Units of History - Mali Cavalry - Knights of Africa (1235) DOCUMENTARY
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 พ.ค. 2024
- History documentary on the Mali Cavalry, Knights of Africa! Dive into this period with the book "Griots Tell No Lies" (US link www.amazon.com/dp/B0CSBMW7MN?...) (UK link
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CSBMW7M...)
In this Units of History episode we turn our attention beyon the traditional confines of medieval history to explore the realm of West Africa and in particular the African Knights of the Mali Empire. We begin with a general overview of the region's geography which spans the vast, diverse lands between the Sahrara desert and the Atlantic ocean.
We then explore the rise of the Ghana Empire which set the stage for our story. Upon this great power's fall in the 11th century of Medieval Africa, the region would fall into conflict. For a time the Sosso rose as successors. However they would be challenged by the southern Mandinka people. Their clash for the fate of the realm would be decided by the charge of heavy cavalry. But to understand the dynamics of this fight we cover the equipment, training, tactics, and organization of these Knights of Africa.
Sources:
Spring, Christopher, African Arms and Armour, British Museum Press, 1993
Walker, Robin, When We Ruled: The Ancient and Medieval History of Black Civilizations, Black Classic Press, 2011
Diop, Cheikh Anta, Precolonial Black Africa, A Cappella Books, 1988
Niane, Djibril Tamsir, Sundiata: an Epic of Old Mali, Pearson Longman; 2nd edition, 2006
Music:
"Desert Night" by Luke PN
"Heart of Africa" by Luke PN
"Life in Africa" by Luke PN
Credits:
Research = J. Bela
Script = Invicta
Narration = Guy Michaels
Art = Penta Limited
Other Units of Africa
Nubian Archers • Units of History - Nub...
Numidian Cavalry • Units of History - The...
Sacred Band of Carthage • Units of History - The...
Carthaginian War Elephants • Units of History - Car...
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
02:57 West Africa
07:00 Origins
10:08 Equipment
15:29 Blacksmithing
16:43 Training
20:53 Organization
22:56 Service History
26:20 Outro
#africa #history #documentary
I LOVE diving into topics I'm not familiar! A huge thanks to J. Bela for not only suggesting this topic but also helping to provide the research. He just published a historical fiction book set in this period which you should definitely check out: "Griots Tell No Lies" (US link www.amazon.com/dp/B0CSBMW7MN?ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_dp_NG25M2V1BX5WB4DX8J2E&language=en-US) (UK link
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CSBMW7MN?nodl=1&ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_dp_6DQJ88KWK1X5AMYGFBNN&language=en-GB&dplnkId=d5c97219-e5b5-4894-a102-23b3a618ceb1)
Griots, professional storytellers, were said to be spread news via wordplay and are said to have laid the foundation of rap when enslaved in the Americas.
I want to buy the book, but it does not appear to be available for purchase in US. Is there some other method of purchase?
Edit: I was able to add the paperback to my cart, but the shipping will more than double the cost. I don’t seem to be able to purchase the ebook. These problems might only be on my phone. I will try from a computer later.
One part of the history I would disagree with is the arrival of better horses and barding from Islamic cultures. While that did happen, there is an earlier history of influence that also came from the East through Chad originating in Sudan and the Nile in the late BC era into early AD era. The Sahel was always an east west corridor connecting West Africa not only with the Sahara to the North but Sudan and East Africa with West Africa. To this day, Hausa and Fulani groups are found all along the Sahel from Sudan to West Africa. And the Kanem Bornu empire is an example of one of the early kingdoms to arise along these ancient trade routes.
Do you think you could ask him to make the eBook available in Australia? I'd love to buy it
Huge thanks to you guys for the opportunity! I'll forever be grateful!
Now this is what we need. Africa has such a rich history that is so frequently ignored.
@@crocrox2273 So you're telling me all these horse archers and trainings and weapon smithing and all these cities and shit had no written letter or records?
You think they just worked off vibes and shit, is that what you think?
@@meager992 people like him can’t even use Google. If they did they’d see written languages like Geez, Nsibdi, meriotic and a whole other host of native languages, as well as adopted scripts Arabic (Greek was adopted from Nilotic scripts..).
@@meager992Mali one of the largest bibliothecaris during the medieval era. The bibliothecary of Timbuktu. However, a lot of these writings wereIslamic religious texts, no all of them though, there was also math and others. The tradition still lives on, but the city sufferen Tuarec raids.
Edit: Couldn't see the orignal comment you replied to any longer. See it as a responce to that.
@@NSC776it is not just African history, they barely touch the history of smaller kingdoms of Europe. I mean, who has heard of Tomislav, the greatest King of Croatia or Tamar the Great Queen of Georgia.
Let's just say popular media likes well known things.😅
@@benedictjajo the point is even major empires in Africa aren’t known. Mali was home to the richest man in history, with a constitutional law (The Manden Charter) that had one of the worlds first written human rights as well as one of the worlds oldest universities. Yet no one knows about it.
Everyone knows about equivalent European empires or kingdoms, it’s all we hear about.
Netflix should take notes. THIS is an African story worth telling
Netflix is always on the prowl for cool stories to ruin, maybe it's best they don't know
Na they shouldn’t! We don’t want them to butcher African histories and stories! It’s best for Africans and our folks in the diaspora to make this stuff ourselves.
I get your angle on this point. But *fuck netflix*
@@admirekashiri9879 Do you have any quality African series / movie to recommand ? I'd gladly watch these !
@@admirekashiri9879 They already butchered Greek dynasty of Egypt because they wanted to have a black heroes. Now it is time to butcher stories of real black africans, they will probably make them asian? Yes, Asian Mali sounds perfect for Netflix. Imagine: "I do not care what teachers tell you, Mansa Musa was asian women!". Now seriously, Africa has real interesting stories and kingdoms. Why the hell didnt they do Kush or Mali?
As a longtime viewer of your channel and African I’m truly grateful for this video, the continent is not short on its number of kings and generals
Sir this is Invicta, not Kings & Generals ;)
@@CHex. I'll be honest, I usually forget which videos come from which channels. They're both pretty great.
West Africa history is so underrated.
You should read the book akhi… we need this turned into a film
The whole continent is underrated mate.
Suppressed is what it is.
It's also undocumented. Mali history is hearsay history.
You can say that again. There’s several moments of Africa’s history that makes game of thrones look like a kids show
I'm SO happy seeing this channel cover some West African history. It's really unfortunate how little a lot of African history gets talked about outside of channels that specifically focus on the topic, because I feel like a lot of history buffs who know nothing about Africa would find it just as interesting as any other history if they just had a place to start.
@@NataliaYaremchuk0816 What do you mean?? Is it bad to persue some goals like making africa relevant for the world-history, and then be happy when it happens?
@@martinwinther6013 the problem is when it is done from an american pov. They would rather try to make characters like hannibal and cleopatra black. While I am yet to see hollywood even touch aksumite history. where is the serials on sundjata or yodit? where is the movie on the numidians? where are the animations on cyrenica? they are just putting on a coat of paint and presenting it as african.
@@nvmtt1403 I think youre confusing entertainment and history
@@NataliaYaremchuk0816 Youre confusing archeology and history.
History is the written or spoken word delivered from generation to generation. And it ends when we have to look for answers in finding from digouts etc.
@@NataliaYaremchuk0816 Youre using archeologic examples to argue historical.
Its not how things work
I am surprised this got covered, even afro-centric channels tend to ignore Mali's army focusing more the Mansas and their ambitions and never the wars they fought.
Kid, "Who's Mansa Musa?"
Teacher, "He had a lot of gold. Some say he was the richest man in the world at the time."
Kid, "Okay, how did he get all that gold?"
Teacher, "Lots of uh... gold mines. Yes."
Kid, "How did he mobilize the industry to dig them up? What wars did he wage? What was the culture actually like?"
Teacher, "Fck... I dunno? We gotta teach you about how africans didn't just live in mud huts though, so sit down and shut up!"
Cause they gotta narrative and the actually interesting stuff aren’t useful for them.
@@kakerake6018 whats the narrative?
@@Usammityduzntafraidofanythin like all african states around that area, slaves would be used, and it was his predecessors who conquered these gold mines and saved up the treasury for him to use. He used it on conquering Timbuktu and Gao, turing these into centres of Islamic learning, and the culture was very diverse, with the Tuaregs, Songhai, mandinkans, fulani, wolof, bambarans, arabs, and moors contibuting in certain areas of the state, along with the traditional religions and Islam
@@masonarmand8988 african nations were as warlike and violent as the others, engaged in slavery, war crimes and pillaging, as all other societies did. That's not good for the narrative that only white people did that
According to legend, King Sunjata was quite severely disabled with spinal deformations, and it took him a long time as a teenager to learn how to ride and fight.
If true, it makes his triumph over the Sosso even more impressive.
