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Explore this interactive map (click on the Mali Empire button) and find artifacts, people, and places of the "Gold Road."

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View Trade Routes

identity groups

Soninke

Mande

Songhai

Amazigh

Arab

Hausa

Fula

Mossi

Arma

Glossary Teacher's Corner

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Welcome to GoldRoad.org. This interactive website provides information about the role that gold and other trade items played in the development of the medieval West African empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai. Gold was the region's most valuable resource. It moved along trans-Saharan routes to North Africa, Arabia, the Mediterranean and beyond.

The gold trade enabled West Africans to build cities, cavalries, palaces, mosques and personal libraries filled with manuscripts. The website also provides information about regional West African trade routes. Regional trade fostered kingdoms in places such as Kano and Katsina in present-day Nigeria.

To learn who lived in these empires and kingdoms, where they lived and what they produced and built, enter the Gold Road Map and click on the buttons above.

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A

Almoravid

an Islamic religious movement of the Sanhaja Amazigh peoples. The essential concern of the Almoravids was with the strict observance of the discipline of Islam. They wanted all the rules to be followed: prayer and fasting, abstention from alcohol and forbidden foods, making the pilgrimage to Mecca, and learning the Quran. They consolidated nomadic desert clans to form their own empire in the Western Sahara.

Almoravidsalmoravid,Almoravids,Almoravid

Amazigh I Imazighen (plural)amazigh i imazighen,Amazigh I Imazighen,Amazigh,amazigh

The Amazigh (formerly Berber) have occupied North Africa, specifically the Maghreb, since the beginning of recorded history and until the Islamic conquests of the 8th century CE constituted the dominant ethnic group in the Saharan region.

ArabArab,arab

Arab is an ethno-linguistic category, identifying people who speak the Arabic language as their mother tongue (or, in the case of immigrants, for example, whose parents or grandparents spoke Arabic as their native language). Arabic is a Semitic language, closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic.

Armaarma,Arma

An expeditionary force of Moroccans musketeers who invaded Songhai but eventually settled there, declared independence from the Moroccan monarch, and intermarried with local elites.

Askiaaskia,Askia

The king in Songhai

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Djingereberjingereber,Djingereber

Djingereber means "The Great Mosque" in Songhai.

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fatwāfatwā,fatwa,Fatwa,Fatwā

Fatwa, in Islam, a formal ruling or interpretation on a point of Islamic law given by a qualified legal scholar (known as a mufti). Fatwas are usually issued in response to questions from individuals or Islamic courts (Encyclopedia Britannica).

FulaFula Peul Fulani

Bound together by the Fulfulde language, the Fulbe or Fula are known by other names including Peul and Fulani. They were established in southern Mauritania at the beginning of the Christian era. Most were nomadic cattle, goat and sheep herders who followed the seasonal rains to find grass for their animals. Some became settled farmers, artisans, merchants and scholars. As early as the 8th century, the Fulbe began to convert to Islam. Eventually there emerged a class of highly educated Fulbe Muslim clerics known as the Torodbe. They proselytized across the entire western Sudan, established schools where Arabic was taught, and mosques that became the center of religious and scholarly pursuits. By the 14th century some Fulbe settled near the towns of Jenne and Niani. According to legend, Fulani armies were involved in the wars between Denianke and the Mansa of Mali probably between 1481-1514.

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Ghana Empirerivere,rivr,rivers,Rivers,Rivrs,Rivere,River

"Mali, second of the great empires of the Western Sudan, was founded in the first half of the 13th century. Far to the south of ancient Ghana, an extensive cluster of Mande chiefdoms had been in existence for a long time. The Mande people are culturally related to the Soninke of Ghana, but up to this time they had never been unified under one leader. By the end of the 12th century the Mande chiefdoms had fallen under the domination of the Soso, who were ruled by a powerful king named Sumaworo Kanté. Soso was one of several small kingdoms that flourished during the decline of Ghana and before the founding of Mali. According to oral tradition, the Mande people's greatest hero was Sunjata Keita. In the middle of the thirteenth century he unified the Mande chiefdoms, led them in a war that freed them from Soso domination, and established the foundations of the Mali Empire that would flourish until the late 14th century" (Conrad, 13).

