Pasha Joder and the Moroccan conquest of

Odd stories of History - 1
Pasha Joder and the Moroccan conquest of Songhai.

Pasha Joder is the name by which is known the otherwise anonimous Spanish adventurer that at the service Sultan Mulay Ahmed Al Masur of Morocco planned and executed the conquest of Tombuktu searching for the sudsaharan Eldorado... the almost mythic golden mines that were somewhere in al-Sudan, the country of black people.

His name, Joder, comes from his favorite swearing, as joder in Spanish means f*ck. This moral relative of the Spanish conquistadores of America had converted, oportunistically we may think, to Islam.

Mulay Ahmed initially sends an embassy to the Songhay with many presents but the true object of this preliminary expedition is that of intelligence. Meanwhile Joder prepares carefully his invasion: he brings from England canvas, cannons and gunpowder. In 1590 the expedition, partly formed by Spaniards at the service of Morocco, crosses the Sahara desert, losing part of the men from thirst and exhaustion.

The Hispano-Moroccan conquerors take Tondibi, Gao and Tombuktu without much opposition but they find no gold. Not just that they don't find the expected Eldorado near the Niger river, being the mines much more southward near Futa, but also the comercial routes are disrupted by the expedition and no more gold flows to the merchant outposts of the Niger.

The Sultan, upset for not getting the expected results, suspects of Joder and gets him revoked from his position of command, placing instead a man of his confidence, Mahmud that arrives soon at Tombuktu. Joder, resolved to make fortune on his own, and maybe fearing for his life, flees to Gao.

The Askias (Songhay princes) are divided: some try an understanding with Mahmud, others organize resistence at Dendi, quite far away from Tobuktu but the Songhay Empire does not exist anymore.

As Mahmud is unable to send any more gold than Joder, the Sultan sends another governor, Mansur, with orders to execute Mahmud. Masur aplies also draconian measures with the erudites of Tombuktu, deportating them to Morocco.

The Hispano-Moroccans soon find themselves abandoned to destiny by the Sultan and also by Joder, who finally returns with some bounty to Morocco in 1599.  Most of them get integrated in their new country, marrying local women and fencing off the Tuareg, the Bambara and the Mandinka.

For some time the Sultan of Morocco names the pashas of Tombuktu and sends tax inspectors. But eventually the Sultan loses interest in this faraway and decepting land. In 1620 the Sultan finally declines the nomination of a pasha. Since then, the army, that subsisted as an autonomous power in form of a military cast, choses all further pashas, sometimes also deposing them as well. Eventually the mandates of the pashas becomes very unstable, with pashas governing for a few days followed by transitions of months. The still called Moroccans or Armas (Spanish for weapons), already very mixed, lose gradully strength. Since 1737 they pay tribute to the Tuaregs, who take Gao in 1770. Finally they simply disappear melted with the locals.

Still some cultural merits must be acknowledged to that odd realm: ulemas, historians and jurists develope continuous activity, Tarik el Fettach and Tarik el Sudan are two of their most notable historical chronicles. In the 17th century, surgeons at Tombuktu treat cataracts succesfully.

I didn't know that detail, Tobodai, my source didn't put much emphasis on battles. It just mentioned that Gao was abandoned before the Moroccans arrived and that thing about cannons being imported from England. It doesn't seem like the Songhay could do much against firearms at that time.

You are the expert in African history, anyhow, aren't you? Do you think that this destruction of the last major Sudsaharan empire had a significative effect in the subsequent disintegration of the area in warrying-slaving kingdoms or that would had happened anyhow, even if Songhay would have endured? Sometimes accidents of history, like the Imperial Chinese policy towards naval exploration, for instance, seem to have been quite relevant. Some historians have posed the question "What if Vasco de Gama would have found Chinese outposts in Africa and India when he travelled beyond the Cape of Good Hope?" I pose therefore the maybe less relevant question: What if the Songhay empire would have survived and maybe even consolidated, instead of being just destroyed by this odd Moroccan expedition? Would that have changed the history of Western Africa?

Well, it might have well happened that the Soghay captured a good deal of Moroccans and made them teach how to make firearms. Sudsaharan Africans were quite good at metalurgy so they could have crafted new weapons rather easily after that. This line of thought seems promising.

Still I don't know if the Songhay existence could have destroyed the European prejudices, just look at how mighty Kongo and Monomotapa were destroyed by the Portugese. The inland position and Islam maybe would have protected the Songhay empire... but for how long? Eventually even Turkey and China had to bow to European technological and organizational supremacy. But still... who knows?

Finally I learn from where my favorite word comes