It is not just according to legend. Sundiata is one of the most popular & one of the best documented epics of Africa - what Arthur is to Europe. The story of Mansa Soundiata has bern turned into films and animation
The last time I was this early Ghana was still an empire
Hah my friends In Accra would appreciate you
This was both funny and sad
Last time I was this early Garamantia still owned Niger
gold coast
You do realize that the country Ghana,have nothing to do with kingdom of Ghana.
Its a wonderfully rich region of the world. The african prince who became obsessed with the idea that a land existed over the ocean to the west is a great one.
He was the ruler prior Mansa Musa’s. He was called Abdukari II
@@NSC776 Thank you for that!
He was not wrong about that land I guess.
@@VainerCactus0 there’s lots of loose theories to suggest he made it. Even in Christopher Colombus’ journal he said he saw blacks in the Caribbean - and he knew they were distinctly different from the native population.
There’s a book called “they came before colombus” which explores some of the research
@@NSC776the native people also reported getting gifts of gold and golden weapons from "dark-skinned people from the south and southeast"
im very excited as an african american man with malian ancestry pre-slavery. this was very rewarding! thank you. please do more.
Get the book my brother, you will be amazed! And start planning a trip to visit the motherland!
@@amindada9947 what book?
@@BilalMarcus the one from the sponsor, Griots tell no lies, the link is in the description box I believe
Same what state are you from? Lots of mandinka were brought to Lousiana!!
@@rollitupmars im from indiana but have grandparents from alabama and tennessee. and ancestors enslaved there.
This was an incredible video. The rich history of Africa is often ignored. It was great of you to cover one of history's most underrated empires.
Hopefully it leads to future empires getting similar attention would like to see one of Benin or Kanem Bornu empire
If only netflix made a series about these guys instead of black Cleopatra
The market incentivizes TV shows and movies with easily recognized names. It incentivizes established franchise with fan bases. This drives the trend of remakes and reboots. Financially it's riskier to pursue original concepts. There are exceptions to this, but this doesn't eliminate the varying degrees of risk. It's the same with less explored European cultures like the various Celtic tribes, the marcomani, the suebi, the picts, etc. There's rich cultures and warriors to draw upon for media, but art is not made for the sake of art, but for a return on investment.
Why is there an issue with black cleopatra? Please dont be one of those rabid anti-SJW types, these history channels have enough of you guys poisoning the well as it is, we dont need one of the better ones being FURTHER tainted by you guys.
They are indirectly being racist because they are implying they have no history.
In fairness, Hollywood has whitewashed a lot of ancient Egyptian shows “Exodus” springs to mind
@@ramenbomberdeluxe4958Because she was Macedonian. It's like if they used Dwayne the Rock Johnson to portray Napoleon. It's intellectually dishonest.
This is an honestly fascinating story that I cannot wait to hear more of.
It really is a shame that pop history neglects stories like this so much.
No obvious drama in it.
@@juniormartin3528it's not immediately recognizable to a western audience and it isn't unique. Identical stories in more familiar cultures are easier to sell.
@@DizzyDisco93 No obvious drama? What does that mean? Explain.
@@broq9194 refer to previous comment.
@@DizzyDisco93No obvious Drama? Doesn't get more dramatic when a king dies and 14 sons fight for the throne.
I don’t normally buy things based off of TH-camr recommendations, but I will make an exception today
Thanks! I definitely want to support J. Bela and will be buying a copy as well
@@InvictaHistoryI will definitely be getting a copy of that book. Another book I’d say to look out for is called Rise of the Lion King by Anthony Kwamu. This book is a historical about Sundiata Keita. The author has an already published historical fiction on medieval Ethiopia called Red Monk of Roha, it’s awesome. As an African history buff I was geeking out at the historical details added 😂.
Thank you very much for giving my story a chance! I hope it doesn't disappoint, enjoy it!
I'll probably take it in library! But i dont think they will have it. XD its a very niche subject.
I’m African American I’m a direct descendant of the mandinka and Bambara people proud of my heritage!
You should read the sponsor’s book my brother, you would be amazed at the greatness of our Mandinka predecessors ✊🏿
West African history is criminally under-covered and it's awesome that you're doing it justice with such a video! I know so little about this and I want to know more.
isnt it also widely under researched?
@@krystofcisar469The whole continent is.
@@admirekashiri9879 Except the North
@@bxzidffbxzidff Indeed
@@bxzidffbxzidff Even some aspects of North African history is outside of Egypt.
