Thread by @ManjaKoi

In 1520 an exiled warrior princess👸🏿 from the collapsing Mali empire invaded what is now #SierraLeone 🇸🇱 and #Liberia 🇱🇷.
Her invasion would change the history of the Windward coast.💨
🏝️
A THREAD🧵…
#AfricanHistory

After offending the king(some say after rejecting his advances) Princess Magbete was banished from the Mansas capital city.

The Princess left with many followers to forge a new kingdom for herself.
She led a migration that would be the beginning and the end for many tribes…

The Princess marched south too the coastal forest of the Windward coast.
As the group marched south they encountered, like Gbandi, and Kpelle people. The host defeated and absorbed more tribes and began too snowball.
At first they fought and defeated mostly Kwa speaking peoples.

Her armies gave an offer to every town and village the came across.

They would offer a town Mande steal swords, tools and woven uniforms. Things most of the Windward coast tribes did not have in 1520.

Either accept the offerings and join the host or reject them and be attacked.

The Mane used organized tactics they inherited from the Mali Empire. The Windward Coast is mostly Jungle infested with tsetse flies, so they had to depend on their capable Bowmen instead of Sahel Calvary.

These bowmen would attack in mobile squadrons and arrows dipped in Poison.

Princess Magbete carved out a nice kingdom for herself. She divided governance amongst her sons.

The new Queen sent one of her son Floni Kerry, too conquer Cape Mount and the Vai and use their land as a base to conquer, what is now Sierra Leone and the rest of the coast.

The Mane reached Cape Mount.

The Vai rejected the Manes usual offer of submission. They already had Mande tools, having migrated from Mali 300 years earlier.

Outnumbered, the Vai fought valiantly but had to retreat.
The Vai king Flamboere had to hide on an island in Lake Piso.

The leaders of the host where mostly made up off Magbetes sons and grandsons. By 1545 many of them where born and raised in the coastal forest at Cape Mount and many became Vai speakers.
The sons wanted too keep pushing north and conquer the Bullom, Sape and Temne tribes.

In 1550 the Mane attacked the lands of the Sape and Bullom defeating them and taking their mainland, but the Bullom where able to retreat to Shrebo Island.

The Temne fought ferociously against the Mane, even killing one of Magbete’s sons, but where also defeated and conquered.

Heartbroken Magbete retired to Cape Mount.
Her sons pressed on to the lands of the Susu.
They where offered the standard demands. When presented with the usual gifts the Susu rebuffed the offer also already having steel tools and cotton. The Susu used to rule ancient Ghana.

The Mane attacked and the Susu requested help from their neighbors too the north, the Fulani.
Living on the edge of the forest and the Sahel the Fulani could raise and field large amounts of Calvary.
The Susu where on the defensive and knew their land better than the invaders.

At the point the Mane host wasn’t the same as the host that left Mali with Magbetes.
These where sons and grandsons leading Temne and Bullom auxiliary troops led by Vai and Mandingo speaking officers.
The Mane also enlisted the help of some Portuguese Musketeers as mercenaries.

On the Susu’s side the Susu’s regular troops would hold the center while the Fulani Calvary would fight on the flanks.
The Mane launched their attack, with their auxiliaries attacking the Susu center while the musketeers fired on the Fula horsemen.

The Portuguese where able to let off one volley. Before they could reload a second time the Fulani charged and where upon them.
After facing a Calvary charge the musketeers broke and fled. The Manes armies flank was exposed, and the horsemen veered to…

The exposed flank of the main army, which was made up mostly of dismounted archers and infantry, where mobbed up by the Fula horsemen while they where being pinned down by the Susu infantry.

All of Magbete’s sons retreated back south away from Susu lands, back to their holdings

All the conquered people and their new lords had too pay tribute too the Queen.
Magbete even sent trade caravans back up north to Mali, mostly exchanging salt for gold.
Every village in the area became more fortified after the invasions.

Queen Magbete would die by 1570. Her domain would be split amongst her sons. The Mane host disintegrated.
Some tribes like the Sape assimilated into the Mane. The two peoples became one and where called the Mèndé.
Other tribes like the Temne where able to retained their culture.

These invasions caused the migrations of many tribes and resulted into the current ethnic map we see today.
Many tribes in Northern Liberia insist they have sister tribes in Sierra Leone.
Tribes like the Kwaa also have a history of being surrounded by newer Mande speaking tribes.

End of 🧵
Most historical maps leave the Windward Coast blank until Liberia and Sierra Leone where founded, but there was actually many advanced societies there before the modern era.
Also don’t listen to trivia list about Africas history.

Thanks for reading this one was long.👋🏿

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