The Ghana Empire
African History
Two of Africa's greatest kingdoms grew up in West Africa south of the Sahara, along the Niger river in the modern country of Mali. The first of these great trading empires was Ghana. It was founded around AD 300 by a people called the sun Inca. They may have been the first west Africans to make iron. Their iron tools and weapons gave them an advantage over other groups in West Africa, whom they conquered to create a strong state, the kingdom of Ghana.
The kings of Ghana built their power on the trade of two key products, gold and salt. Gold was the basis of currency in most parts of the world and West Africa had lots of it. So Arab and Berber traders from North Africa were willing to risk crossing the Sahara to trade with West Africa. In turn, the west Africans needed salt, which came from mines in the desert. A thriving gold and salt trade developed. Ghana, at the center of the caravan roots, grew rich by taxing the traders and created a great empire. The traders brought more than just salt and other goods, they brought a new religion, Islam.
The kings of Ghana welcomed Muslim traders, but they didn't adopt their religion. Instead, they allowed traders to establish their own Muslim trading towns. But around ten 50 an extreme Muslim religious movement arose among the desert Arabs. Its followers called almoravids waged war on all non Muslims. In ten 76, they swept into Ghana, capturing its capital and forcing the people of Ghana to convert to Islam or be killed. Almoravid control over Ghana lasted only about ten years, but the empire never recovered.