The Forgotten Sahelian Farmers Who Fed the Songhai Empire

When we think of the Songhai Empire, we think of gold, salt, and scholarly cities like Timbuktu. But the empire's true backbone was its agricultural system — a sophisticated network of flood-retreat farming along the Niger River, managed by the Sorko and Tyeddo peoples. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the agricultural surplus that allowed Songhai to support a vast army, a bureaucracy, and trade networks across the Sahara. They discuss the falo system — the seasonal floodplains that were cultivated with sorghum, millet, and rice — and how the state managed land tenure through the fari-mondio, or provincial governors. They also examine how climate change and Sahel drought cycles affected Songhai's food security, and the role of enslaved labor in the fields. The conversation touches on a lesser-known rebellion in the Dendi region sparked by grain hoarding, and how the collapse of agriculture after the Saadian invasion accelerated the empire's fall. This episode avoids rehashing previous topics and instead offers a fresh lens on Songhai's economy through the mouths of its farmers, using evidence from the Tarikh al-Sudan and archaeological studies of ancient Niger River settlements. #SonghaiAgriculture #NigerRiver #Farming #Sahel #FaloSystem #Sorko #Tyeddo #FariMondio #TarikhAlSudan #Dendi #Sorghum #Millet #Rice #ClimateChange #EnslavedLabor #FoodSecurity #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo