Sometimes YouTube contains useful videos pertinent to the random interests of this blog. In this case, early Gao and pre-imperial Songhay history, this video discusses the various insights gained from archaeological excavations at Gao-Saney and its contributions to our understanding of early Songhay history. Known in some of the early external Arabic sources as Kawkaw, the early Songhay polity centered at the area of Gao was one of the most powerful kingdoms and most important trading centers in the "Western Sudan," contemporaneous with Ghana and Kanem to the west and east. One day, this blog will attempt to cover this period in the history of Gao and the Songhay peoples, particularly the useful details that can be recovered from external Arabic sources and the trans-Saharan contacts of this region of Mali. I hope to come to some deeper conclusions about pre-imperial Songhay that can be shed light on the role of trade, statecraft, and, if possible, relations between "Kawkaw" and its "Sudanic" neighbors. For example, al-Bakri or one of the other Arabic sources alludes to conflict between Kawkaw and Ghana and Kanem.
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