Awareness Level 3
African Ancestral history
Read time 4 minutes
Finding a part of my genetic heritage brought about investigation on the Mali Empire. The land of Mali is in western Africa bordering Ghana. 500 BC there was a civilization as large as Mesopotamia and all other great civilizations of that time. The people of this land were scholars known for incredible knowledge unrivaled by any other.
The capital of Mali is Timbuktu which at the tip of the Niger River was the perfect central location for trade in Africa. However geographically was extremely treacherous and a long journey for any European country; which is where the phrase “from here to Timbuktu” comes from.
The Arabs that traveled to North Africa and Egypt were knowledgeable enough about desert travel to make their way to Timbuktu and this is where the spread of Islam through Africa came from. The peace and tolerance of pure Islamic belief matched the peaceful giving tribal African ways and they blended together.
2/3rds of the worlds gold came from Mali at that time. The land was so rich that the true measure of a man’s worth was knowledge and scholarship. Timbuktu was the merchants paradise with plenty of gold, spices, and international trade including slaves. The land had the greatest libraries and scholars in the world.
known as the Eldorado of the desert from the reputation of the Generous Emperor Kankamusa who during his Haj to Mecca gave away 15tons of gold to the people he came across on his travel. His generosity plummeted the value of gold in Europe and Northern Africa.
The great Emperor Sunghay in the 15th century tried to rid the libraries of the Arabic Muslim teachings in the empire. Sunghay tried to unify Africa and was responsible for the Golden age of the Mali Empire which saw a size larger than Western Europe. His attempt to reinstall the native beliefs into the land were strict and brutal sending many religious scholars into hiding with their arabic manuscripts.
The librarians and keepers of ancient knowledge hid manuscripts through the years of battles between different countries and religious sects of Islam. There have been 70,000 excavated writings in the area showing advanced knowledge of astrology medicine and much more. We are still finding new pieces of literature that are correcting modern African history to this day.
Mali, home to my scholarly ancestors.
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