Geography
West Africa is located in the Sahara desert, the largest desert in the world. Most of the land is a large plateau. Along the southern edge of the desert, there is a fertile are with limited rainfall known as the Sahel. South of the Sahel is mainly savannas and grasslands. Below that, there are many rainforests. The main river of West Africa is the Niger River. It was along this river where the West African empires originated.
Ghana
 Gold Nugget |  Salt |
Mali
After Ghana fell, many small kingdoms competed for power. Among these kingdoms, a leader named Sumanguru took over the remains of Ghana. He was very cruel, heavily taxing his people and killing 11 of his 12 sons. The remaining son was named Sundiata and was a cripple, so Sumanguru did not consider him a threat.
However, it turns out that this was a great mistake. Sundiata trained himself to walk and gathered an army. He took his army and defeated Sumanguru, becoming the new king. His victory marked the beginning of a kingdom called Mali. Sundiata restored order in Mali and restarted the gold-salt trade. He and the following rulers expanded Mali greatly. Mali eventually adopted Islam and became an Islamic empire.
Sundiata on his horse
One of Mali's most famous rulers was Mansa Musa. He was known for his very royal pilgrimage to Mecca. He took thousands of officials and slaves with him and carried huge amounts of gold with him, giving almost all of it away along the way. This caused several economic problems. First of all, he ran out of gold along the way and had to borrow some to finish his journey. Second, this caused severe inflation in Egypt, where he gave out a lot of his gold, and messed up its economy for several years. Besides his wealth, he also greatly encouraged learning, and brought many scholars with him back to Mali.
Mansa Musa and his caravan
Songhai
One of the cities Mali controlled was Gao, capital of Songhai. When Mali weakened, Songhai took the opportunity and grew in power. A man known as Sunni Ali Ber became leader of the new kingdom. Sunni was a very good military leader. He took over the wealthy cities Timbuktu and Djenne. However, he was also a tyrant and killed many people he conquered, especially in Timbuktu.
A man named Askia Muhammad eventually became ruler of Songhai. He was a devout Muslim and wanted to convert nearby lands to Islam. He decided to launch an attack on the Mossi people, who lived south of Songhai. However, the attempt was mostly a failure. Only the captives were converted, while the Mossi kingdom remained unconquered and did not convert. However, Askia Muhammad did manage to expand the empire in other areas
The Songhai empire fell when the Moroccans invaded. They had guns and took over Timbuktu, causing the empire to collapse.
The size of the Songhai empire
West African Society
West Africans had very organized societies. Families were very important in their society. Related families formed lineages, or groups of people with a common ancestor. The lineages were parts of clans, which were an even larger groups of related families. Closely related clans would then live in a village together.
The West African social structure was called a caste. In it, the emperor/ruler was at the top. Next came the noble families. Below the nobles were the traders and free people in towns. After that, it was the skilled workers. At the bottom were the slaves. Slaves performed a large variety of tasks, from farming to even being government officials! Although they were at the bottom of society, they still had some rights. For example, they could buy their freedom.