Don't even need to watch the video. I want that caparison. I don't care how whether it's a movie or a video game i want to see a knight rock up in a african multi-colored caparison. These mali knights has serious drip and it needs to be in pop culture now!
Look up African horsemen, particularly West African, the best being among the Hausa in Northern Nigeria IMO. They just look so super cool. I love horses, knights, and that kind of thing, and if there's a cooler bunch of elaborately decorated knights in the world then I haven't seen them. They do an elaborate cavalry ceremony every year where the knights/nobles do a "mock charge" with their swords and lances pointed toward the emperor. Pre-colonial African societies, generally speaking, didn't tolerate all powerful dictatorships so the mock charge is carried out by powerful nobles who pull up at the last second and salute the emperor - if his/her reign has been just, with the understanding that this "mock charge" will be a REAL CHARGE with a real army if the emperor's reign has not been just. I can't wait to go see this festival one day, so cool looking in pictures. It's crazy how the entire Western society knows virtually nothing about this. smh
You can custom order them from horse saddler maker. Or leather worker.
I custom order my horse caparison gamberson from leather worker. I use the caparison when i train horse archer twice a week
@@broq9194it's called the durbar. It's a yearly event.
@@odupitanmichael6072 Yeah I know
Oh finally I’ve been waiting to see this.
5:30 - 5:40 Small nitpick but, most of the icons there are depicting East African warriors, not west African.
6:40 The horse armor predates Islamic influence it’s actually from Kush. There is art and accounts which mention it. In the book "On the Erythraean Sea", the Greek historian Agatharchides, relating the history of Ptolemy II's Nubian campaign, refers to a native (Nubian) type of felt armour for horse and rider that covers the whole body except for the eyes:
"For the war against the Aithiopians Ptolemy recruited 500 cavalrymen from Greece. To those who were to fight in the front ranks and to be the vanguard - they were a hundred in number - he assigned the following form of equipment. For he distributed to them and their horses garments of felt (stolas piletas), which those of that country (hoi kata ten choran; "the natives of the country" in Burstein) call kasas, that conceal the whole body except for the eyes."
In this military context, "stolas piletas" has been translated as "quilted garment" or more literally "felted clothing". The term "kasas" has also been associated with a type of Persian saddle cloth, or the term "Kassos", which translates as "thick garment". It was used by Kushites as an effective protection against arrows, which made it important for the Ptolemies in their campaign against the archery heavy Kushite army. This type of quilted (usually cotton) armor became ubiquitous to the greater Sahel region, south of the Sahara, from Sudan to Mali in medieval times. It was used to cover horse and rider, concealing the whole body except for the eyes (or face), and was even used to make skullcaps.
May I ask what books/channels/articles you read? You seem to know a lot about African history. I remember you from From Nothing’s channel
@@jayBBvid95Check out Africa History Extra the articles there are detailed and in-depth. They cover a ton of different African histories and cultures.
@@jayBBvid95 I’m trying to mention the sites I use but, TH-cam for some reason is offended by them! 🤦🏾♂️
@@jayBBvid95 As for the channels check out the these below.
Hometeam History
From Nothing
Afrostorian
Red Spirit Mask
Tarik History
Hidden History
@@jayBBvid95Check out African history Extra, The African History Channel you’ll get a ton of info from these guys.
I wish people would recognize there's more to Africa then just the slave trade and colonialism, the people had myths and legends, kings and emperors, warriors and heroes who deserve to have their tales told.
West Africa has a very deep calvary and horsemanship culture. The Oyo empire, Songhai empire, Mali empire, Sokoto Caliphate and Mossi kingdoms all had very powerful calvary heavy armies.
Oh, yes. Another interesting topic i was not aware of previously. Thanks for making this
This video with 1/100th the budget of Netflix's Egypt documentary encompasses on sharing historically accurate information about an African nations history with quality.
Forget Netflix. The Epic of Sundiata needs a 10-hour movie trilogy with a 13-hour director’s cut.
yeah disney did. but its some how called the lion king and not the lion king of mali and it has only animals
Please make more videos on medieval west Africa, ppl need to know about this 🙏
Not just West Africa the whole continent.
The So-So were surprisingly effective.
I kinda expected them to be mid at best with that name.
I see what you did there.
Can you please do a video on the roads and bridges of the Ashanti Empire?
this is a really cool episode. The unit, the "less known" aspect, the colab with the author. Everything!
Thank you for the kind words! The book is having a lot of success on Amazon thanks to you guys!
