Actually now that I think about it 10 years before the slave trade
I assume you mean before the Portuguese mariners sailed beyond Cape Bojador, Morocco, for the first time in the
1430s.
so essentially
circa 1420 CE
...give me
1460 CE instead
My strat would be thus: (Spit balling here ...this is TLR after all)
- Kill Christopher Columbus (1451 – 20 May 1506)
- Kill Pope Pius II (19 August 1458 - 1464)
- Systematically destroy the Vatican's ability to function economically(funding European policies) or politically(pushing political outcomes)
- Kill Selim I (1470 – September 1520)
- Kill Suleiman I (6 November 1494 – 6 September 1566)
- Kill Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand II (15 January 1475 – 26 November 1504)(halting funders of Columbus and stopping the Reconquista leaving the moors with Grenada, Spain )
- Kill Al-Ashraf Qansuh Al-Ghuri (1501–1516) (arm nubians to shoot down mamluk cavalry kicking out the Mamluk Sultans and installing southern native Egyptians in rulership)
- Kill Swahili coast Arabs
Mean while and in between time...
- Teach Africans who can propagate gunpowder tech and gunsmithing knowledge around Africa.(primarily non Islamic Africa ....bombs, rockets, etc)
- Teach Africans who can propagate general political knowledge about the world and various scientific topics to be marshaled / used as needed.
- Teach Africans who can retrieve knowledge indigenous to the continent & setup five interconnected learning centers(one in each region) to share knowledge external & internal to Africa
- Instigate solid/constant trade between the Americas and Africa via Songhai empire merchants boats.
- Spend the rest of my time decimating European, Ottoman, and Arab shipping ports, docked ships, & military supplies(food, weapons, & money) giving Africa time to make the most of trade with the Americas.
Things I'd be to early for...
- kill sultan Muhammad Al-Arak and effect a regime change(pushing to accept marrying new Moroccan rulers daughters into Songhai Empire for political stability)
- Kill Sultan Ahmad I al-Mansur Saadi(1578–1603) and effect a regime change(pushing to accept marrying new Moroccan rulers daughters into Songhai Empire for political stability)
- Win Battle of Tondibi (13 March 1591) or help Askia Ishaq I(1539 – 1549) push into Morocco to kill sultan Muhammad Al-Arak
Honestly most of the Morocco issues have to do with pressures from (Ottomans, Spain, and Portugal) once they are neutralized a lot of the other stuff could be contained.