African Kingdoms

Very few knew what was south the Sahara Desert, because it was so vast and treacherous. Since hardly anyone had ever seen the rest of it, Europeans nicknamed Africa the Dark Continent.

The center of Africa is filled with tropical rainforests, and in the Middle Ages, was home to nomadic tribes who roamed the jungles, fishing and hunting.

In West Africa, many Africans lived in kingdoms with houses, roads, palaces, and schools. Some of the remains are still standing today.

In the Middle Ages, the three largest kingdoms of Africa were Ghana, Mali, and Songhay.

Ghana

The people of Ghana lived in houses made of red clay, dried as hard cement and covered with roofs made out of reeds or straw.

Most people of Ghana were farmers who grew rice, cotton, okra, pumpkins, watermelons, and sesame seeds.

Each man had to serve in the army one month out of every year, so they spent part of every workday making swords, shields, bows, and arrows.

Ghanian craftsmen made pots, cloth, copper jewelry, and iron tools. Lion/lamb stool Copper jewelry Iron tools

Although Europeans called Ghana the Land of Gold, gold was actually found south of it.

In exchange for the gold, Arab traders offered salt, which was found in Taghaza in the Sahara Desert.

It was so plentiful in Taghaza, houses and mosques were built out of blocks of salt covered with camel skins.

Ghana became rich because it taxed the salt and gold that had to travel through it.

Ghana flourished for years and years, but when its kings refused to convert to Islam, other African Muslims attacked its cities, and it began to weaken.

Mali

When Ghana began to crumble, the kingdom of Mali took over the gold and salt trade.

Unlike Ghana, Mali was an Islamic kingdom. It built schools so that their people could learn to read the Koran.

The most famous Mali king was Mansa Musa.

When Mansa Musa made the pilgrimage to Mecca, he was said to have taken his wife, children, sisters, brothers, cousins, nieces, uncles, cooks, servants, bodyguards, palace advisors, soldiers, and holy men.

Wherever he stopped, he had a mosque built and gave away gold. He gave so much of it out, that it affected the economy of everywhere he went.

Mansa Musa gave out so much gold, he had to borrow money to get back.

Mansa Musa’s journey was so famous, Europeans now knew all about the West African country of Mali.

The Songhay Empire

Like Ghana, Mali began to shrink after the death of Mansa Musa. It too was invaded and replaced by a new empire: the Songhay.

The Songhay Empire became even bigger than Mali.

Songhay was known for its size, and its best- known city, Timbuktu, had eighty-thousand inhabitants.

Leo Africanus was born in in Granada and was Muslim. When he was seven, Ferdinand and Isabella conquered Granada, and his parents took him to live in North Africa. He explored and wrote about the land of the Songhay.

Because of the writings of Leo Africanus, Europeans found out about the kingdoms of West Africa. The continent was not quite so “dark” anymore.

Eventually. the Songhay Empire was destroyed by Moroccan invaders who wanted to seize the salt and gold mines for their own.

The sultan of Morocco, in northern Africa, sent an army of 3,000 men across the desert with guns and cannons. The Songhay warriors only had spears and bows, and they couldn’t resist the stronger weapons of the Moroccans.

Although they were able to seize the salt mines in the north, the Moroccan army couldn’t find the gold mines. Finally, after ten years of fighting, the sultan of Morocco gave up.

Unfortunately, the damage had been done, and the largest West African empire of the Middle Ages had come to an end.