From Encyclopedia of World Trade From Ancient Times to the Present Trade both within and across the Sahara has existed since prehistoric times, when the Sahara was considerably less dry, to the present.
From Encyclopedia of African History
Gold was an important staple in the trans-Saharan trade. The lure of gold spurred the Portuguese exploration down the African coast.
In An African Biographical Dictionary
Mansa Sundiata Keita, son of a family that had ruled Kangaba for about two centuries, became king when that small state was tributary to Susu, the regional power. His name means "the lion king."
From An African Biographical Dictionary King of the Mali empire during a united and prosperous period, is known primarily (and perhaps unfairly) for his lavish and ostentatious pilgrimage to Mecca.
From An African Biographical Dictionary Osei Tutu, asantehene (king) of Asante from 1680, established the traditions of the Asante nation and founded the Asante Union.
From Encyclopedia of African History One of the outstanding figures of medieval Muslim culture, ‘Abd al-Rahman Ibn Muhammad Ibn Khaldun was an incisive witness to the political fragmentation and warfare that followed the late-thirteenth-century collapse of the Almohad Empire in North Africa.
From An African Biographical Dictionary Chief Shaka forged a new nation out of an assortment of Nguni clans and made this Zulu people one of the greatest powers of Africa in his time.
From An African Biographical Dictionary St. Lalibela was an Ethiopian monarch and church builder. The penultimate king of the Zagwe dynasty, he was the most renowned, especially for the 11 rock-hewn churches built in his capital.
From The Columbia Encyclopedia 1769?–1849, pasha of Egypt after 1805. Credited for his many domestic reforms, which hastened the foundations for an independent Egypt.
From Encyclopedia of African History Osei Tutu, ruler of Asante from 1701 to 1717, stands out as one of the most important figures in Asante history. He finalized the long task of nation building initiated by Twum and Antwi, the first two Asante rulers.
From Encyclopedia of African History
Great Zimbabwe is the name given to the largest site of ruins in Africa, covering a span of approximately 1800 acres.
From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Complex of independent western African kingdoms (c. 1500-1895) around the headwaters of the Volta River, within present-day Burkina Faso and Ghana.
From Encyclopedia of African History By 1400, Oyo, which was farther to the north at the margins of the forest and savanna, became the dominant commercial and political city of the Yoruba.
From Encyclopedia of African History
The origins of Timbuktu are obscure. According to local tradition and an indigenous chronicle written in the seventeenth century, the Tarikh es Soudan, the city was founded in approximately 1100 as a seasonal nomad camp.
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide Legendary Christian prince. From the 14th to the 16th century, he was generally believed to be the king of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) in northeast Africa.