Ghana, the first of the great medieval trading empires of western Africa, flourished approximately from the 7th to the 13th century. It was situated between the Sahara and the headwaters of the Sénégal and Niger rivers, in an area that now comprises southeastern Mauritania and part of Mali. (The empire should not be confused with the modern Republic of Ghana.) The empire seems to have its origins in the seventh century AD, and was known to the natives as Wagadou.
The word Ghana itself represents the kings who ruled the land. "Ghana" was actually the title given to Wagadugu kings and was used by the Islamic "reporters" to describe the rich and mysterious place they observed. "Ghana" was the word that the Soninke people used for their king. It meant "Warrior King." People living outside of the empire used this word when referring to the region. The Soninke people actually used a different word when referring to their empire.
Ancient Ghana ruled from around 300 to 1100 CE. The empire first formed when a number of tribes of the Soninke peoples were united under their first king, Dinga Cisse.
The Empire of Ancient Ghana was located in Western Africa in what is today the countries of Mauritania, Senegal, and Mali. This is a map of the ancient kingdom of Ghana, displaying its location well north of present-day Ghana. The region lies just south of the Sahara Desert and is mostly savanna grasslands.
Strategic governing coupled with great location led to the rapid emergence of a very wealthy empire. Located within the present-day borders of Mauritania, Mali, and Senegal, medieval Ghana literally sat on a gold mine. The land's abundance of resources allowed Ghana's rulers to engage in years of prosperous trading.
Read also: A Timeline of Ancient Ghana
Major rivers in the region such as the Gambia River, Senegal River, and the Niger River served as the means of transportation and trade. The capital city of Ancient Ghana was Koumbi Saleh. This is where the King of Ghana lived in his royal palace.
Ghana was populated by Soninke clans of Mande-speaking people who acted as intermediaries between the Arab and Amazigh (Berber) salt traders to the north and the producers of gold and ivory to the south.
Evidence of Ghana's occupation dates back to the 4th century, but it was several hundred years later that it became established as a nation by a tribe known as the Soninke, whose leaders have been credited with the early strengthening of the Wagadugu state and the expansion of its territories.
By 1000 B.C.E., the nation had undergone strategic expansion and taken control of a large pocket of land between the upper Niger and Senegal Rivers. The region was rich in gold, and its acquisition meant that Ghana would become a leading force in the trans-Saharan trade network.
The traditions of the Moors, Hassaniya Arabs and Berbers in Mauritania maintain that the earliest occupants of areas such as the Adrar and Tagant were Black. The earliest proto-polity ancestral to Ghana likely arose from a large collection of ancient proto-Mande agro-pastoralist chiefdoms that were spread over the western-most portion of the Niger River basin for over a millennium roughly spanning 1300 BCE - 300 BCE.
Read also: The Rise and Fall of Ghana
Towards the end of the 3rd century AD, a wet period in the Sahel created areas for human habitation and exploitation which had not been habitable for the best part of a millennium, resulting in Wagadu rising out of the Tichitt culture. The introduction of the camel to the western Sahara in the 3rd century AD and pressure from the nomadic Saharan Sanhaja served as major catalysts for the transformative social changes that resulted in the empire's formation.
By the time of the Muslim conquest of North Africa in the 7th century, the camel had changed the ancient, irregular trade routes into a network running between North Africa and the Niger River. According to the 11th-century Spanish-Arab chronicler Abū ʿUbayd al-Bakrī, the king welcomed to his capital many of the northern African traders of the Sahara, who, after the Arab conquest in the 8th century, had been converted to Islam.
In the course of Ghana’s history the capital was moved from one place to another: that of the 11th century has been tentatively identified by archaeologists as Kumbi (or Koumbi Saleh), 200 miles (322 km) north of modern Bamako, Mali.
It is uncertain among historians when Ghana's ruling dynasty began. After centuries of prosperity, the empire began its decline in the second millennium, and would finally become a vassal state of the rising Mali Empire at some point in the 13th century. Despite its collapse, the empire's influence can be felt in the establishment of numerous urban centers throughout its former territory.
