Sosso Empire

This article is about historic Sosso or Susu state. For modern Susu or Soussou ethnic group in Guinea, see Susu people. For Susu or Soussou language, see Susu language. For other uses, see Susu (disambiguation).

The Sosso Empire, also written as Soso or Susu, or alternatively Kaniaga, was kingdom of West Africa that originated as a vassal of the Ghana Empire before breaking away and conquering their former overlords. Inhabited by the Soninke ancestors of the modern-day Sosso people,^[1] it was centered in the region south of Wagadou and north of Beledougou.^[2] The empire peaked under the reign of Soumaoro Kante, who was defeated by the rising Mali Empire of Sundiata Keita.

Sosso Empire Kaniaga
1076–c. 1235
Map of successor states to the Ghana Empire
Capital	Susu/Sosso
Common languages	Soninke
Religion	African traditional religion
Government	Monarchy
Historical era	8-13th century
• Fall of Koumbi Saleh to the Almoravids	1076
• Battle of Kirina	c. 1235
Preceded by Succeeded by Ghana Empire Mali Empire
Today part of	Mali

Etymology

Sosso was north of the Manding region, heartland of the Mande peoples. They therefore referred to it as 'Kenieka', meaning north. In Soninke this became 'Kaniaga'. The term 'Sosso' may come from the word for horse, as the kingdom had a monopoly on the horse trade vis-a-vis its southern neighbors. The capital was also called Sosso or Susu, and a village of that name still exists in Mali, near Boron in the Koulikoro Region.^[3]

History

The Sosso originated as a group of slaves of the Kaya Magha of the Ghana Empire who likely served as the king's bureaucracy and army governing the province/vassal state of Kaniaga.^[4]

According to Ibn Khaldun, the power of Ghana waned as that of the "veiled people" grew through the Almoravid movement. In 1076 they sacked the capital Koumbi Saleh and many subject peoples broke away, including the Sosso.^[2] Their leader, Gumana Fade, was either a member of the royal Cisse clan or a provincial governor.

Maurice Delafosse asserted that Diarisso dynasty ruled Kaniaga until 1180, when a series of weak-willed and quarrelous brothers brought the kingdom to its knees through civil war until they were overthrown by a mercenary general, Kemoko or Diarra Kante. Basing himself in the city of Susu north of Bamako, he unified the Kaniaga region and began to dominate the Soninke-inhabited southern provinces of Ghana.^{[5]: 212–13} Diarra Kante's son Soumaoro Kante succeeded him as king in the late 12th or early 13th century.

Soumaoro Kante

Under Soumaoro's (or Soumangourou's) rule, the Sosso empire reached its zenith. He forced the Ghana to pay him tribute, an event that Delafosse dates to approximately 1203.^[4] He conquered Diarra and Gajaaga and subdued the Mandinka chieftaincies to the south, where the important goldfields of Bure were located.^{[3][2][6]: 333}

Soumaoro is remembered in Mande oral histories as a cruel, harsh leader. Many Soninke people left the region to escape his rule, and religious persecution drove Muslim traders to abandon Koumbi Saleh for Djenne and Oualata. He beheaded Muslim kings who opposed him.^{[5]: 212–13}

At the Battle of Kirina (c. 1235) the Mandinka prince Sundiata Keita led a coalition of smaller states to soundly defeat the Sosso and kill Soumaoro. Sundiata marched on to the city of Susu itself and destroyed it, marking the kingdom's end.^[7] The region was then incorporated into Sundiata's Mali Empire.

Historicity

Oral histories, not to mention the Western written histories derived from them, can compress events and people from different periods into single narratives, obscuring the historical facts. Many key questions are unclear today, such as whether Gumana Fade was a governor or a prince, whether the Diarissos ruled Kaniaga at all, whether Diarra was a Kante and what his relationship to the Diarisso dynasty and Soumaoro were, and others. The essential and universal themes are, however, that Soumaoro came from a slave background and that these former slave clans were establishing themselves as political powers as the Ghana empire declined.^{[4]: 44–5}

References

1. Conrad, David C. (2005). "Mali Empire, Sundiata and Origins of". In Shillington, Kevin (ed.). Encyclopedia of African History. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn. pp. 918–919.
2. Levtzion, Nehemia (1976). "The early states of the Western Sudan to 1500". In Ajayi, A.J. (ed.). History of West Africa (2nd. ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. p. 124. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
3. Fofana, Moussa (31 July 2007). "Point d'Histoire du Mali: Le Royaume de Sosso ou Khaniaga des Soninké". Soninkara. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
4. Conrad, David C. “Oral Sources on Links between Great States: Sumanguru, Servile Lineage, the Jariso, and Kaniaga.” History in Africa, vol. 11, 1984, pp. 35–55. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3171626. Accessed 22 Sept. 2023.
5. Page, Willie F. (2005). Davis, R. Hunt (ed.). Encyclopedia of African History and Culture. Vol. II (Illustrated, revised ed.). Facts On File.
6. Levtzion, Nehemia; Hopkins, John F. P. eds. and trans. (2000), Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West Africa, New York, NY: Marcus Weiner, ISBN 978-1-55876-241-1
7. Shillington, Kevin (2012). History of Africa. London, England: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 93, 101.