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Cultural Exchange In West Africa

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If you could, would you want to be the richest person in the world, I bet you answered yes, but do you really know one of the most famous richest person in history was? Well, if you answered Mansa Musa you are correct! It is told that he was the richest person ever in history. Mansa Musa was the tenth emperor of the Mali dynasty. While Mansa Musa ruled from 1280 to 1337, Mali was an empire from 1235 to 1600 and many things happened during this time. Mansa Musa and his wealth was one reason Mali, lead to a site of cultural exchange, but Mali also became a site of cultural exchange because of the effects of trade, which also lead to spread of knowledge, ideas, and religion. Not only did Mali become a site of cultural exchange from the effects …show more content…

Did you know that just one little thing could affect a whole country? Well in West Africa, specifically Mali, gold made them a site of cultural exchange and that was only one reason why. After a long journey across the Sahara Desert, you reached Mali. Mali is a place for cultural exchange where not only gold and salt was traded, but also religion and ideas. Many people took the harsh trip to reach Mail. With all the people in Mali it lead to many things, good and bad. There were three medieval kingdoms in West Africa, one of them was Ghana. In the 400s the Ghana empire was in existence as Arab merchants traveled to trade. Trading was not what created the Ghana empire, but it definitely made them richer. Another thing that made them richer was charging to protect the gold from neighboring networks. This shows that one thing that benefited West Africa was the exchanges with the trade …show more content…

Sundiata was their fist Mansa, which was a ruler/king. He turned Mail into a wealthy and strong empire by defeating attacks and growing their goldfields'. After Ghana collapsed the regions they had became farming villages. The kings were used to collect taxes and build new towns. Sundiata’s story, the first mansa for Mail, is mostly a legend, but there have been some evidence of his rule. From what people know Sundiata might have combined many religions, created a new society, and mastered the dangerous people who came from Mecca. We do know Sundiata was powerful and successful. From 1312 to 1337, a new mansa of Mali was Mansa Musa. Mansa Musa was the grandnephew of Sundiata. Mansa Musa is known for leading the pilgrimage of 60,000 people to Mecca in 1324 with tons of camels carrying pounds of gold! A very harsh journey through the Sahara desert consisted of little to no water, lots of flies and even some dead and lost people. When he went on his long journey he not only spread his wealth of gold to others, he also brought back new ideas to Mali. Including schoolers, poets, teachers and most importantly he converted their religion to Islam. One specific way he did this was by trading gold and salt and then using his wealth to build new mosques for the city and universities for the students to learn about the Islamic world. Something we learn from this long journey is that many people liked the “bling” you could say, also known as

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314 Words | 2 Pages

Mansa Mūsā was an emperor of the West African empire of Mali. He ruled from 1307 to 1312 and did many remarkable things during his ruling such as building The Great Mosque at Timbuktu. In the Middle East and Europe, he is best known for his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1224. Sundiata, Mansa Mūsā’s grandson or great nephew, founded his dynasty and was also a West African monarch who founded western Sudanese empire of Mali. He lead the path for Mansa Mūsā to become emperor in 1312 and also helped him with his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324.The world was awakened to the marvelous wealth of Mali due to the pilgrimage.

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1163 Words | 5 Pages

Not only did Mansa Musa give others an interesting life, he lead an quite intriguing one of his own. Musa was the fourteenth century emperor of the Mali Empire. The name Mansa, meaning King of Kings, was given to Musa when he became emperor and ascended the throne in 1312. He was born in c.1280 and died of natural causes in c. 1337.

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807 Words | 4 Pages

In Africa during the Post-Classical era, 600-1450 CE, the Saharan was no longer a barren wasteland hardly suitable for travel, but, an essential part of both North African and Sub-Saharan West African societies. Camels and caravans allowed for quicker and more effective traveling. With trading becoming increasingly popular in this area, it provided the resources to build new and larger political structures. During this era, Africa’s economy began to change and the western part of Sub-Saharan was no different. With the Trans-Saharan trade routes ability to increase with the help of wealthier Islamic states, it allowed for the spread of religious and political ideas such as larger empires and the Islamic faith in which both greatly influenced

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498 Words | 2 Pages

The first few pages of the book give us a background to how exactly Sundiata was given his royal authority he was born into it as the book gives us the past names of those kings who came before Sundiata and how they ruled how Mali become what it was while his father was the Ruler (Sundiata PG, 3). Sundiata was supposed to be a great leader and king as a child he was unable to walk like most people and Mali teased and mocked hi some even questioned if he was truly supposed to be this great leader that the prophecies gave warning of and that the griots foretold. But as time went on Sundiata grew strong and he learned how to walk I believe that this is proof in itself because if it was possibly any other person they probably would be unable to walk for the rest of there but Sundiata overcame this trial just like the many he would be facing later on in the story. Sundiata was also faced with exile and dealing with some family problems his older brother who is now the ruling king and took over the throne because their father passed away his older brother exiled Sundiata, his mother, sisters, and half-brother Manding Bory.

