Mansa Musa I of Mali: Gold, Salt, and Storytelling in Medieval West Africa

In 1312, the reigning emperor of Mali – Mansa Abubakari Keita II – sent 200 manned boats and 100 support boats containing supplies to sail until they found the edge of the Atlantic. After a long excursion, one boat returned. Its captain bore only a horror story about the whirlpool that had swallowed his comrades. Unimpressed (and perhaps obsessed) the emperor chose to make the expedition himself – this time with a retinue of 3,000 ships. He chose his deputy, Musa – a member of the court with no blood relation to the king – to act as ruler in his absence. The deliberate appointment, untainted by the hereditary rule that has produced so many poor monarchs, is likely a testament to the character and abilities of Musa.

Abubakari Keita never returned; some believe he might have reached South America.1 Regardless of his final resting place, Mali was not destined to become a seafaring empire, and instead of the west, Musa looked to the east. With his feet firmly on dry land, the successor Mansa Musa of Mali (‘Mansa’ meaning emperor, conqueror, or sultan) became the richest man in history – a wealth that grew alongside Mali’s

Fig. 1: The Malian Empire at the time of Musa’s death (source: Wikipedia Commons) 

Fig. 2: Musa and his gold, from the 1375 Catalan Atlas (source: Wikipedia Commons)

Fig. 3: The Djinguereber Mosque built by Al-Sahili in 1327 (source: Wikipedia Commons)

Fig. 4: Fourteenth-century astronomy table from Timbuktu (source: Wikipedia Commons)