Ghana and Mali

Ghana

While Saharan Africa has been linked to Eurasia since Module 1, the Berbers were the first to use camels and Arabic script to facilitate trade across the Sahara Desert as part of the wider Dar al-Islam. However, they did not control the trade itself. To the South, Ghana (first a leadership title and then the name of the empire) developed into an independent kingdom in the Sahel by the 9^th century. They grew rich by connecting (and taxing) the trade of salt mined from the Sahara to the trade of gold mined from and people enslaved from South Africa. This trade also included jewelry and ivory. The king regulated the flow of gold in the market to ensure that all prices remained high.

Gold bars in a pile An intricately carved elephant tusk

Ghana: Religion and Dissolution

As Dar al-Islam spread in their Golden Age, Ghana remained polytheistic but religiously tolerant. As Ghana grew in power, the empire grew as well. The animals overgrazed and the empire fell into civil war. Towards the end of their empire, the Ghanese kings and some of the people converted to Islam. This led to some of early modern Africa’s earliest religious and cultural syncretism (blending). People celebrated both Islamic and polytheistic festivals, worshiped both Allah and spirits, and learned Arabic while retaining matrilineal inheritance. Unfortunately, this was not enough to ally themselves with some of the Saharan Berbers, who conquered Ghana in 1076.

Mali

According to Mali griots (West African folk tellers who pass on oral history), the Mali empire began when Sundiata crushed a cruel king. For his bravery, he was nicknamed the Lion King. The griots tell that he developed Mali’s agriculture and discovered gold. Sundiata used his power to take over the remains of Ghana, and more importantly, Ghana’s control of the Trans-Saharan Trade Network. The Mali empire grew and eventually included 3 major trade cities: Djenne, Timbuktu, and Gao. They functioned as a meeting point for the copper, cloth, salt, dates, and leather from northern cities (now Morocco), gold from the Niger and Volta River basins, and (more) gold, horses, ivory, ebony, and slaves from central and eastern cities.

Mansa Musa

Mali’s control of the trade as well as its location in the fertile banks of the Niger and on the edge of the Sahel helped it grow even richer than Ghana. Mali’s greatest leader, Mansa Musa, grew to prominence in the 1300s. He is believed to be the richest person to ever live! Like other Mali leaders, he was a devout Muslim. He showed his devotion by going on a Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca. He crossed the Sahara Desert and through Egypt to Mecca. At each city (but most notably Cairo), he donated some of the 300 lbs of gold he brought along the way. Mansa Musa was so impressed with the architecture, religious observance, and scholarship in Mecca that he encouraged local artists to come back to Mali with him. Once home, he built mosques in Timbuktu and Gao, and universities in Timbuktu. Mansa Musa’s hajj was a great introduction of Mali to the outside world in terms of announcing the strength and wealth located in West Africa, as well as a great introduction of the outside world back to Mali. Mali became a center for Islamic scholarship. Unfortunately, the donations of his kingdom’s gold, combined with new gold mines found outside Mali and Mansa Musa’s weak descendants, resulted in civil wars and Mali's eventual decline.

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