Sosso Empire

The Sosso Empire, also written as Soso or Susu, or alternatively Kaniaga, was a kingdom of West Africa that originated as a vassal of the Ghana Empire before breaking away and conquering their former overlords. Inhabited by the Soninke ancestors of the modern-day Sosso people, it was centered in the region south of Wagadou and north of Beledougou. The empire peaked under the reign of Soumaoro Kante, who was defeated by the rising Mali Empire of Sundiata Keita. The term 'Sosso' may come from the word for horse, as the kingdom had a monopoly on the horse trade vis-a-vis its southern neighbors. The capital, a town of that name, still exists in Mali, near Boron in the Koulikoro Region. The empire is sometimes referred to Kaniaga, the Malinke name for the region where it appeared. Oral histories, not to mention the Western written histories derived from them, can compress events and people from different periods into single narratives, obscuring the historical facts. There may have been multiple Kante kings who were responsible for the growth of the Sosso Empire, but only the name Soumaoro has been remembered, and so all the accomplishments are credited to him. Colonial-era historian Maurice Delafosse asserted that Diarisso dynasty ruled Kaniaga until 1180, when a series of weak-willed and quarrelous brothers brought the kingdom to its knees through civil war until they were overthrown by a mercenary general, Kemoko or Diarra Kante, who gradually came to dominate the Soninke-inhabited southern provinces of Ghana and was father to Soumaoro Kante. This narrative has been repeated and enlarged upon by other historians since the early 20th century.