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Hausa

The Hausa people evolved as an ethnically diverse but culturally homogeneous people in the Sahel and Savanna regions of northern Nigeria and southern Niger. They are culturally and historically closest to several linguistic groups in the Sudanic empires including the Fulbe, Zarma, Tuareg, Mande, and Soninke. The Hausa formed several medieval city states with Kano and Katsina being the most important in the Central Sahel. Situated midway between the Niger River and the Chad Basin and close to the major Tuareg entrepôt of Agadez, Kano and Katsina grew wealthy from the trans-Saharan trade. Major Hausa trading goods included leather, textiles, and iron. The Songhai ruler Askiya Muhammad conquered Kano in the early 16th century but allowed the king of Kano to keep his throne. Askiya Muhammad gave one of his daughters in marriage to the king. As early as the 9th century some Hausa converted to Islam. By the 14th century all the ruling Hausa elite were Muslim. They benefited from Islamic texts introduced by Fulbe Muslim clerics from Mali. However, centuries would pass before most Hausa accepted the Islamic faith.

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Mali Empire

"Mali, second of the great empires of the Western Sudan, was founded in the first half of the 13th century. Far to the south of ancient Ghana, an extensive cluster of Mande chiefdoms had been in existence for a long time. The Mande people are culturally related to the Soninke of Ghana, but up to this time they had never been unified under one leader. By the end of the 12th century the Mande chiefdoms had fallen under the domination of the Soso, who were ruled by a powerful king named Sumaworo Kanté. Soso was one of several small kingdoms that flourished during the decline of Ghana and before the founding of Mali. According to oral tradition, the Mande people's greatest hero was Sunjata Keita. In the middle of the thirteenth century he unified the Mande chiefdoms, led them in a war that freed them from Soso domination, and established the foundations of the Mali Empire that would flourish until the late 14th century" (Conrad, 13).

Malinke

Malinke (Mali nké means "people of Mali"). Part of a huge complex cultural group of people, taken together are known as the Mande (Conrad, 19).

Mandemande,Mande

"The dominant peoples of both the Ghana and Mali Empires (and their modern-day descendants) were part of a huge cultural complex whose people are collectively known as Mande. The Mande peoples who speak dialects of the Mande language and share ancient customs include the Bamana and Malinke (Mali nké means "people of Mali"), the Maninka of northeastern Guinea (Mani nka means "people of Mani," an ancient variation of "Mali"), the Mandinka of Senegambia and Guinea-Bissau (Mandi nka means "people of Mande"), the Dyula of northern Côte d'Ivoire (dyula means "trader"). Many other, related Mande groups are located between southern Mauritania, western Burkina Faso, northern Liberia, and the Atlantic coast of Senegambia. One of the peripheral Mande groups are the Soninke, who were the founders and rulers of the Ghana Empire" (Conrad, 13).

Mansamansa,Mansa

The king in Mali

medina

Medina means city in Arabic. In modern-day cities in Morocco, it often refers to the old city that dates back to medieval times but it is also used in Arabic as a generic term for city.

Mithqalmithqal,Mithqal

a unit of gold dust currency

Mossi

The Mossi people originated in what is now the country of Burkina Faso. Their Gur language belongs to the Niger-Congo family of languages spoken in the Sahel and Savanna regions of Africa. Beginning in the 12th -13th century, the Mossi conquered a vast amount of territory and created prosperous states. Horse cavalry armies were a major factor in their victories. There were 5 dominant Mossi kingdoms and a number of smaller kingdoms aligned with the larger states. Ouagadougou was the most prominent. Mossi kingdoms vied for power and came into conflict with other states in the region.The Tà'rïkh al-fattäsh speaks of Mossi incursions into the territory of the Songhai kingdom of Gao around the middle of the thirteenth century. In the 14th century (c. 1328-1338) Mossi soldiers raided Timbuktu. In 1483 Sunni Ali of Songhai encountered the Mossi king, Nasere I who was returning from Walata, Mauritania laden with spoils of war. Sunni Ali conquered Nasere near Jenne at the Battle of Kobi, stopping the Mossi conquest of the Niger valley. Most Mossi resisted conversion to Islam despite early exposure to the faith and continued to follow local religions. The Songhai emperor, Askiya Muhammad launched a jihäd against the Mossi because of their rejection of his summons to adopt Islam. However, not even the defeat of the Mossi army could persuade the Mossi ruler to abandon his traditional faith. The majority of his people followed his example. Conversion to Islam would take centuries and significant portions of the population would remain traditionalists or adopt Christianity.

Muhammadmuhammad,Muhammad

The name Muhammad referernces Muhammad (c. 570 - 632), born in the Arabian city of Mecca. The name means "worthy of praise" in Arabic.

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necropolisnecropolis,Necropolis

a large elaborate cemetery of an ancient city

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Pashapasha,Pasha

Pasha is a word that denotes high rank or office.

pasha

denotes high rank or office

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Qa'idqa'id,Qa'id

The title Qa'id is the Moroccan military rank one step below Pasha.

