The Songhai Timeline

476 -1492 Time of feudalism in Western Europe—castles, lords and ladies, knights on white horses, fire-breathing dragons, and damsels in

distress, cathedrals…

570 - 632 Mohammed born in Mecca, dies in Medina

612 - 632 Koran given to Mohammed

641 Islamic Arabs begin conquest of North Africa

680 Early Songhai kingdom (capital at Koukia, Mali) established in Niger River valley between Tillaberi, Niger and Northern Benin by fishermen (Sorkos), farmers (Gabibis) and nomads (Berbers)

1000 Chinese invent gunpowder, Vikings discover America

1009 “Dia” Songhai dynasty established

1010 Dia Kossoï converted to Islam, capital later moved to Gao, Mali (biggest market on the Niger River, an end for the camel caravans from the north)

1096 - 1270 Crusades (Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099)

1100 The compass is invented

1271- 1295 Marco Polo’s trip to China

1325 Mali captures Gao

1332 “Sunni” Songhai dynasty established by Ali Kolon

1337 Gao delivered from Mansa of Mali

1348 Bubonic Plague (Black Death) kills 1/3 of the European population

1382 John Wycliffe translated Latin Bible to English

1387 - 1400 Geoffrey Chaucer wrote ‘The Canterbury Tales”

1431 Joan of Arc burned at the stake by the British

1450’s Height of Songhai Kingdom, dominate power in West Africa

1450’s German printer, Johann Gutenburg invented the printing press

1456 First complete book published (The Vulgate- Latin Bible- by Gutenburg)

1462 - 1492 Sunni Ali Ber (The Grand) founded and developed the Songhai Empire (Sorcerer/ Animist )

1468 Songhai captured Timbuktu from Tuareg

1473 Seven year siege of Jenné, Mali ended

1492 Christopher Columbus discovered America

1492 Sunni Ali drowned returning to Gao

1493 “Askia” Songhai dynasty established, increasing devotion to Islam

1495 Askia Mohammed Touré went to Mecca for the Hajj

1501 - 1504 Michelangelo sculpted “David”

1503 - 1507 Leonardo Da Vinci painted the “Mona Lisa”

1508 - 1512 Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Vatican City

1510 First African slaves shipped to the Caribbean

1513 Songhai kingdom reached Kano, Nigeria

1517 Martin Luther published his 95 Theses, beginning of the Protestant Reformation

1522 Ferdinand Magellan’s team completed the first around the world sea voyage

1536 William Tyndall martyred for English translation of the Bible

1538 Askia Mohammed Touré died, Songhai kingdom begins to decline as his sons divide the kingdom and rule ineffectively

1594 Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet

1600 English East India trading Company founded

1603 Songhai kingdom invaded by Tuareg from Morocco (some say 1591)

1605 Shakespeare wrote “Macbeth”

1605 - 1615 Cervantes wrote “Don Quixote”

1611 King James Version of the Bible published

1617 Pocahontas died of smallpox

1620 The Mayflower arrived in New England

1706 Benjamin Franklin born

1776 American colonies declared independence from England

1775 - 1781 American Revolutionary War

1789 French Revolution began, George Washington becomes the first US president

1806 Mungo Park, Scottish explorer, died on the Niger River just before entering the Songhai kingdom

1828 French explorer, R. Caillié, gazed at Timbuktu for the first time

1845 Texas became a US state

1848 Gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill

1840’s- 50’s Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman and Dickenson wrote classics

1853 - 1854 German explorer H. Barth stayed in Timbuktu to learn of the city’s glories and of its peoples

1861 - 1865 American Civil War

1895 Two French Catholic priests established a mission in Timbuktu 2 years after the French Military arrived

1912 - 1913 American Trans-Saharan Expedition reached Timbuktu with D. W. Berkley, an American explorer

1914 - 1918 WWI

1920’s CMA missionaries worked in Timbuktu, later to leave explaining “even the water is not wet in Timbuktu!”

1939 - 1945 WWII

1950’s - present EBM began work among the Songhai in Mali (Gao, Timbuktu, Diré and Niafounké)

1989 Berlin Wall came down

2000 present SBC began work among the Songhai (Niamey – Timbuktu)