Sunni Baru [Emperor of Songhai 1492-1493]: An Afrocentric Reevaluation

SUNNI BARU [EMPEROR OF SONGHAI 1492-1493] WAS THE SON AND ROYAL HEIR OF SUNNI ALI BER [EMPEROR OF SONGHAI 1464-1492] 

UPON HIS ASCENSION TO THE THRONE, SUNNI BARU REFUSED TO CONVERT TO ISLAM [AS INFLUENTIAL MUSLIMS AT COURT WANTED HIM TO] AND SIDED WITH THE FACTION OF THE PROTECTORS AND PRESERVERS OF THE AFRIKAN WAY IN THE IMPERIAL COURT OF SONGHAI. THE ELDERS WHO WERE PRESERVERS AND PROTECTORS 

OF AFRIKAN SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS AND AS SUCH GUARDIANS OF THE CULTURE WERE ALARMED AT THE GROWING INFLUENCE OF THE FOREIGN ANTI-AFRIKAN PROSYLETIZING RELIGION OF ISLAM AMONG THE ELITE AND AT ITS RELIGIOUS POLICY OF HOSTILITY AND INTOLERANCE TOWARDS AFRIKAN SPIRITUALITY, AFRIKAN SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND AFRIKAN CULTURE. THE ELEVATION OF ISLAM TO A POSITION OF HEGEMONY THROUGH INFLUENTIAL PERSONAGES THROUGHOUT THE EMPIRE WOULD SIGNAL A DEVASTATING ASSAULT ON THE AFRIKAN WAY OF LIFE, WHICH THE ELDERS AS GUARDIANS OF THE WAY ARE DUTY BOUND BY THE ANCESTORS TO PROTECT AND PRESERVE.

SUNNI ALI BER HAD MAINTAINED A POLICY OF PARTICIPATING IN MUSLIM RELIGIOUS PRACTICES AND AFRIKAN TRADITIONAL SPIRITUAL SYSTEMS. UPON HIS TRANSITION THE MUSLIM FACTION SOUGHT TO COMPLETE THE EXPANSIONIST MOVES OF THE ISLAMIC RELIGION IN ITS 'WAR' AGAINST THE BALANCED AFRIKAN TRADITIONAL SPIRITUAL SYSTEM [PRIESTESS AND PRIESTS, GODDESSES AND GODS, RESPECT FOR THE AFRIKAN ANCESTORS, ALL ANATHEMA TO THE INTOLERANT EXPANSIONIST RELIGION OF ISLAM.] THIS WAS THE TENUOUS SITUATION SURROUNDING SUNNI BARU'S ASCENSION TO THE THRONE OF SONGHAI. ON THE ONE HAND THERE WERE THOSE WHO SOUGHT TO PROTECT THE AFRIKAN WAY AND ON THE OTHER THERE WAS A RELIGION THAT HAD CLEARLY DEMONSTRATED ITS HOSTILITY AND HATRED TO ALL THINGS AFRIKAN.

WHEN SUNNI BARU SIDED WITH THE WAYS OF THE ANCESTORS AND REFUSED TO CONVERT TO ISLAM AND DENOUNCE THE WAYS OF THE ANCESTORS, ASKIA MUHAMMAD A GENERAL IN THE ARMY SAW HIS CHANCE TO LEAD A REBELLION AND SEIZE POWER. [IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT ACCORDING TO THE AFRIKAN HISTORICAL RECORD, ASKIA MURDERED SUNNI ALI BER THE FATHER OF SUNNI BARU AND THE FOUNDER OF THE EMPIRE] ASKIA WITH HIS POSITION AS GENERAL HAD THE SUPPORT OF A SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF THE ARMY AND WAS PERHAPS THE MOST ABLE OF GENERALS THEN IN THE ARMY. HE ALSO GATHERED THE MUSLIM FACTION WHICH THOUGH SMALL HELD INFLUENTIAL POSITIONS IN THE EMPIRE AND LAUNCHED A REBELLION AGAINST SUNNI BARU THE LEGITIMATE RULER UNDER THE BANNER OF ISLAM.

AFTER DEFEATING SUNNI BARU IN 1493, ASKIA MUHAMMAD THEN SPENT THE NEXT DECADE EXECUTING ALL MEMBERS OF THE SUNNI BLOOD LINE, AND THE ENTIRE ZA BLOODLINE WHICH PRECEDED THE SUNNI AS RULERS OF SONGHAI.

ASKIA MUHAMMAD THEN IN AN EFFORT TO STRENGTHEN HIS POSITION GIVEN THE FACT THAT HE WAS A USURPER AND HAD NO LEGITIMATE CLAIM TO THE THRONE [WHICH WAS KEY IN THE AFRIKAN KINSHIP SYSTEM OF POLITICAL ECONOMY] CHOSE TO BASE THE LEGITIMACY OF HIS RULE IN ISLAM AND CULTIVATED ISLAMIC SUPPORT DOMESTICALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY.


THIS PERSPECTIVE ON SUNNI BARU WHICH IS ONLY A SYNOPSIS DOES NOT COME FROM ANY NEW EVIDENCE BUT FROM A CLOSE READING AND RE-INTERPRETATION OF EXTANT WRITTEN DOCUMENTS AND CULTURAL DATA.

FOR THOSE WHO ARE PRESERVERS AND PROTECTORS OF THE AFRIKAN WAY, WHO FOLLOW A PATH OF RE-AFRIKANIZATION, WHO SEEK THE REBIRTH OF AFRIKAN SPIRITUAL PLURALITY, THE ELEVATION OF AFRIKAN POLITICAL-ECONOMIC POWER, THERE MUST BE A RE-EVALUATION OF THE HISTORICAL RECORD AND AN ACCORDANCE OF RECOGNITION AND A PLACE OF HONOR FOR PROTECTORS OF THE WAY SUCH AS SUNNI BARU.