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Sanhajasanhaja,Sanhaja

In the Ghana Empire, apart from the dominant Soninke people, an important culture was that of the Sanhaja, who originated from the Amazigh peoples of North Africa. The Sanhaja spoke an Amazigh dialect and were desert people who, like their North African relatives, subdivided themselves into large clans.

Songhaisonghai,Songhai

The dominant people of the Songhai (Songhay) Empire who, like their state were known as Songhai, spoke the Songhai language, which was not part of Mande culture.

Songhai (Songhay) Empire

"Songhay, the third of the medieval West African empires, began as a trading town called Gao on the eastern side of the Niger Bend. Gao, which the Arab geographers calledGawgaw, had its beginnings about the sametime that Ghana was getting started, some time after 500. Gao eventually developed into a kingdom controlled by the Songhay people, who have some cultural similarities to the Mande peoples of Ghana and Mali but speak a different language. In the early 14th century Gao was conquered by Mali and added to its territories. About a generation later the Mali Empire's influence had begun to wane, and by the 1430s Gao had regained its independence. In the second half of the 15th century a great ruler named Sonyi Ali Beeri came to power in Gao. He conquered many neighboring chiefs and kings, took over their territories, and established the Songhay Empire. Thereafter, the Songhay ruling dynasties controlled a vast empire in the Western Sudan that included eastern portions of the old territories of Ghana and Mali. Songhay was conquered by an army from Morocco in 1591" (Conrad, 12-13).

Soninkesoninke,Soninke

"The principal people of ancient Ghana were the Soninke. Some ancestors of the Soninke of Ghana (or Wagadu, as it is known to local people) were probably among the Stone Age farmers who began cultivating sorghum and millet in the Sahel grasslands from 3000 to 1000 B.C.E. By about 1000 B.C.E. the Soninke ancestors began establishing small settled communities, and around 600 B.C.E. these grew into large villages administered by chieftains. These early farmers were among the first to take advantage of the iron technology that developed in West Africa by about 500 to 400 B.C.E. As the most northern of the Mande peoples, the Soninke were also in contact with the nomads of the Sahara, from whom they acquired small horses brought from North Africa. The early Soninke's superior iron weaponry and horses made it possible for them to establish a kingdom. They gradually expanded their territories and dominated neighboring rulers until, by the 10th century the kingdom had become an empire. Visitors from North Africa began referring to the Soninke state as Ghana, but the Soninke themselves and other Mande peoples know the ancient kingdom as Wagadu" (Conrad, 17)

Sosososo,Soso

A southern group of the Soninke people

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Tuareg

The Tuareg are groups of Amazigh people that live in North and West Africa, from Algeria, Libya, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali. They speak the language Tamasheq, which is an Amazigh language.

Traditionally, they have been semi-nomadic pastoralists. Today, there are more than 2.5 million Tuareg people across North and West Africa.

The Tuareg were "true specialists in the Trans-Saharan caravans" (Guerin, 2022)

See Guerin: https://cfas.howard.edu/sites/cfas.howard.edu/files/2022-12/Bouctou-Issue1.pdf

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The Gold Road Interactive Map highlights the people, places, and items related to the medieval Sudanic empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai.

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This map shows the gold fields in Mali and how they connected to trade routes.

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This map shows the gold fields in Mali and how they connected to trade routes.

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Notice where the Niger River is. This made it much easier to transport goods (once camel caravans had crossed the desert with them).

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People have been harvesting and transporting salt in the same way for 1,000 years or more.

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People have been harvesting and transporting salt in the same way for 1,000 years or more.

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Salt Mines of Mali | National Geographic

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Mali was rich with gold -- most of it from small mines or found in small flakes near the river.  In fact, during the height of the Mali Empire, much of the world's economy depended on gold mined in Mali.

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Many other goods crossed the Sahel including slaves, ivory, animal skins from the south, and luxury goods from the Mediterranean & the East.

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The most valuable product the Berbers transported was salt, which they moved by camel and exchanged for gold. Salt was worth its weight in gold because it was important to be healthy and it was used to preserve food (before refrigerators).

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Traders crossed the Sahara Desert to the north using camels and traveling together in a caravan. These people were called Berbers, an ethnic group of desert people who were mostly Muslim.

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The Sahel -- grassland between desert & forest

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The Sahel -- grassland between desert & forest

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The Empire of Mali was located in the Sahel, a dry grassland region that lies between the Sahara Desert to the north and the forest regions to the south.  In the forests, close to the source of the Niger River, lay the gold mines.  Beyond the Sahara in Northern Africa lay the wealthy coastal cities along the Mediterranean Sea.

Located between these two sources of wealth, the Sahel was ideally situated as a trading center for goods from both regions. Cities developed in this area and leaders became rich and powerful because they taxed all the goods traded in their territory.

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Use this website to discover Mali

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