1:20 OH! You take me back to Age of Empires 2 with those characters!
The fact that i know first about Malian cavalry tradition is came from Age of Empire II (some unique tech imply it) shows that even for avid historian, this topic is rarely be delved upon
Thank you for bringing this
aoe2 also have quite good handbook included in gamne where u can read a brief history of every civ included.
Farimba is the tech you're thinking of.
Mali, Ghana, Timbuktu there are so many rich and vibrant stories to tell About African history, and yet they always get ignored, like others have said, for black Cleopatra
Imagine a Medieval 3 that expands the map out to India in the East and the Sahel and Horn of Africa in the South. We get to play Ghana, Mali, Gao, Kanem, Alodia, Abyssinia and the Sultanate of Ifat
As a West African, this feels great to see my region's history being touched. Thanks ❤❤
This is amazing I can’t believe nobody talks about this
Because Africans complain if Whites write about them. But they dont do much for their real history. They rather attempt and demand Cultural thievery like "black egypt" and other nonsense, instead of focusing on real and interesting part of their history.
@@wolfvonturmitz5652 >Because Africans complain if Whites write about them
I have never or atleast hardly seen this. Unless its when people say stupid things like "Africa didn't have societies or civilization", in which case yes, obviously. And rightfully so. But from all ive seen, Africans rejoice when anyone takes time to study and document African history.
@@wolfvonturmitz5652😂😂😂 Clearly you haven’t spoken to many of us lad! Why generalise an entire continent? Wtf
@@admirekashiri9879 I ment exclusively Afrocentrics ;-) . To me they are the same as other crazies.
smaller black youtubers have but not in the detail and focus a channel like Invicta can and obv without the same reach
I love how you guys shine a light on African history rather than sticking with the traditional civilizations and armies everyone knows about that you mentioned at the beginning. One thing I've always wanted to know about was sub-saharan Africa through antiquity. North Africa was dominated by Carthage and Egypt, and there was the kingdom of Kush as well, but there doesn't seem to be too much information about the rest of the continent in that time period. I got a little sneak peak when watching your videos about Roman expeditions across the West African coasts, but I'd love to get a deeper dive on how societies were maintained and governed.
If you’re interested.
Look up Tichitt culture, Sao Culture, Bure culture, and Nok Culture.
That's the best sponsorship I've seen in a while
Props to the author
I already loved this channel thanks to its qualitative content. Now history of West Africa ?
You are doing an immense favor to all history buffs around the world.
Thank you
Somebody share this video in an African martial arts group I'm in, and I can't wait for episode 2. The end death look at Armor in learning about the training that they had to endure was very interesting. It helps you understand why the Mandinka ( Mandingo) warriors are famous in the present day.
You part of HAMAA too? 😂
@@admirekashiri9879 yeppers I visit the page just about every day about five times a day LOL
@@Smitty753same here 😂
Mansa musa belong to the sub group of the mandinka called Malinke. They created the mali empire. They mostly live in guinea and mali.Thier is another sub group of the mandinka called mandinka/mandenka.They live mostly in gambia and senegal. In other words.This is the mande sub group mansa musa belongs to. Maninka, Eastern. This is the mande sub group sub-group mansa musa is not from. Mandinka.
I have to say some thing about this term mande and it's been deliberate confusion. The word mande could be mis-leading if someone does not look further to see what they are really studying like dna for example. Even the word mandinka could be misleading since it really means 2 sub-groups. Mandinka and Malinke are sub-groups of the mandinka. The Mandinka sub-group of the Mandinka could also mean mandingo.
Also manding could also mean mandingo.
Language Name(s)
Manding, Mandingo
Scope
Macrolanguage
Mandingo is a macrolanguage.
So Mandinka and the sub-groups of the Mandinka (Malinke and Mandinka/Mandenka/Mandingo),Bambara,Vai etc...are under the Mandingo macrolanguage.
Even Mandingo and Mandinka could be another word just for mande and Bambara,Malinke etc..are not included as alternate words even if they are mande and they are too. Yes i saw that too recently and that even add more the confusion.I was trying find that website today but can't find it now. There is someone or groups etc.. deliberately trying to add to this confusion. Anybody else notice the deliberate confusion?
This is so cool. How come I never heard about the Mali Empire?
You may find the Asante Empire interesting as well - they manufactured their own firearms
Sub-Saharan African Empires aren’t often talked about
Pop culture doesn’t showcase this history and culture that much, that’s why.
