Who is this?

[Al B. Sure!]

Funny. It's from an Anheuser Busch ad campaign about Black history... But that is Sunni Ali of the Songhai, not Askia. Sunni Ali would have been a better choice I think than Askia

[Boris Godunov]

You say that Firaxis puts that much resources into such a clip, while it's about nobody? Why would they do that? I don't believe that.....

I wanted to include him in that quiz I created. I just picked music youtube offered.

It's part of a cinematic cut scene, not a leader animation. That's your first clue he's a nobody--just some fictional tribal elder-type that is part of a cut scene sequence, probably the opening one. There's no reason to think he's meant to represent a real historical person.

[Dinner]

I honestly doubt any Africans natively developed large claymores like that and instead that's probably artistic license. My guess is the swords which were in Songhai were probably inferior copies of North African designs since most of their culture seems to have been an offshoot of imported ideas from North Africa some what lost in translation since they were more isolated and the ideas had to cross the vast North African desert. We're talking about a very isolated civiliation cut off from most of the rest of the urbanized world, with a fairly small population, dependent on a few locally domesticated crops and animals (both subsaharan Adrica north of the tropics and tropical Africa who both independently came up with agriculture using very different food packages neither of which would grow in the other's region while mideast crops wouldn't grow in either of those two regions). As far as I know the only domesticates (crops or animals) to reach that part of Africa prior to wide spread colonization was the horse, chickens, and goats while none of the mid east crops would grow there. The local cattle was totally different as were the crops grown. Those crops also produced fewer calories per acre and had greater man power needs to raise so that population densities were much lower then in Eurasia.

[Dinner]

Google says both Mali and Songhai typically used spears with iron or steel points along with wooden shields as weapons while there was very little if any metal armor. I'm sure some of the nobles would have swords but I speculate they'd be curved smaller north African designs not originating in Mali/Songhai and they wouldn't be huge western European style claymores.

[Al B. Sure!]

These were Taureg swords called 'Takoba' (the people depicted are described as Tauregs in Timbuktu). The Taureg had a lot of contact with the rest of the world going back to the days of Carthage (in fact, the Taureg written language [Tifinagh] is a derivative of Phoenician and Numidian).

However, I see nothing telling me when they were introduced or first made. Those particular individual swords are all recently made but that doesn't say anything about how long they were being made... One would probably have to go find a book on Taureg warfare to know if the Tauregs have been using them since ancient times or more recently.

As for the armor, this was described by Europeans in the region in the 1820's with regards to the soldiers of a sheikdom in Nigeria:

"...negroes were habited in coats of mail composed of iron chain which covered them from the throat to the knees... their horses’ heads were also defended by plates of iron, brass, and silver... A negro thus mounted and equipped resembles in everything but the helmet and countenance an European knight in the chain-armour of the chivalrous ages."

I can't copy and paste the whole description but it's from an old copy of The Monthly Review so I just typed up what I could.

[Al B. Sure!]

I found this:

Having broad, straight, double-edged blades averaging 74 to 84 cm. (29 to 33 inches) in length and a simple cross-guard, the takouba, like the more westerly Sudanese kaskara, has long been confused with medieval European swords. Current learned opinion is that these swords are a distinct and entirely indigenous African type, although speculations of possible influence from Spain via the Almoravides in the 11th Century (Nicolaisen (1997, p. 399)) or from medieval Arab broadswords (Spring (1993, p. 42)) have been made. European blades, dating as early as the 16th Century, have been identified in typical takouba mountings and are documented by Briggs (1965), who also presents evidence for a significant Saharan trade in such blades from the 16th Century until the early 19th Century. Briggs (1965) also notes that many blades of European form and with European style markings are known to have been made locally in the Sudan (the broad savannah region south of the Saharan desert) and Sahara as late as the mid-20th Century. The vast majority of the takoubas which the modern collector is likely to encounter are entirely of African workmanship.

So they may or may not be indigenous but they were apparently quite common in the region.

[Dinner]

OK, I stand corrected they did produce some straight swords albeit swords probably originating from a Spanish design and not a North African design. I still don't see a two handed claymore like in the picture but that's at least closer. They didn't come about until the 16th century which is around 700-1000 years later then the European versions but better late then never, I suppose.

[Dinner]

That's a modern Malian depiction of Mansa Musa who was of the Malian Empire, of which the Songhai are the successor state to, and I notice they're not using swords or armor. That could be a modern artistic error though I suppose.

[Al B. Sure!]

No, Oerdin, you're wrong... this is the entire picture:



Note the caption. Those were NOT Mali warriors depicted, let alone Mansa Musa. Are you lying on purpose? Those are Kanem-Bu warriors.

This is the Kanem-Bu empire:



As you can see, it's not the same as the Songhai:



So you're being very disingenous, Oerdin, for some reason. The Kanem-Bu were not the same as the Songhai. They were nomadic and didn't have cities like the empires of Mali and Songhai.

[Dinner]

I googled Mansa Musa and that picture came up.

Can I have a link to the claimed source?

[Al B. Sure!]

The caption on the picture says "Group of Kanem-Bu Warriors". The caption is from whatever book the original image was in.

I even googled "Mansa Musa" and that image isn't on the first 30 pages of image searches.

Why are you deliberately lying? What do you have to gain?

[Proteus_MST]

Maybe it could be the babylonian leader Nebuchadnezzar II....
according to steam, the Babylonians with Nebuchadnezzar II are included within the deluxe edition of Civ V

[SpencerH]

No way he's black. C'mon! My first thought was a greek, but he seems to be sitting in a tent so that doesnt seem right and he's too old for Alexander anyway (not that Alexander was Greek - Markos must be spitting bile over that ). I wish we could see the jewelry but my bet is Darius.

[SpencerH]

Maybe it could be the babylonian leader Nebuchadnezzar II....
according to steam, the Babylonians with Nebuchadnezzar II are included within the deluxe edition of Civ V

I think we have a winner.

[dregor]

I can't believe this argument is still raging. It's just some elder from the intro, and it's not the first time the intro has had random guys in it. This is very discouraging to read.