The Bling-Bling of Mansa Musa

Ask the average person about Mansa Musa and they will probably respond with a blank look. This is because our western mis-education conveniently omits great non-European/American figures - in particular, Sub-Saharan Africans. We are erroneously taught that pre-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa had little or no outstanding contribution to world history. This could not be further from the truth.

The great Mansa Musa, king of the Mali empire from 1312 to 1337, is best known for his extravagant pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324; building Mosques and madrases from Western Africa to Egypt; and his intellectual and financial contributions to the University of Sankore located in Timbuktu. He was widely believed to be the wealthiest and most powerful man in his time.

Pilgrimage to Mecca

Musa made his pilgrimage in 1324, his procession reported to include 60,000 men, 12,000 slaves, heralds dressed in silks who bore gold staffs, organized horses and handled bags. Musa provided all necessities for the procession, feeding the entire company of men and animals. Also in the train were 80 camels, which varying reports claim carried 300 pounds of gold. Musa not only gave to the cities he passed on the way to Mecca, including Cairo and Medina, but also traded gold for souvenirs. Furthermore, it has been recorded that he built a mosque each and every Friday.wikipedia

Contribution to Timbuktu:

Timbuktu soon became a center of trade, culture, and Islam; markets brought in merchants from Nigeria, Egypt, and other African kingdoms, a university was founded in the city (as well as in the Malian cities of Djenné and Ségou), and Islam was spread through the markets and university, making Timbuktu a new area for Islamic scholarship. News of the Malian empire’s city of wealth even traveled across the Mediterranean to southern Europe, where traders from Venice, Granada, and Genoa soon added Timbuktu to their maps to trade manufactured goods for gold. The University of Sankoré in Timbuktu was restaffed under Musa's reign, with jurists, astronomers, and mathematicians. The university became a center of learning and culture, drawing Muslim scholars from around Africa and the Middle East to Timbuktu.wikipedia