Askia Muhammad and the Songhai Machine

I bet you didn’t know Africa once ran one of the most organized empires on Earth.

In 1493, in West Africa, a man named Askia Muhammad I took power and rewrote

how empires worked. Askia did not inherit peace. He seized control after defeating

Sunni Baru at the Battle of Anfao. Then he did something rare. He built a system.

Askia turned the Songhai Empire into a machine. He created a professional army.

Appointed governors over provinces. Established tax systems. Enforced courts

of law. Not chaos. Administration. Cities like Gao and Timbuktu exploded

into global centers of trade and learning. Scholars. Judges. Merchants from across