@@randomelite4562 except when something bad happens, and even that’s a stretch
World history is just the world that relates to Europe ironically through ancient empires influencing the COLONIZERS of Europe like the islamic moors, Mongol Yuan Dynasty in China, Islamic arabs, Carthage, and ottomans. All these nations gave westerners what they needed to become what they are.
Netflix and Hollywood would never even touch this
They’d rather make Europeans black (I’m West African and hate their revisionism)
Good! They’d likely mess it up. Us Africans will need to make these films and TV series ourselves.
We should get the author to do a kick starter campaign for that very same reason! I just finished the book and I need to see that in the big screen
@@admirekashiri9879 very true. Nollywood and organic Afro-American filmmakers here in the US should collaborate on these project.
@@admirekashiri9879or at the very least let the director be someone who actually knows the history and not outdated stereotypes.
I love this, please more African history, there is too little of it being covered!
We need an Assassin’s creed game about the Mali empire!!
That would be sick!!!! Or like Ghost of Tshushima
In the lore there is an Assassin from Mali. Would be awesome if we saw his story.
@@admirekashiri9879Yeah, the Assassin's name was Dadua Maiga who lived during the Songhai Empire. Since he lived in the same time period as Ezio Auditore, I wonder if they met each other.
5:30
The warrior icons here are of a Beja, Ethiopian, Nubian, Benin (Edo) soldier, and Ancient a Nubian. Only one of these is West African. The rest belong to East Africa. You may as well have shown Arabs and Persians as examples of French knights. And a cataphract for good measure.
🤣🤣🤣 what u talking about, u r delusional, east Africans can't much west Africa empires, they r extremely weak, only kush was a great east African empire, the rest r pastrolist nomad savages
Good eye. Glad im not the only one that finds this bizarre.
One of these African knights actually moved to the Netherlands, for more information look up the story of Axel in Harlem
Was he the inspiration for Sir Morien from Arthurian legend
Wait a minute
What are you talking about?
@@hoppingvampire 😂😂😂
We gettin out of The Gambia River with this one!!
Mediaval African history is so underated!
I'm happy there more and more channel talk aboot it.
Hopefully , in the near futur, Mediaval African warrior will becoma has iconic has West European Knights, Hassashin Sarrasin, Mongol Horse Archer and Japanase Samurai, in pop culture!
That would be really cool. I love stories about horses, swords, and knights. Have you seen all the super cool ancient African swords? They look like video game weapons from the World of Warcraft!!! lol I would love to see someone put these swords in action in a movie or something. Only once I saw an "African fish knife" being used in a movie, I think it was The Prince of Persia, and the warrior with the fish knife was sooooo cool. I saw a picture of a girl using a Congolese throwing knife (which is the coolest weapon I've ever seen - part knife, axe, sword, and throwing star), but I don't know what movie it was from. The Yoruba in Nigeria have a sword with a circular handle and I think you twirl it around like Chinese nunchucks, so I really want to see somebody using it. But Africans generally defeated enemies using chemical warfare and coated their weapons with a powerful poison similar to strychnine. Mali completely decimated the Portuguese who ran back to their boats and sailed off as quickly as they could trying to escape waves of poison arrows. The lush African environment was basically like a pharmacy, so the people could make nearly any type of poison or toxin they wanted and could kill you, incapacitate you, make you deathly ill, knock you out, whatever!!! African bows and arrows were made very light and small, allowing a soldier to carry many more arrows in his quiver and extra weapons, because the weapon itself didn't need to kill you, all it needed to do was "prick" your skin and the incredibly powerful poison/toxin would do all the work. The Nubians in the east used to target eye sockets with their arrows, and Arabs tell horror stories of their invading forces running out of Nubia with hundreds of soldiers running and screaming wildly with arrows sticking out of their eye sockets!!! The accuracy of the Nubian archers was crazy and the Nubians defeated the Arabs, beat back the Roman Empire, and intimidated Alexander the Great's army from attacking at all. One Nubian Queen used to fight on the battlefield wearing a patch over her eye because she lost her eye fighting against the Romans, who the Nubians defeated from invading. These stories need to be told and we need to see these weapons in action!!!😃
@@broq9194 Well the Shotel and Ikakalaka are somewhat popular in vidéo game.
But it's generaly in standard heroic fantasy setting.
There generaly no suits/armors set to go with this sword.
@@MrSafior Oh yeah, I didn't know that. How cool. I'm out the Matrix. Not really up on pop culture.
