Mansa Musa Legacy

Under Mansa Musa, Mali became the the largest and one of the most renown kingdoms in Africa. Gold was abundant and the empire was prosperous; what more could one ask for? Though as it turns out fame and prosperity can be fleeting. The empire

Europeans filled in the blanks of African history by using exoticism to come up with origin theories that made sense to them. Because the African population has a different physical appearance than Europeans, they were viewed as the “other” race, and therefore were inferior in the minds of Europeans. Africa, however, was a society that was equally as complex as any European nation, unique with their own kingdoms and customs. Because of this, it was incorrect for Europeans to label Africans as “savage” individuals. Africa’s culture is rich and deserves to be interpreted in the way that they see fit, rather than having European stereotypes of the past define their culture of

Between America and other European nations, stereotypes and misrepresentations have ultimately plagued the continent of Africa. To every side there is often another story, yet unfortunately for the many countries of Africa, they are ultimately victimized and suffer through further oppression. According to Curtis Keim’s book Mistaking Africa, Keim suggests that Africa is essentially under the public microscope, it tends to be scrutinized, and compared to European nations and America. Keim elaborates on human natures need to group people, places, and things, which creates the theory of superiority or dominance over races, cultures, and even religions.

The History of Africa is very interesting. They had many trade routes and many resources such as salt and gold, their most popular resource was gold. Mansa Musa was their leader and had gone on the Haji as a duty and made their empire known throughout other countries. After that journey the empire had expanded even more that from the start of when their empire first rose up. As you could tell Mansa Musa was a good leader because of the choices he had made to create africa today. In Medieval Africa, Mansa Musa had an Economic impact on Africa because of the duty of islam and the value of gold.

Mali: Gold and Salt trade; reached its peak in 14th century; Mansa Musa’s pilgrimage to Mecca; Islam

The journey of Mansa Musa on his hajj made everyone wonder if he went on the journey simply for his religion, or if there were other underlying factors for his journey. Mansa Musa traveled along his journey through Africa for his religion. Mansa Musa was a muslim Mali empire who went on a trek through Africa to complete one of the five pillars, which his religion obligated him to do.

Like a dog does tricks for food, Mansa Musa did a variety of activities to spread word of his fame. Mansa Musa, an ancient ruler of the kingdom Mali in Western Africa, ruled from 1312-1337 BCE. While Mali was under his rule, Mansa Musa, expanded gold-salt trade, built a large standing army, as well as took part in one of the 5 Pillars of Faith, a holy pilgrimage known as the hajj. Although the hajj is a religious event, Musa used it as a tool to do much more than show his devotion to Allah. Through his need to prove his importance, going out of his way, and creating impressions, Mansa Musa’s main intention while going on his hajj was to spread his fame.

The natives had a completely different way of life than the Europeans did, and with any religion, the followers believed in entirety. In the novel Things Fall Apart, Achebe develops the African’s beliefs fully. Many whites thought of the native Africans as being uncivilized. The natives were just as much civilized as the whites, if not more. They seemed to have supplementary structure and followed their beliefs more so than the whites. It was the ignorance of the white men not to realize how civilized the natives really were. The natives were civilized, just in their own way, but the Europeans still wanted to civilize the natives. ‘Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as “the other world,” the antitheses of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man’s vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality.’ (pg 3 An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness) Europeans professed to be great, ‘civilized,’ people, but in reality they were just as civilized as the natives were.

African Kingdoms were civilized prior to the accession of Europeans in the 15th century. African Kingdoms, such as Ghana, Mali and, Aksum were already progressive in the areas of trade, wealth, and overall advancement. Aksum’s location benefited the region’s advancement by making it a trading center. Mansa Musa was one of the most generous people who expanded the Mali empire through wealth. Through trade and wealth came overall advancement, which brought the rise of literature and art.

Imagine being one of the most powerful and richest ever in the entire world, that was the case for Mansa Musa. Additionally, Musa was an emperor of the wealthy West African Mali Empire in which he was and still is, the richest man in the world with an estimated four-hundred billion. Moreover, he was devoted to the religion Islam and made a pilgrimage to Mecca from West Africa to worship. Therefore, Mansa Musa’s had reasons that demonstrated his devotion to Islam, which are his pilgrimage to Mecca, his elected religion while though his empire, it was populated by a mixture of people with different religions, and with money since he did not need to have a religion or follow one with power and money like he had, yet he believed in it and stayed with it until death.

The “Qur’an” had a great importance to Mansa Musa as it states “God loves the charitable” (Document D). When Mansa Musa was giving gold away, he was following 2:195 of the “Qur’an” which is also known as the holy Muslim book. If Mansa Musa was going to establish trading partners, he would take the trade route all the way to Mecca which he didn't because he

Mansa Musa brought over ten thousand personal slaves as well as entertainers, flag bearers, guards, and other extravagant people (Document A). One does not need even over a thousand personal slaves for an estimated 2,000 miles long journey. Nor does one need flag bearers or musicians. Mansa Musa brought so many slaves and servants to show common folk how rich he was and how much power he held. The poorer people who saw him on his hajj would then spread the word of Mansa Musa’s wealth and power. Mansa Musa went on the journey to establish trade partners, such as with a village called Taghaza. Taghaza was a village far north of the original trade route. Mansa Musa went out of his way to a small village that consisted of slaves and mines. The salt mines were precisely the reason why Mansa Musa stopped at Taghaza. Salt was “needed for taste, nutrition, dehydration, and food preservation. It was literally worth its weight in gold” (Document B). Because salt was such a valuable import, Mansa Musa was willing to travel out of his way to become trade partners with a small village. Mansa Musa went on his hajj to give alms to the poorer people of the

European Imperialism heavily impacted the African continent through culturally, economic, and political ideas. This era of history is heavily drenched in the aspect of ethnocentrism, which is the belief that one’s own culture is superior that of another. The Europeans colonized Africa believing that they could bring civilization, but they were often ignorant of Africa’s very complex societies. The European powers divided up the continent of Africa among themselves, without any consent from the people who actually lived there. The tribal stratification was changed to a caste system where racial, ethnic, and religious differences were of utmost importance, as delegated by European rule. The structure and business of the African economy was

Africa is a continent plagued by misinformed and false stereotypes, rarely being seen or portrayed as what it really is. Countless amounts of myths and ideas are formulated based off of single stories or one-sided stories from the region, often without a second thought. These stereotypes give Africa an overall negative image to the rest of the world and suppress the reality that is hidden behind the slew of stereotypes. The belief that all of Africa is poor and undeveloped is an uninformed statement that harms the reality and worsens the image of the continent by perpetuating an incomplete idea into the world.

“We’re here?” I question, seeing a large trading town a mile away. We’ve traveled 500 miles in one month by the way. Mansa Musa replies, “Yes.” “I’ve heard of this town, it’s an Oasis town.” adds the muslim scholar. We are in silence for the short mile, and once we reach the town the camels stop, having reached their 100-mile limit for the day. The town is bustling with trading activities, I smell fruit, meat, salt, and smoke from the cooking around the trading stalls. My mouth is watering, for we have only been eating bread for the whole trip whilst the Mansa has been feasting. I pull a gold coin I packed for my trip and go to trade for a couple of apples. I ask for apples and the trader gives me five apples, split into halves, and I hand