The empire seems to have its origins in the seventh century AD, and was known to the natives as Wagadou. Oral traditions indicate that, at its height, the empire controlled Takrur, Jafunu, Jaara, Bakhunu, Neema, Soso, Guidimakha, Guidimé, Gajaaga, as well as the Awker, Adrar, and Hodh to the north.
Read also: Consequences of the Moroccan Invasion
Given the scattered nature of the Arabic sources and the ambiguity of the existing archaeological record, it is difficult to determine when and how Ghana declined. With the gradual drying of the Sahel, the all-important epicenters of trade began to move south to the Niger river and west to the Senegal.
Wealth and Trade
Ghana grew in financial and military prowess because of the booming trade that came along with the introduction of camels. The main source of wealth for the Empire of Ghana was the mining of iron and gold. Iron was used to produce strong weapons and tools that made the empire strong. Gold was used to trade with other nations for needed resources like livestock, tools, and cloth.
At its peak, Ghana was chiefly bartering gold, ivory, and slaves for salt from Arabs and horses, cloth, swords, and books from North Africans and Europeans. As salt was worth its weight in gold, and gold was so abundant in the kingdom, Ghana achieved much of its wealth through trade with the Arabs.
Islamic merchants traveled over two months through the desert to reach Ghana and "do business." They were taxed for both what they brought in and what they took out. With this system, it is no wonder that Ghana got rich quickly. As Ghana grew richer it extended its political control, strengthening its position as an entrepôt by absorbing lesser states.
The principal raison d’etre of the empire was the desire to control the trade in alluvial gold, which had led the nomadic Amazigh peoples of the desert to develop the western trans-Saharan caravan road. Gold was secured, often by mute barter, at the southern limits of the empire and was conveyed to the empire’s capital, where a Muslim commercial town developed alongside the native city. There the gold was exchanged for commodities, the most important of which was salt, that had been transported southward by northern African caravans.
The Ghanaian king also imposed an import-export tax on traders and a production tax on gold, which was the country’s most valuable commodity.
Ghana controlled the Trans-Sahara trade route, and the trade of ivory, silk, and spices made the empire influential. The introduction of the camel played a key role in Soninke success as well, allowing products and goods to be transported much more efficiently across the Sahara.
Like Ghana, the Empire of Mali controlled the gold trade, but it also controlled the salt trade. Salt was considered very valuable and the salt trade was heavily taxed by the king. Much of the salt was mined in the Sahara Desert at the city of Taghaza where slaves were used to mine salt. Cowrie shells were used as currency which made the empire’s economic system advanced.
The king claimed as his own all nuggets of gold, and allowed other people to have only 'gold dust'. In addition to the influence exerted by the king in local regions, tribute was received from various tributary states and chiefdoms on the empire's periphery.
The wealth that the kingdom acquired did not, however, serve in its favor forever. Competition from other states in the gold trade eventually took its toll. Jealousy, fear, and anger of Ghana's power prompted its neighbors to stand up against the kingdom.
Trade routes of the Western Sahara c. 1000-1500.
Kings and Governance
The word Ghana means warrior or war chief, and was the title given to the rulers of the kingdom. Kaya Maghan (king of gold) was another title for these kings. The king was able to enforce obedience from lesser groups and to exact tribute from them. Much of the empire was ruled through tributary princes who were probably the traditional chiefs of these subject clans. Kingship was based on matrilineal descent, and traditionally passed to the son of the king's sister.
The leader of all leaders was the king, who was also known as the ghana, or war chief. His word was law. He served as the commander in chief of a highly organized army, the controller of all trade activities, and the head administrator of justice. Mayors, civil servants, counselors, and ministers were appointed by the king to assist with administrative duties - but at all times, the king was in charge.
Each day, the king assembled his court and allowed people to publicly voice their complaints. Beating drums that resounded throughout the area signaled the courts assemblage and people gathered to speak their minds. Whether they were neighborly conflicts, or cases of violated rights, the king listened to the complaints and gave his judgment. Such hearings were reportedly peaceful, unless they involved issues of criminal nature.
