Cultural Exchange In West Africa

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

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

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