I'm curious as to why those warriors are iconic? The samurai aren't in the pop culture of Japan, so what is so captivating about them to the West?
We require this now. Too often, people fail to recognize Africa's rich heritage.
It's always appalling to me that people preach about how great African history is without actually knowing it; it's hypocrisy at the highest level. Around the 14th century near 70% of the worlds gold ever mined came from Mali. Mansa Musa was so rich that on this pilgrimage to the Holy Land he was known to give out entire bags of gold to villagers, which is how inflation was even discovered as a concept. He single-handedly destroyed the economy around Cairo for a decade by wanting to appear generous and bankrupted himself when borrowing at high interest rates on the way back home.
There are many Sub Saharan African kingdoms and empires that reacted similar levels to medieval period in Eurasia.
This is a good example, they had armored knights and horses for powerful cavalry , would love to see a movie or series about the rise of the Mali Empire.
Finally. Some west african history. Its always only the zulus who get all the attention.
@@YaBoiDREX Pretty sure the Mali empire would have crushed the Zulu
@@xiuhcoatl4830 I meant to say would’ve.
@@YaBoiDREX ok
Zulu watching the Malians charge on their horses.
Zulu panicking when Malian Chainmail can’t be pierced by spears and Malians start swinging their swords on horseback
@@miguelbrandao6705If they went to tsetse fly territory they wouldn’t be able to fight in horseback.
Oh I am so excited for this one. Haven’t even watched it yet. Love this channel covering more obscure units and cultures.
Thank you for covering a part of history that is so often overlooked
Thanks. Love to hear about the lesser known units through history.....
Can’t wait to watch this!
Glad I finally can witness this on such a large channel. I have studied the area so I have some reservations on certain details (notably temporal flattening on the gear being shown/used), its a fairly good representation of general sahelian warfare on land. (River battles aside). Looking forward to seeing more of this series.
You should read the book man, I can’t wait for the second one to come out
Bro the Naval warfare on the Niger is something that most have no clue about
Man, I have to say, genius way to promote a book. Back to the video.
It was smooth isn't it 😂 I gotta applaud the whole Invicta team for this video, I'll forever be grateful for the opportunity!
looking forward to you guys exploring more of Africa's history
Great episode. Finally something else than Agincourt for the 1000000th time.
I have literally never heard of those riders. Today I got to broaden my horizon. Thank you for your hard work, Invicta team!
Thank for covering this empire. There so many stories and histories that don't involve Europe, the only history I learned about in school.
I learned so much from the vid.
fantastic! I hope you'll continue to expand to other areas like this
Why are there so many angry ppl in the comments? West African history is cool as fuck.
Haters gonna hate 🤷🏾♂️
a lot of people, especially in 'history buff' circles are pretty racist
So excited for this. It's really hard to find information on this topic so thanks !
Great Thanks for this episode ♥️💯
OMG. I love this soooo much.
You should cover Zulu warriors next or the musketeers of the Asante Empire.
I’ve watched this video 6 times since it’s posting! I’ve been a background viewer for a couple years now, love you alls style of video and informative knowledge while also having that great entertainment. LOVE that we’re finally getting into this corner of history, thank you!
Units of history vids are my favorite keep them coming!!
Thank you as always for the videos
Thank you so much for this video! I was interested in African history for a couple of years now, and im glad it's getting some recognition! You surely should make a video about ancient Mogadisho and other city-states of East Africa
Nice to see west african history thanks
Nice to learn more of units and warriors outside of Europe!
Concerning the Mali cavalry: the equipment and combat style partially reminds me more of the cataphrakts.
I even get to deploy them in the Age of Empires 3 expansion called African Kingdoms.
Granted, the time period of the game was a few centuries after Malian Empire heyday, and the new up and comer kingdoms like Kano and Zassau already took over as the main players.
Beside, the time of Hausa Kingdoms the game presented was the dawn of gun warfare in West Africa, making these Lifidi Knight lose their shines somewhat. They were still powerful, but gunners are the new Main Man of the West and North African warfare, not horsemen.
I'm so glad that pre-colonial African history is finally getting some attention, and breaking out of the old Trevor-Roper lies!
Appreciate this video unreal epic in every way means a ton to real historical admires
Yes, yes, and yes! African history and culture has been too long neglected! I can’t wait to hear more epic stories.
I love it if you would do more African history on units
Love this series! African history should definitely be more widely taught.
40k’s Kasrkin for a fantasy/sci-fi unit as a suggestion
One of the most fearsome and best cavalry in West Africa and world history.
