Thread by @rhaplord

quite misleading, this is both correct and incorrect

-correct b'se the longitudes 10° to 20° were the first in subsaharan africa to be entirely filled up by states (1300s Mali to Ethiopia)

-incorrect b'se Aksum/Ethiopia, Kerma/Kush/Makuria and Kanem were aligned north to south

https://twitter.com/tundeleye/status/1415708105439068169

even more misleading when you consider that the pre-sokoto states of nothern nigeria eg zaria and borgu were aligned north-south as well including the more southerly yoruba states like Oyo

rather than geography and other reductive explanations (à la jared diamond), a better explanation for the west-east alignment of Ghana, Mali and Songhai was the control of the Senegal & Niger river valleys which were by then the most populous and productive regions in west africa

if jared diamond's geography explanation was to hold, kanem would find it easier to expand to gao (which in the 1250s was not yet under mali) rather than expanding north into libya's fezzan

and songhai would have easily expanded into bornu when kanem was weakened in the 1400s

-the aksumite expansion into the middle nile valley in the 4th cent. wouldn't have been ephemeral
kush rather than central ethiopia that would've been aksum's most prized possession

-Dawit I's ethiopia would've also been in possession of northern sudan not the ottomans

image sources (for the maps) :

ethiopia's map: Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270-1527
by Taddesse Tamrat -pg 133

kush's map:
national geograhic nationalgeographic.org/media/kingdoms…

kanem's map:
West Africa before the Colonial Era: A History to 1850
By Basil Davidson -pg 65