West Africa’s Great Kingdoms
For hundreds of years, trade crisscrossed West Africa. For most of that time, West Africans did not profit much from the Saharan trade because the routes were run by berbers,a group of people from northern Africa. Eventually, that situation changed. A succession of three great kingdoms came to power as their people, gained control of valuable trade routes in West Africa. Ghanawas the first of these empires, followed by the kingdoms of Maliand Songhai.
Kingdom of Ghana
H i s t o r i a n s t h i n k t h e f i r s t p e o p l e i n G h a n a w e r e f a r m e r s a l o n g t h e N i g e r R i v e r . S o m e t i m e a f t e r
A D 3 0 0 t h e s e f a r m e r s , t h e S o n i n k é , w e r e t h r e a t e n e d b y n o m a d i c h e r d e r s . T h e h e r d e r s w a n t e d to take the farmers' water and pastures. For protection groups of Soninke families began to band together. This banding together was the beginning of Ghana.
Ghana was in an ideal position to become a trading center. To the north lay the vast Sahara, the source of much of the salt.Ghana itself was rich in gold.People wanted gold for its beauty, but they needed salt in their diets to survive. Salt, which could be used to preserve food, also made bland food tasty. These qualities made salt very valuable. In fact, Africans sometimes cut up slabs of salt and used the pieces as money. As trade in gold and salt increased, Ghana’s rulers gained power. Eventually, they built up armies equipped with iron weapons that were superior to the weapons of nearby people. Over time, Ghana took control of trade from merchants. Merchants from the north and south then met to exchange goods in Ghana. By 800 Ghana was firmly in control of West Africa’s trade routes. Nearly all trade between northern and southern Africa passed through Ghana. With so many trespassing through their lands, Ghana’s rulers looked for ways to make money from them. One way they raised money was by forcing traders to pay taxes.Every trader who entered Ghana had to pay a special tax on the goods he carried. Then he had to pay another tax on any goods he took with him when he left. Ghana’s rulers gained incredible wealth from trade, taxes on traders and on the people of Ghana, and their own personal stores of gold. They used their wealth to build an army and an empire.
Islam in Ghana
Extensive trade routes brought the people of Ghana into contact with people of many different cultures and beliefs. As the kingdom of Ghana extended into the Sahara, increased contact with Arab traders from the east brought the religion of Islamto Ghana. Islamwas founded in the 600s by an Arab named Muhammad.Muslims, followers of Islam, believe that God had spoken to Muhammad through an angel and had made him a prophet,someone who tells of God’s messages. After Muhammad’s death, his followers wrote down his teachings to form the book known as the Qur'an.Islam spread quickly through the Arabian Peninsula. In the 1060s, a Muslim group called the Almoravidsattacked Ghana in an effort to force its leaders to convert to Islam. The Almoravids weakened Ghana’s empire and cut off many trade routes. Without its trade, Ghana could not support its empire, and the empire eventually fell.
