WEST AFRICAN
EMPIRES
Ghana: had little contact with the rest of
the world until......
The first people to make the trek across the desert
were the Berbers of North Africa, who brought their
strict Islamic faith across the Sahara. The Berbers
converted many of the merchants from their West
African beliefs.
Ghana’s economy was trade based
Rivers were important for trade/Niger & Gambia
Collected taxes from traders as they passed through
Had few natural resources
Mines for the gold and salt were outside of their
borders
Managed the gold trade/salt trade
Superior skills in iron work:
iron tipped spears.
Subdued the neighbors, who fought
with less efficient weapons made of
stone,bone, and wood.
Islam’s influence
Muslim warriors known as Almoravids called a jihad
(“struggle”) on Ghana because the Ghanaian people
kept their traditional beliefs and refused to accept
Islam.
The Almoravids were successful in weakening Ghana,
but the empire continued to exist for more than a
century.
Many local warriors throughout the formerly mighty
kingdom formed small states that threatened the
vital trade routes through West Africa.
Merchants and traders in West Africa saw many
advantages in converting to Islam
Literacy spread because belief in Islam encourages
Muslims to learn the Quran
Many Muslims speak Arabic, the language of the Quran.
In time, Arabic became the common language of the
merchants and traders of West Africa.
Conversion to Islam opened up new trading possibilities
across North Africa and in Arabia. Many Muslims journey
to Mecca at least once. This encouraged them to meet
new people and discover new cultures.
Sundiata
The griots of West Africa still tell the 700 year old story of a
sickly boy named Sundiata, who grew up to become a great
warrior, expelled a brutal warrior, and united the Mandinka
people.
Sundiata then became king, of a new empire known as Mali.
Mali means “where the king resides.”
Interested in making West Africa again a safe place to travel
and trade
He converted to Islam, but only as a gesture of
goodwill to the merchants and traders. To his
own people, Sundiata presented himself as a
champion of traditional West African religion.
Mansa Musa
Mansa Musa captured the attention of the Arab
world when he left his home in the West African
kingdom of Mali to make a pilgrimage to Mecca in
1324. Unlike his grandfather Sundiata, Mansa Musa
was a devout Muslim.
Mansa Musa was a very rich king.
He took more than 500 people with him on the hajj,
each carrying a staff of solid gold.
When Mansa Musa passed through Cairo, legends say
he gave away so much gold that the price of it fell and
the economy was affected for more than twenty years.
The appearance of a wealthy king from a faraway land
made a deep impression on the people he encountered,
causing Mali to appear on maps throughout the Middle
East and Europe. For the first time, sub-Saharan Africa
became well known north of the Sahara Desert.
Kingdom of Mali eventually weakened and the neighboring
kingdom of Songhai developed into the last black empire of
pre-colonial West Africa.
Songhai was destroyed after a bloody war with Morocco.
Morocco’s sultan wanted West African gold, so in 1590, he sent
an army of 3000 men south across the Sahara Desert.
The spears and lances of the Songhai warriors were no match
for the cannons and muskets of the Moroccan army, but the
fighting continued long after the Songhai government had been
destroyed.
Kingdom of Mali eventually weakened and the neighboring
kingdom of Songhai developed into the last black empire of
pre-colonial West Africa.
Songhai was destroyed after a bloody war with Morocco.
Morocco’s sultan wanted West African gold, so in 1590, he
sent an army of 3000 men south across the Sahara Desert.
The spears and lances of the Songhai warriors were no
match for the cannons and muskets of the Moroccan army,
but the fighting continued long after the Songhai
government had been destroyed.
After ten years, the Sultan lost interest and
abandoned his army in Songhai. The Moroccan
soldiers were either killed or absorbed into the local
population. The Moroccan invasion destroyed
Songhai, and with it the trade routes that had
brought prosperity to the region for hundreds of
years.
TIMBUKTU
A great city that flourished for more than four hundred
years.
Timbuktu was at the end of the camel caravan route that
linked sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa and Arabia.
Gold, ivory, and kola nuts passed through Timbuktu, but
the most important commodity was salt.
Timbuktu began as a trading city
In time Timbuktu developed into the intellectual and
spiritual center of West Africa.
By 1330, Timbuktu became part of the kingdom of Mali.
Mansa Musa built a great mosque, or Islamic temple, in
Timbuktu. The mosque attracted scholars from as far
away as Saudi Arabia.
Timbuktu began to decline in influence when the Portuguese
showed that it was easier to sail around the coast of Africa
than travel through the desert.
The city was destroyed at the end of the sixteenth
century by the war.
At one time, historians estimate that more than 100,000
people lived in Timbuktu.
Today it is, a mud-built town of 20,000 people on the edge
of the Sahara Desert.