Mansa Musa and the Empire of Mali
READ THIS SENTENCE: These complex, well-organised systems provided Mali's people with a standard of living that was, in terms of food, personal safety, freedom, comparable to or better than that found in contemporary Europe. Doesn't that just sound great? It's the sound of the decolonisation of history in full swing.
This is the beautifully written short tale of Mansa Musa, Emperor of the Kingdom of Mali, who presided over an unprecedented golden age in West Africa. Musa, a devout Muslim, travelled across the Sahara, along with a caravan of thousands of followers from Niani to Mecca, distributing untold riches on his way.
The book goes someway to dispelling the myth that the most significant event in West African history was the arrival of Europeans and the commencement of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. A myth our national curriculum has been painfully complicit in promoting. In my experience it's a narrative that is obscured from even history teachers themselves, although finally it is beginning to be eradicated by a re-emphasis on modern scholarship.
A very easy read, but
Mansa Musa: The Lion of Mali
Mansa Musa was, far and away, the richest person who ever lived. Nobody else comes close. Richer than Croesus. Richer than Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates -- by a hundredfold, at least. This book tells a legendary version of his young adulthood (teens and early twenties) I say legendary because Musa's arc includes some supernatural elements, yet he and his family are known to be real.
If your audience is in the upper ranges, please don't be put off by the picture book format -- the text here is vivid and rich, and would do absolutely fine without even a peek at the pictures. This particular publication is a rare occasion when the illustrations in a picture book aren't doing anything necessary, yet are beautiful and welcome by those of us who enjoy the format.
PS: this would work very, very well as a follow-up to Sundiata: Lion King of Mali -- read in that order, the two together give a solid, consecutive, chronological baseline on the Kingdom of Mali. I'd love a good one of Mansa Musa's brother, Abubakari II, as well what an amazing couple
Africa in the 13th century lay in ruins owing to countless civil wars and the ensuing famine. Amid the hopelessness arose a man who began to rebuild the ravaged diaspora. He instituted a government that was so efficient at managing the country of Mali that pretty soon it was the most progressive nation on the continent. Not long after, one-by-one, the neighboring countries began to join the fold until all of west Africa constituted a single empire. The emperor Mansa Musa had more wealth than every billionaire combined, today. This is his story.
The genius of Musa’s administration lay in decentralization. He ordered the formation of distributed administration pockets which repatriated taxes back to the central empire which lay oversight on their activities. At its height, Mansa Musa owned more than half of the world’s gold reserves.
On his pilgrimage to Mecca, he brought with him a caravan comprising tens of thousands of people bearing unimaginable quantities of gold. On reaching Cairo and staying there for 3 months, he and his people flooded the city with so much gold that it crashed the economy due to inflation. Come and personally get to know the splendour that was Mansa
Mansa Musa and the Empire of Mali
Oliver's well-researched biography of Mansa Musa reads like an exotic tale of gold, glory, and adventure. During his long reign as Mali's emperor, Mansa Musa led his empire into its Golden Age; presided over a spectacular, 60, person, 9, mile pilgrimage; founded a university in Timbuktu; and helped revolutionize architecture across the Sudan. Oliver does not allow Musa's story to get bogged down in detail by seamlessly weaving a lot of history into his narrative and by supplying curious readers with an extensive Glossary.
Many of the African ancestors of today's African-Americans came from West Africa. From -- A. D., one after the other, three great, black, commercial empires dominated West Africa. They were powerful, prosperous, complex, stable -- and large. At its height, the Empire of Mali was the size of all of Western Europe.
Well-crafted and fast paced, Oliver's book is enhanced by a liberal sprinkling of enjoyable drawings, clear and helpful maps, and interesting photos. Not only are Mansa Musa's triumphs and dilemmas clearly portrayed, but so are the lives of the people of medieval Mali.
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