"Haut-Sénégal-Niger (Soudan français), Tome 2 (de 3): l'histoire" by Delafosse is a historical account written in the early 20th century. It reconstructs the political and cultural history of the western Sudan (Haut-Sénégal–Niger), with particular emphasis on the rise, geography, and sources concerning the medieval empire of Ghana and its neighbors, drawing on Arabic chronicles, travel accounts, and material traces.
The opening of the work sets out the limits of knowledge before the common era, arguing that reliable history in this region begins only in the early centuries AD; ancient writers offer little beyond vague remarks, archaeology is inconclusive (stone tools, rock art, and the enigmatic Lobi ruins), and inscriptions are either rare tifinagh or later Arabic tombstones from the fourteenth century. The narrative then turns to Ghana: it methodically situates the capital in the Aoukar near Néma–Oualata based on Ibn Hawqal and al-Bakri, rejects the later, confused placement by al-Idrisi on the Niger, and dismisses modern misidentifications near Ségou–Banamba. It notes that “Ghana” was originally a royal title, likely non-Arab and non-Berber. The study advances a reconstruction in which a Judéo‑Syrian (proto‑Fulani) elite founded Ghana and produced forty‑four early “white” rulers, before Soninke power under Kaya‑Maghan Sissé displaced them and extended control across the Sahel to the Atlantic, without crossing the Niger. A vivid portrait of Aoudaghost follows—its trade in gold, gum, and slaves, its mixed Berber–Arab population—and the mounting Berber pressure leads into the Almoravid movement: Abdallah ibn Yasin’s reform from a ribat near the Senegal, the unification of Lamtuna and allies, the sack of Aoudaghost (1054), and the split between Abubakr ibn Umar (south) and Yusuf ibn Tashfin (north). The section closes as Almoravid forces turn again toward Ghana in the 1060s, with the succession from Bassi to Menin, setting the stage for the coming conflicts. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
