripoli, some of whom were exported to Bornu, reversing the often northbound diretion of the trade. I have previous explored the presence of foreign slaves in west Africa, especially the European slave-soldiers in Bornu, to which we can add accounts like that the Belgian Pieter Farde who was sold in Agadez and encountered several french slaves in the city; as well as the account of Ulrich Seetzen, who evokes the presence of "French slaves" in the central sudan [Bornu and Air] during the early 19th century, "some of whom even kept their European costume". Others include several accounts and autobiographies of enslaved europeans in the western regions of the Sahara during the 18th and 19th century, some of whom were redeemed by European merchants at the coast after a long stay in the west African interior, with a few having reached Timbuktu.

(A Seventeenth Century Belgian Visitor, Du Lac Tchad pg 190, On trans saharan trails pg 37-38)

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Atleast two more internal accounts written by west Africans during the late 18th and early 19th century indicate that the continued presence of a west African diaspora in the Maghreb during this period.

The travelogue of the Fulbe scholar from Sokolo (in Mali), which describes a journey he undertook between 1794-1795 from Walata to Tuwat to Murzuq and Awjila, to Cairo then to Mecca, is a relatively short manuscript that doesn't say much about the people he encountered besides mentioning many recognizable places and groups of people in various towns along the route.

(see full text in 'Revue du monde musulman' pg 228-235 )

A more detailed internal account of west Africans in Tunis comes from the Massina-born scholar Ahmad al-Fulani al-Timbuktāwī, who visited Tunis in 1809 where he wrote a very polemical treatise against the non-Muslim religion of Bori that was practiced by the freed and enslaved inhabitants of Tunis, who he separates from the rest of the Black Tunisians (Wasufan) that were Muslims.

The influx of enslaved and free west Africans in 19th century Tunis was a consquence of the political conflicts in the Hausalands and Bornu, instigated by the rise of the "revolution movements" that led to the founding of the Sokoto Caliphate. Despite the Fulbe scholar's requests to the Pasha of Tunis imploring him to ban the practice of Bori, the latter's practicioners continued enjoying their religious freedoms well into the colonial era.

(Blacks of Tunis in al-Timbuktāwī’s Hatk al-Sitr)

By this time, the decline of the Bornu empire had contributed to a reduction the empire's foreign activities in the Maghreb. There are fragmentary references to envoy from Bornu in Tripoli around 1853 whose presence there was associated with the explorer Heinrich Barth's visit of Bornu, and the British interests in developing ties with Bornu. There are also later references to a Bornu prince in the south of France in the early 20th century, although the empire had ceased to exit by this time.

(Du lac Tchad pg 202, n 168)

However, in the kingdom of Morocco which was still independent, the spread of the Tijaniyya muslim brotherhood from the mid 19th to early 20th century led to the emergence of Tijani communities in west Africa, as well as prominent scholars like Umar Tal (d. 1864) of the Tukulor empire in modern Mali and El hadji Malick Sy (d. 1922) in modern Senegal. The Tijannis of west Africa cultivated ties with their peers in Morocco, and converged on the zawiya (scholary lodge) of the brotherhood's founder Ahmad al-Tijani (d. 1815) in Fez.

By the start of the 20th century, the city of Fez had became an important pilgrimage site for many Tijanis from Senegal. The mausoleum of Ahmad Tijānī and the Senegalese diaspora of students and pilgrims in Moroccan city of Fez remain an important cultural link between the two countries and today form the lynchpin of the two countries' religious and political diplomacy.

(West African Pilgrims in 19th Century Morocco, Intégration symbolique à Fès et ancrages sur l’ailleurs, Au-delà du pèlerinage, Fès dans la poésie soufie sénégalaise)

Senegalese Woman outside the zawiya of al-Tijani, Fes, Morocco. (Fb photo)

References:

Medieval West Africa: Views from Arab Scholars and Merchants by Nehemia Levtzion, Jay Spaulding

Blacks of Tunis in al-Timbuktāwī’s Hatk al-Sitr: A West African Jihadist’s ...

By Ismael M. Montana

Du Lac Tchad à la Mecque : le Sultanat du Borno et son monde by Rémi Dewière

On Trans-Saharan Trails: Islamic Law, Trade Networks, and Cross-Cultural Exchange in Nineteenth-Century Western Africa by Ghislaine Lydon

West African Pilgrims in 19th Century Morocco: Representation of Moroccan Religious Institutions by Fatima Harrak

African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa By Michael A. Gomez

The Transmission of Learning in Islamic Africa edited by Scott Reese

Doubt, Scholarship and Society in 17th-Century Central Sudanic Africa By Dorrit van Dalen

Narrative of a Ten Years' Residence at Tripoli in Africa By Miss Tully

Revue du monde musulman by Mission scientifique du Maroc

Languages and Peoples of Bornu By P. A. Benton

A Seventeenth Century Belgian Visitor to Agadez and the North of Nigeria: Pieter Ferde by Joseph Kenny

Le Kānem-Borno by B. M. Barkindo

Intégration symbolique à Fès et ancrages sur l’ailleurs by Johara Berriane

Au-delà du pèlerinage: renĐontre de l’Autre dans les environs de la zaouïa de Ahmad alTijani à Fès by Johara Berriane

Fès dans la poésie soufie sénégalaise by Seydi Diamil Niane

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