Moroccan Wells
This is the account of the Moroccan invasion of Timbuktu
and the wells they built. As told by Shindouk, who was told
by his father, who was told by his father.… in the oral
tradition of the Berabish, nomads of the greater Sahara who
have been taking caravans across this area for millennia.
Though he doesn’t know of any books wherein this is
corroborated there must be some. Although not in recent
accounts by Europeans, there is probably an account among
all the manuscripts in the libraries of Timbuktu or
Morocco, if they are ever translated. I have used French
spellings for the place names, as that will make it them
easier to locate on a map.
When the area of Timbuktu was part of the Ghanian Empire in
the 8th and 9th centuries, salt was worth two times its
weight in gold. All subsequent kingdoms that conquered the
area only gained power once they had in their possession
the salt mine, which at the time was at Teghaza, 160 km NW
of Taoudenni, the current mine.
For centuries before the Moroccan invasion, there had been
a sort of triangle of trans-Saharan trade between Zouerat,
Morocco; Teghaza, Mali; Oulalata, Mauritania and Gao in
Mali (of course these countries did not exist at the time).
At that time there were many more animals, more wealth,
thus men were more motivated. Caravans were huge, composed
of thousands of camels, so they were able to transport lots
of supplies including plenty of water. Therefore wells in
the open desert were few and far between with one only
every 250 km. There were also scattered oases where large
numbers of wells were found together often a whole line of
wells only a few meters apart. (For example Araouane, 250
km north of Timbuktu had over 170 wells. Today there remain
only two!)
In 1587 the king of Morocco set out to conquer Teghaza. At
the time the salt mine belonged to the Songai Empire. It
was under the protectorate of Askia Mohamed. The mine was
exploited not only by slaves but also paid workers,
contractors, people in necessity trying to make ends meet,
as well as warriors, the military of the kingdom. There
were also women slaves who served the needs of the men.
When the Moroccans came all of these people retreated
heading south towards Timbuktu and the river. One hundred
sixty kilometres south where they made camp, one of the
women went to pee and discovered a piece of salt. She
showed her find to a learned man and that is how they
discovered Taoudenni, another salt mine more important than
the first.
So the Songai abandoned Teghaza to the Moroccans and began
exploiting Taoudenni. Four years later in 1590 the King of
Morocco sent the Pasha Jodeen to conquer the Songai Empire.
The Pasha set out with 15,000 men to take Taoudenni in 1590
and reached the river in 1591. There was fought the
decisive battle of Tondibi, east of Timbuktu along the
river on the route to Gao, where the Songai lost their
territory.
For each stage of the march across the dessert the Pasha
sent a large number of men in advance of the main body of
the army. At two days march these men stopped to dig a
well, lining it with rock and wood they had brought with
them. When the rest of the army arrived they found a water.
While they rested and let the animals graze another group
of men were sent ahead again to make another well. These
wells were 90 to 120 meters deep and hundreds were built
one every two days march all the way to the river.
Today most of these wells are lost, like those of Araouane,
filled in by sand and buried by dunes. They were abandoned
to their fate like the canals between the river and
Timbuktu and between the river and lake Faguibine, also dug
by the Moroccans. However, five are still in use on the
route to Taoudenni, at Ina lahi (180 km from Timbuktu); Bou
Djebeha (250 km from Timbuktu); Foum el ‘Alba (500 km from
Timbuktu); Bir Ounane (620 km from Timbuktu) and at
Taoudenni (720 km north of Timbuktu). Loss of animals, the
decline of the caravan trade and the abandonment of certain
caravan routes have all contributed to the decrease in
usable wells. With not many people needing them there is
less motivation or means to keep them open and usable. But
route the Moroccans took is well known and the people of
the desert have not forgotten where the wells are. Shindouk
has come across three or four of the old Moroccan wells in
his travels and if he had the means he could have dug out
the sand to find water still at the bottom.