In northwest of the Sahara Desert runs into the tropical rainforests of Benin and

Burkina Faso.

And as in this region that some of Africa's greatest empires flourished.

Among them were the Songhai Empire, as well as the earlier Mali Empire,

whose rulers included Manson, who, flushed with gold, was reportedly

the wealthiest man in history.

By the early 19th century, the Bambara Empire controlled much of this territory, which is in today's Mali.

But from the southwest, a new force emerged, a man named Ahmed Lobu who forged not just a new empire, but what

came to be known as the caliphate of Ham Dalahi.

An Islamic and jihadist state was one of the last powerful

empires in this region before the scramble for Africa began in 1881 and saw almost the entire continent fall under colonial European rule.

It's an area of the world and an era of history that is often overlooked in the West.

But Professor Maronne Billy, author of Sultan, Caliph, and the renewal of the faith,

Ahmed Labo, the Tarak al-Fattache, and the making of an Islamic state in 19th century West Africa is a subject matter

expert on this period of history.

I recently spoke to him about the caliphate and began by picking up from our discussion in a previous episode about the Songhai Empire.

The Songhai Empire collapsed due to infighting and eventually the area was conquered by Morocco.

But 200 years later, what was this situation in the

area area where Songhai fell and suddenly this caliphate of Hamdlahi arose.

So let's say that after the fall of the Songhai,

the Moroccans established a very loose control of the Niger camp and the more you go basically upstream the Nigeria the least consolidated was this control

especially after eventually the fading away of any direct control of Morocco

...