Muhammad Bonkana Kirya was the son of Umar Komajago, the powerful Kurmina-fari who ruled the western provinces of Songhai from Tindirma under his brother Askia Mohammad I.
[3] He later joined some of Askia Musa's brothers in plotting the emperor's assassination in the village of Mansura on Wed 12 April 1531.
When the leader of the putsch, ‘Ali Wāy, returned to Gao to claim the throne they found that Mohammad Benkan had proclaimed himself Askia in their absence.
[4][5] To secure his position Benkan banished Askia Mohammad, his paternal uncle, to the island of Kangaga in the River Niger west of Gao.
He supplied sumptuous garments, invented different types of musical instruments (versions of the trumpet-like fotorifo, and deep sounding gabtanda drum), and sponsored many male and female singers.