Rise to Glory: West Africa

MALI

Mali was one of the greatest states in the world at the beginning of the 14th century. It had taken control of the salt and gold trades across the Sahara which had formed the wealth of the kingdom of Ghana. According to its king, Kankan Musa who expanded the kigdom and became very wealthy, his kingdom was “about one year” in size.

It stretched from the salt mines at Taghaza on the northern edge of the Sahara to the gold mines in the savannah to the south, from the Atlantic in the west to the copper mines of Takedda and beyond in the east. Some of the principal cities were Djenne and Timbuktu. When he went on pilgimage in 1342, he took 500 slaves with him, each one carrying a staff of gold weighing about three kilograms. Trade in cloth spread throughout the region, with people dressed in cloth from Kano over an enormous area.

When he returned from his pilgrimage, Kankan Musa had mosques built in Timbuktu which became famous throughout the region. They were built on the design of a poet who lived in Granada in Spain, Abu Ishaq who came back to Mali with the king, and died there. 1      2