Empire of Ghana, a former African monarchy, was established in the western savanna of the continent. The Arab conquerors of North Africa in the seventh and eighth centuries christened the region Bilad-al-Sudan (Arabic for “Land of Black People”), from which the contemporary name of Sudan derives. The Soninke were the largest group of native people, and they lived off of farming and herding.
While they did cultivate other crops, millet was their main source of nutrition. The kingdom was situated between the rich upper reaches of the Senegal and Niger rivers, making it an ideal place for agriculture. The Soninke engaged in pastoralism, raising cattle, sheep, and goats for their meat, milk, and skins since the tsetse fly did not exist throughout most of the West African savanna.
Mining resources, notably iron ore and gold, were also abundant in Ghana. The western Sudanese state of Ghana was the first in the region to develop iron production. The Soninke had learned the art of smelting iron by the year 400 at the latest.
Since they had access to iron, the Soninke were able to create tools like hoes, knives, axes, and arrows with iron tips. However, gold was the most significant mineral to Ghana’s strength as a monarchy. Its production took place in the Wangara area in the Kingdom’s southern reaches, where its production took place.
This was gold that was washed down from the mountains by the Niger and Senegal rivers and their tributaries. Porters brought gold from the Wangara area to the northern capital of Kumbi-Saleh, the seat of the monarchy.
Gold was traded at Kumbi Saleh and then taken to North Africa by Berber and Arab merchants. The majority of this gold was shipped to Europe and the Middle East, although some of it was sold to North African customers.
Ancient Ghana became a prosperous empire due to its extensive gold reserves. The kingdom’s strategic position on the savannah made it an important player in trans-Saharan commerce, since it allowed it to establish trading ties with both North Africa and the southern forest region. A large part of Ghana is flat, making it convenient for merchants to travel across the country.
Kumbi-Saleh was the southern terminus of the western trans-Saharan trade route, which began in Sijilmasa, Morocco, and continued on to Taghaza and Awdoghast in the Sahara desert.
In the cities of Ghana, people traded their wares from North Africa for those from the southern forest region. Trans-Saharan commerce provided the kings of Ghana with the money they needed to run their country.
Ghana’s capital and economic hub are both located at Kumbi-Saleh. It was in what is now the southeastern part of the state of Mauritanian, which is the capital of modern Mali. It was about 200 miles north of Bamako. It was split up into two halves, with each half located about six miles apart. One of these areas got its name, “Al Ghaba” (which means “forest”), because of the dense vegetation that surrounded it.
In this district, the Ga na (Ghana’s monarch) resided in a palace made of stone, complete with glass windows and a fence, a style brought to the region by Muslims from North Africa. The Soninke civil servants of Ghana’s government also made their homes here. Even though Ghanaian monarchs before 1076 followed traditional religions, they did let a mosque be built next to the palace so that Muslim diplomats and North African Muslims who spoke Arabic and worked at the court could use it.
Muslim residents lived in the opposite half of Kumbi-Saleh. North African Muslim traders brought a new style of building with them, and soon the city was full of high-quality stone buildings. Location of Kumbi-Saleh’s main marketplace and academic institution. Twelve or so mosques and a plethora of Quranic schools may be found there. Young converts to Islam were taught the basics of the Arabic language and the tenets of Islam while also learning to read, write, and recite the Qur’an.
From this area, Islam expanded over the rest of the Empire of Ghana and into western Sudan. The Muslim traders from North Africa freely mingled with their counterparts from other parts of Africa, and they frequently married or otherwise concubined local women to convert them and their children to Islam. Kumbi-Saleh was a crucial node in trans-Saharan commerce.
It played an important role as a major economic hub in western Sudan. Western Sudan and the southern forest states traded with North Africa and the Sahara.
Mirrors, horses, silk linen, glasses, palm dates, razor blades, and salt were only some of the items that the Soninke and other southern African merchants exchanged with the Arab and Berber traders from North Africa. Slaves, gold, kola nuts, ostrich plumes, and other products were all given by the southern African merchants.
Slaves for sale in Kumbi-Saleh came from a variety of sources; some were taken during the Soninke of Ghana’s conquest of adjacent lands, while others were taken during raids in the forest republics. Barter was the primary method of exchange in Kumbi-Saleh’s business sector. Some Soninke in Kumbi-Saleh were employed all year as agents for the North African merchants.
When the North African merchants visited Kumbi-Saleh, the Soninke agents saw to it that they had a comfortable place to stay.
They also made sure the North African merchants’ relationships with the Ghanaian government were cordial. The Soninke envoys told the North African merchants that they should bring gifts to the king and queen of Ghana so that trade would not be interrupted. Trans-Saharan trade wasn’t always good for Ghana because it made its neighbors angry and jealous.
For example, the Saharan Berbers who lived in Awdoghast, which is north of Kumbi-Saleh, were angry about Ghana’s economic success. They planned to put Awdoghast in place of Kumbi-Saleh as the southern end of the western trans-Saharan route so that they could control all trade across the Sahara.
In 1076, a group of Saharan Berbers known as the Almoravids invaded Ghana, devastated its city, and imposed their power on the kingdom, in part to gain a foothold in the lucrative trans-Saharan commerce. There was a lot of chaos after the Almoravid invasion, which made it hard for people to trade across the Sahara. This made Ghana less important in the trade.
Since then, trade has moved to the East, where governments are stronger and can protect traders and their goods. Until the Soninke overthrew them in 1087, the Almoravids controlled Ghana.
