Medieval Mali: Mansa Musa and the empire

Follow the gold

Step through the journey. At each stop, ask yourself where Mali fits in.

1. 1Dug in the savannahThe journey starts in the savannah goldfields: Bambuk for Ghana, and later Bure for Mali. Gold is dug by panning in loose earth or dried riverbeds, and from thousands of shallow mines only a few metres deep.+
2. 2Swapped for saltSalt comes from the Sahara, and the empires of the Sahel can reach it. So they trade salt for gold, while outsiders are kept away from the goldfields.+
3. 3Across the SaharaCamel caravans carry the gold north. The trip from the Sahel to the Mediterranean coast of Africa could take 40 days or more, with desert nomads such as the Berbers and Tuaregs acting as guides.+
4. 4Desert-edge trade centresHuge quantities of gold pass through trade centres on the edge of the Sahara, such as Sijilmasa.
5. 5North Africa's Islamic empiresThe Islamic empires of North Africa need gold to pay their armies. They also trade with the Middle East, which has trade connections with the Far East along the Silk Road.
6. 6A Mediterranean hungry for goldIt is estimated that at its highest point in the medieval period about two thirds of the gold in the Mediterranean came from West Africa. European rulers needed gold too, to mint coins to pay their armies.+
7. 7What came back southIn return for gold, West Africa received clothes, weapons, cultural ideas and the spread of Islam. Islam and some weapons came from North Africa, while gold, salt, ivory and enslaved people were traded out of West Africa.

Mali in time

Eight moments that give the story its spine.

Was a federation a good way to run an empire?

Mali was a federation: a country made up of individual states that run their own local matters but are controlled by a central government. Flip between the two sides, then decide which you find stronger.

What you need to know

• Mali grew rich by standing between the goldfields and the Sahara's salt mines, trading salt for gold.
• That gave Mali indirect control of the goldfields: control through trade, not by owning the land.
• Have a goYour mate Sam says, very confidently: 'Mali got rich by owning loads of gold mines.' What would you say back?

  Mali didn't need to own the goldfields. It controlled them indirectly by trading salt for gold.

  Control can come through trade, so Sam is mixing up owning the land with controlling the trade.

• Outsiders were kept away from the goldfields, so nobody could trade with the miners directly and skip Mali.
• In 1240 Sundiata Keita captured Kumbi Saleh, so all the major trans-Saharan trade routes passed through Mali's lands.
• Tax on traders paid for a large army that guarded the routes, so Mali was a very safe place to trade.
• Have a goImagine Mali stopped taxing traders. Which part of the chain would suffer first, and why?

  The large army, because the tax money paid for it.

  The tax paid for the army and the army's guarding made Mali safe to trade in, so cutting the first link hits the next one first.

• Mali was a federation: kingdoms ran their own local matters under their own kings, who paid yearly tribute to the Mansa.
• Islam helped trade: Muslim traders shared contacts, and Mali gained a more accurate system of weights and measures for gold and salt.
• Rulers and city people were generally Muslim, while countryside people generally kept traditional beliefs, and the empire blended the two.
• Have a goA visiting trader claims: 'In Mali you had to pick one: Islam or traditional beliefs.' Is that right?

  No. The two were blended, with Islam stronger in the cities and traditional beliefs in the countryside.

  Mali's rulers and city people were generally Muslim, but the countryside generally kept its traditional beliefs, so it wasn't a clean either/or.

• Mansa Musa's Hajj of 1324 had good and bad consequences, which you'll weigh up yourself at the end.

The big picture

Mali became a rich and powerful medieval empire not by owning gold mines but by standing between West Africa's gold and the Sahara's salt, holding the trans-Saharan trade routes, keeping them safe with a large army, ruling as a federation and growing alongside Islam. Mansa Musa's Hajj of 1324 showed that wealth to the world and had both gains and costs.

⚠ Watch out

Saying Mali was rich simply because it had gold mines, or because one great king made it rich. In fact it controlled the goldfields indirectly, and its wealth came from position, trade routes, taxes, a guarding army, its federal government and Islam working together.

Memory hook

SIT, TAX, GUARD: Mali sat in the middle, taxed the road and guarded the traders, and the gold and salt kept flowing.

Check yourself

Cover the page and describe the journey of West African gold in four stops, from the savannah goldfields to North Africa. At each stop, say what happened to the gold or who handled it.