Trade, Cooperation and Conflict: The Mali Empire and Beyond

The Mali Empire

Find West Africa on a globe. About 800 years ago, a great empire grew there along the Niger River: the Mali Empire.

Its founder was Sundiata Keita. We know his story mostly from griots, storytellers and musicians who have passed down the Epic of Sundiata by heart for hundreds of years. That is oral history, just like the histories kept by First Nations and Inuit Elders.

The ruler of Mali was called the mansa, meaning king or emperor. The mansa ruled with help from governors and advisers, and many local leaders kept power in their own areas as long as they were loyal and paid tribute.

Gold and salt: trade across the Sahara

West Africa had a lot of gold. But people there needed salt: in a hot climate, people need salt to stay healthy, and salt helps keep food from spoiling. Salt was dug from mines in the Sahara Desert, to the north.

So traders formed caravans of camels, which can travel for days with little water, to cross the huge Sahara:

• Salt came south from the desert.
• Gold went north to North Africa, and from there to Europe and the Middle East.
• Cloth, copper, books, horses and ideas travelled too, including the religion of Islam.

The Mali Empire controlled the trade cities and grew very rich.

Mansa Musa and Timbuktu

The most famous ruler of Mali is Mansa Musa, who ruled about 700 years ago. In 1324, he made a religious journey (a pilgrimage) to the holy city of Mecca, with thousands of people and camels carrying gold. Writers at the time said he gave away so much gold in Cairo, Egypt, that gold became less valuable there for years.

Mansa Musa built mosques and supported scholars. The city of Timbuktu became a famous centre of trade and learning, with many books (manuscripts) about math, astronomy, medicine and law. Families in Timbuktu have looked after old manuscripts for centuries.

The great mosques of Mali were built of mud brick, which suits the hot, dry climate. Some mud-brick mosques in Mali are still re-plastered by the whole community every year.

Why did societies cooperate or come into conflict?

Across this whole unit, you have seen early societies meet each other. Sometimes they cooperated; sometimes they had conflict; often both!

Reasons:

• Trade: to get things they didn't have (salt for gold, silk for horses).
• Territory and resources: good land, water, hunting grounds or trade cities.
• Exploration: travelling to new places.
• Religion: sharing beliefs, or fighting over them.
• Protecting their homeland and people.

Ways to deal with conflict and build cooperation

Early societies found many ways to make peace and work together:

• Councils and agreements: the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace; treaties recorded with wampum.
• Laws that limit power: the Magna Carta.
• Rules for fair work: guilds.
• Trade and gift-giving: exchanging goods and gifts builds friendship.
• Marriages between families of different groups or kingdoms, to create alliances.
• Songs, humour and games: Inuit song duels; some First Nations held lacrosse games that also helped settle disputes.
• Sharing food and feasts.