what about from family and welcome back to my series a closer look and today we're gonna be taking a closer look at the song got people and as always if you want access to sources courses and exclusive videos or if you simply want to support the home team you can do so on patreon.com the link is in description box below the song guy primarily inhabits southeastern Mali along the bend of the Niger River and western niger others also live in Benin Burkina Faso and Nigeria and a few song about people who have migrated to toggle culture war in Ghana where they are known as as a Brahma or Gao people over 1.5 million people actually consider themselves Sangha like many ethnic groups in West Africa the Songhai have a very specific oral history it's said that they migrated from philae island in ancient Nubia to the sahara felix the boy in 1897 in his book entitled similar to the mysteries described the migrations of the song got people from the nile that is to say ancient Nubia to the niger river in great detail the boys recorded what the song got people then told him about their history and their origins the following is what Felix the boy concluded it is south of the island of philae that we find people of a similar race leaving a country with plenty of water such as Nubia before settling the migrants looked for an area that reminded them of their mother country through analogous physical formations and gow they found the Niger River with a vast Sulli of water which was similar to the one they left behind allowing them to fertilize the land as they had before by its floods what further validates the claims of the Songhai is their language itself the Songhai aside from the torrid are the only group of west africans that speak on nilo-saharan language a language group that was prevalent in eastern africa historically now there are some scholars who have trouble classifying the song bad language and prefer simply to keep it in its own category but this controversy only drives the point home even further because the journey of the song guy from Nubia Somali would have slightly changed their language as perhaps they took on some long words from Niger Congo populations this struggle to classify the Songhai language makes perfect sense given the history that they claim now the overwhelming majority of song bat today are actually Muslims but it seems as though one tradition has survived concerning who the song guy used to venerate before the advent of Islam one pre Imperial song that Kingdom used to venerate a fish God named D agait who has said to give orders to the Songhai apparently the agay wasn't the only god venerated amongst the Songhai but he certainly was the most feared it was through the killing of da gate that the song guide made their transition into the Islamic faith one of the most exciting things to learn about the song guy is learning that this whole time they had a secret priesthood that had its own written script this priesthood was called the khumba priesthood all this information recently came out due to the efforts of dr. Hasini maka a Seong gyes scholar who ultimately saw the value in revealing this history to the rest of the world as we become more and more globalized the mystic arts of the Songhai were so well known that myths and legends about Egyptian pharaohs hiring songhay priests to perform magic in Egypt still persist even until this day the Songhai built one of the most popular empires in West African history known to the world as a songhai empire the ancestors of the Songhai but one of the earliest kingdoms on the niger been as early as a seventh century interestingly enough the Songhai traced to San patrilineal II which is unique because many Africans focus more on matrilineal descent it can be argued that the Songhai were one of the most powerful group of African in West Africa along with their rivals the Mandinka today the sangga are mostly subsidence farmers they grow rice along riverbanks as well as millet sorghum peanuts black-eyed peas sorrow and other crops many Tsonga also live in cities such as Timbuktu Niemi and Bamako where they engage in a wide range of trades and professions paramount Chiefs from noble lines hold office and continue to exert at least symbolically in rural regions the Songhai include a number of regional sub groups including the Fano the gabbie be the Gao Mikado the Corte the circle and the Surma the songhai empire has a tendency to be the favorite for many West African history enthusiasts and its downfall in many ways led to the fragmentation of West Africa itself one of the great legacies of the Songhai is actually said to be sin mob - even though timber to wasn't built by the Songhai it was under songhay imperial rule that Timbuktu saw its Golden Arrow songhai investment in similar to in a sense impacted its coming of age and contributed greatly to the world status of the city wellö Malaga's if you like these videos and want to support in its continued production you can do so on patreon calm the link is in the description box below know thyself remember your ancestors peace [Music]