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750 Words | 3 Pages

But all of this was at a cost for the people of Mali. Taxes. Mali taxed a decent piece on the people they protected, which definitely contributed to the vast treasury of Mali and helped them become the large and powerful civilization that they

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256 Words | 2 Pages

Mali became a site of cultural exchange because of its riches and its grand expansion due to trade . Mali is located in the interior west Africa and is mostly flat and has plains covered by sand. Many merchants and traders would travel to Mali for one reason-gold. Gold was one of the many reasons that made Mali a cultural exchange because of how expensive it was . Mali was a place where “ products, ideas, and technologies were shared between people from different cultures and parts of the world.”

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There are several versions of Sundiata’s birth and childhood, but there are two main versions that are agreed upon. One version of the story is that Sundiata was one of 12 brothers of the Mandinka royalty. They were unfortunately murdered by the jealous tyrant of Kaniaga, Samguru. Murdered all, except for Sundaita. It is said that Sundiata was spared because of he was sickly and expected to soon die anyway.

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642 Words | 3 Pages

Do you know what the most powerful empire in all of Africa, Europe, and Asia was during the 14th century? I’m guessing that you don’t, but you will soon! Mali was the richest, and most powerful empire in all of Afro-Eurasia because it was a site of cultural exchange. The Mali empire was so powerful that it had entire countries at its fingertips. Mali became a site of cultural exchange, or a big trading center.

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The Ghana were able to control the route and tax people as they passed, allowing them to build up a revenue. The Ghana were often referred to as the “Land of Gold” since being extremely wealthy. The exchange of gold nuggets for protection allowed the trade of gold dust to arise since the gold nuggets themselves would be in the kingdom with the king. The Mali Empire had gold and salt mines within their empire as well, allowing them to trade with other civilizations. Gold in the empire was seen as a trade item and a source of currency, and much like the Ghana only gold dust was used in trade as the nuggets themselves would be placed in the kingdom.

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1185 Words | 5 Pages

Wallerstein described how Cairo’s “economic crisis was accompanied by a breakdown of its monetary system.” The dramatic drop in the value of gold, which people majorly depended on as currency, showed that the economy there had clearly declined tremendously due to Musa’s distribution of gold in Egypt. Just as Alkhateeb stated, “the effect that Mansa Musa’s visit had on Egypt clearly shows the wealth and importance of the Mali Empire, even when it encountered far-off lands.” By the end of the fourteenth century CE, the economy in Egypt experienced a depreciation due to the substantial decline of the currency system. Although Mansa Musa set out on the Hajj in order to help others in need by generously giving out bountiful amounts of gold, the results ironically turned out to have a significantly negative impact that lasted for as long as 12 years—over an entire decade—until the Egyptian economy could gradually and finally recover from the damage Mansa Musa had

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565 Words | 3 Pages

So Europe invaded Africa, took possession of Africa, and divided Africa into colonies of Europe. The period of invasion, lasting some twenty years, was more or less completed by 1900. There followed a longer period, between sixty and ninety years, of direct European rule, called colonial rule. This was a time of profound upheaval for all of Africa’s peoples. It brought irreversible changes” (4).

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506 Words | 3 Pages

The king of Mali and they called him Mansa Musa. His original name was Musa 1 but once he became king his people started to call him Mansa Musa and Mansa means “Sultan” or King. Mansa Musa ruled over Mali and Mali was a nation with fabulous wealth, during his rule he has built many monuments, mosques, and also schools all over his empire. He mostly famous from his 1324 pilgrimage and

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1476 Words | 6 Pages

Mansa Musa helped Islam spread by leaving to pilgrimage and introduced the empire to the Islamic World. He encouraged learning to read the Arabic language to read the Qur’an. He hired architects to build mosques as well. Another example is the Songhai empire. Songhai leaders were Muslims as well.

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571 Words | 3 Pages

In History of Africa, Shillington focuses on many aspects of African culture and factors that made Africa to be the continent that it is today. Chapter 5 primarily focuses on the Northern region of Africa and how empires took over and spread their ideology technology, and culture all through out the region. Even today some remnants of the Roman and Greek empire live on to this day (Shillington, 69.) Despite many people getting the impression that Northern Africa is only influenced by Arabic and Islam, these empires and their conquests are best understood through topics like intricate trading routes, farming, and the spread of religion. Shillington provides an in depth analysis of how many of these conquests affected Northern Africa centuries ago and today.

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1131 Words | 5 Pages

The African kingdoms Ghana, Mali, Songhai The African nations of Ghana, Mali, Songhai, shared so many characteristics between each other. For one primary comparison is, all three ancient empires relied on the trans-Saharan trading routes and their lush amount of gold, copper and other natural resources. They established many political ties with many Arab countries and nearby African societies. These three nations shared abundantly cultural similarities from just the rise of Islam.

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