Ghana appears to have had a central core region and was surrounded by vassal states. The Arabic sources are vague as to how the country was governed. Al-Bakri, far and away the most detailed one, mentions that the king had officials (mazalim) who surrounded his throne when he gave justice, and these included the sons of the "kings of his country" which we must assume are the same kings that al-Ya'qubi mentioned in his account of nearly 200 years earlier.
According to al-Bakri, the major part of the city was called El-Ghaba and was the residence of the king. It was protected by a stone wall and functioned as the royal and spiritual capital of the Empire. It contained a sacred grove of trees in which priests lived. It also contained the king's palace, the grandest structure in the city, surrounded by other "domed buildings".
The name of the other section of the city is not recorded. In the vicinity were wells with fresh water, used to grow vegetables. It was inhabited almost entirely by Muslims, who had with twelve mosques, one of which was designated for Friday prayers, and had a full group of scholars, scribes and Islamic jurists. Because the majority of these Muslims were merchants, this part of the city was probably its primary business district. It is likely that these inhabitants were largely black Muslims known as the Wangara and are today known as Jakhanke or Mandinka.
Decline and Fall
Ghana began to decline in the 11th century with the emergence of the Muslim Almoravids, a militant confederation of the Ṣanhājah and other Amazigh groups of the Sahara who combined in a holy war to convert their neighbours. Around 1050 CE, the Empire of Ghana began to come under pressure from the Muslims to the north to convert to Islam. The Kings of Ghana refused and soon came under constant attacks from Northern Africa. At the same time, a group of people called the Susu broke free of Ghana.
Abū Bakr, the leader of this movement’s southern wing, took Audaghost in 1054 and, after many battles, seized Kumbi in 1076. The Almoravids’ domination of Ghana lasted only a few years, but their activities upset the trade on which the empire depended, and the introduction of their flocks into an arid agricultural terrain initiated a disastrous process of desertification. The subject peoples of the empire began to break away, and in 1203, one of these, the Susu, occupied the capital.
In the mid-11th century, a Muslim group known as the Almoravids launched a devastating invasion on the capital city of Koumbi Saleh. Though territories were seized, and a tribute tax was enforced, Ghana recovered and forced the invaders to withdraw. Weakened by subsequent attacks, and cut-off from international trade, the kingdom was vulnerable and unable to prevent defeat.
In 1240 C.E., Ghana was absorbed into the growing nation of Mali, which would soon become the next great empire. Ghana Bassi died in 1063, and was succeeded by his nephew Tunka Manin. A tradition in historiography maintains that Ghana was conquered by the Almoravid dynasty in 1076-77, but this interpretation has been sharply questioned by modern scholars.
The Empire of Mali came into power as the Empire of Ghana was declining, and formed into one of the huge states of premodern Africa - it was 2,000 km wide (approximately 1200 miles).
According to much later traditions, from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Diara Kante of Sosso took control of Koumbi Saleh and established the Diarisso dynasty. His son, Soumaoro Kante, succeeded him and forced the people to pay him tribute.
According to a modern tradition, this resurgence of Mali was led by Sundiata Keita, the founder of Mali and ruler of its core area of Kangaba. This tradition states that Ghana Soumaba Cisse, at the time a vassal of the Sosso, rebelled with Kangaba and became part of a loose federation of Mande-speaking states. After Soumaoro's defeat at the Battle of Kirina in 1235 (a date again assigned arbitrarily by Delafosse), the new rulers of Koumbi Saleh became permanent allies of the Mali Empire.
The three major empires all peaked at different times.
Key Figures of the Ghana Empire
The table below highlights some of the key rulers and figures of the Ghana Empire:
| Ruler/Figure | Reign/Dates | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Dinga Cisse | N/A | First king, united the Soninke tribes |
| Kaya Maghan Cissé | c. 700 | Early ruler of Ghana |
| Dyabe Cisse | c. 790s | Ruler during a period of growth |
| Ghana Bassi | 1040-1062 | King before the Almoravid invasion |
| Tunka Manin | 1063-N/A | Successor of Ghana Bassi |
| Ghana Soumaba Cisse | 1203-1235 | Vassal of the Sosso, rebelled with Kangaba |
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