Very well done video. Definitely learnt something new
This was outstanding, thank you so much.
I would love to see more videos on medieval Africa. Thank you again
african history is my favorite
This is what I’ve been waiting to see, great topic guys!
Amazing video can’t wait for the second part it’s always great to deepen my understanding of history especially in the places where my ancestry comes from 💪🏾
Best New of this week thanks ! Thanks for this very welcomed historical breakdown of long forgotten warriors
I would love to see these guys in Age of Empires 2
The Mali are in Age of Empires 4
They are in aoe2 malians have strong, strong army that goes toe to toe with any european cav civ
well, u can :D
They aren't in the original versions, but they were added in the 2010s and are part of the latest Definitive Edition.
Now THIS is a movie Netflix should make.
Have you read the sponsors book? I think if that became a film it would reach Game of thrones level
Screw that! They’d butcher this history.
We need more videos on Africa! I love this!
Thank you for sharing Africa
With things like this, it is evident that neither Hollywood nor companies like Netflix are interested in the true history of Africa, since they prefer to introduce false diversity in Europe or change the skin color of characters like Cleopatra or Anibal Barca, rather than bring us the kings of Mali, Ethiopia, among many others. As a Hispanic, I must also confirm that they also ignore us a lot and only focus on us to speak ill of our ancestors with poorly unfounded black legends, when the greatest adventures of discovery and military epics from the 16th to 17th centuries came from the Hispanic side (it would be enough for thousands of series and movies). True diversity is talking with respect about the history of the other corners of the world, not changing and manipulating at will the already known history of Central and Northern Europe.
🎯
Sumanguru's tactics were just so so.
love these sorts of videos of things i hardly knew of
Amazing, looking forward to episode 2.
This is what actual representation looks like, give me a show about a badass band of Mandinka knights any day. i mean look at those drippy distinguishable armor all the different factions wear, this would go hard. Leagues better than Henry VIII or Oliver Cromwell looking like Shaft all of a sudden.
Admirable on its own right. No need to put down other formidable warriors.
Me personally I can’t wait until Griots Tell No Lies is made into a Hulu show like the recent Shogun… I finished the book yesterday and it’s amazing
~5:31 A few of these guys look a bit out of place in West Africa, the one second from the left is equipped with distinctly Ethiopian clothing and equipment, below him we have a fellow who looks Nubian, and the next one on the right looks Beja, so they're all Northeast African rather than West African. Not sure about the guy all the way on the left, but at least the guy on the right makes sense, he looks like a Benin warrior. I'm guessing they just reused a few assets from previous videos since commissioning a bunch of new ones for a brief appearance would probably be a bit expensive lol
Yeah nice eye, that ended up being a case of reused assets from our Nubian history episode. I'm hoping as we do more African episode we can broaden our pool of assets.
The far left looks like a Nubian mercenary depicted in Roman or Greek art. The shield is shown in that art. This type of shield looks Bugandan too.
@@InvictaHistoryOh that explains it then.
Only the benin soldier is accurate. The leftmost warrior has an East African style shield.
Tbh I don't know why they bothered with any display at all if the assets were to be so out of place. I'd've just avoided it. What they have is akin to using Arabs and Persians as stand-ins for Frenchmen and Germans... And also some WW1 ottomans, and also an ancient Cataphract. Just a hodgepodge of periods and places.
@@InvictaHistory5:42 I love your video but the noble in that picture looks middle eastern, not Soninke at all. He’s a completely different race and I’m unsure why the team would approve of a whole race swapping?
It would make sense if you depicted a Taureg or sanhaj, but that is genuinely strange.
Yooooooo! Excellent to see, my thanks good sir
been waiting of this one. A LONG time.
Great video, but why didn't you make the animated actors black, you rather portrait them as Tuareg like ppl, which they were not???
Love this video, its is very true what you mention at the beginning, we westerners are usually very constrained to the European area around this period.
I also love the fact that you use real art in your videos and not some AI bullshittery, props to you and your artist(s)!
now I want to learn more about the Mali empire and base one of the factions of my setting on them!
Cheers!
2 min and I'm already thrilled. Merci l'équipe.
As an aspiring African history buff, I love content like this. Awesome video🔥
Please GOD make more videos about African military and empires
Request for Tlingit soldiers. They had wood armor and jerkins made of chinese coins that really protected them from russian musket balls.
Seconding, the whole Indigenous PNW is cool as hell