MC_A Concise History of Africa

West Africa

BELOW: Traditional mud houses of the Dogon people, an ethnic group living in the central plateau region of Mali, near the city of Bandiagara, in the Mopti region. OPPOSITE: A market in Djenné, Mali.

a model of its kind, exerting profound cultural influences and fostering the spread of its laws and customs along the Niger river. It stretched from the Atlantic to the upper reaches of the Niger and Senegal rivers, and was able to trade gold and luxuries over a wide area, from the Atlantic to the forests of the south, up through the Sahara and far to the east. By the 14th century, its capital, the city of Timbuktu, was the jewel in the crown not only of the Mali empire but also of the whole of West Africa. It was famous for the wealth of its rulers, and one of them, Mansa Musa, is said to have taken with him, on the hajj to Mecca, an impressive 180 tons of gold. Scholars and artisans were attracted to Mali, and Islam flourished; Timbuktu would have its ancient universities,

The Mali Empire, 1235–1645 The Mali empire was created by another Mandé group, the Mandinka, and developed from the state of Kangaba on the upper Niger river, whose inhabitants acted as middlemen in the ancient Ghanaian gold trade. Its boundaries extended to the Hausa people in the east and to the Fulani and Tukulor peoples in the west. In 1235, a legendary figure, Sundiata Keïta, established a federation of Mandinka tribes, which developed into an empire ruling millions of people from ethnic groups all over West Africa. It became immensely rich, and Mali continued to expand in the 14th century when it absorbed Gao and Timbuktu. Mali was the second and most powerful of the African empires and

while Djenné would become pivotal to Mali’s trade. The end came as a result of intrigues and struggles for the succession, which weakened the state and eventually led to revolts. The Songhai empire emerged from a Mali vassal state, became independent, and ultimately eclipsed the Mali empire.

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