Sonni Ali Controls the Niger Bend

1462

Songhai forces under Sunni Ali secured undisputed military dominance over the critical Niger River bend, controlling the vast inland waterway that connected the gold fields of Akan and Bure in the south to the trans-Saharan caravan routes stretching north through the desert to Sijilmasa and the Maghreb. The river was West Africa's essential commercial highway, and Songhai now held every one of its toll bridges, ferries, and river ports.