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Griots, Chronicles and a Golden Map: Dating Ghana, Mali and Songhai

Use a timeline and the sources behind it to trace West Africa's trading kingdoms.

Answer Key

How historians know

Read the passage. Then answer the questions.

Piecing Together West Africa's Past

1For about a thousand years, the kingdoms of Ghana, Mali and Songhai grew rich from the trade that carried gold north across the Sahara and salt south. Few written records from inside the early kingdoms survive, so historians piece their story together from several kinds of sources: oral tradition, reports by outside writers, maps, archaeology and chronicles written later in Timbuktu.

2In Mali, griots are keepers of history. Griot families memorize and perform the histories, family lines and songs of their people and pass them from parent to child. Their best-known story, the epic of Sundiata, tells how a prince who could not walk as a child grew up to defeat the Sosso king Sumanguru around 1235 and found the empire of Mali. Griots still perform the epic today. Historians value it because it shows what the Mande people remembered as important, but they treat its details with care, since stories can change over centuries of retelling.

3Some of the earliest written descriptions came from Muslim scholars outside West Africa. In 1068 al-Bakri, a scholar in Muslim Spain, described Ghana's capital as two towns about six miles apart: one where the king lived, and one for Muslim merchants, with twelve mosques. Al-Bakri never traveled to Ghana. He collected reports from merchants who had. At Koumbi Saleh, in what is now Mauritania, a site many historians think was that capital, archaeologists have found the ruins of stone houses and a mosque.

4Mali's wealth became famous far away. Its ruler Mansa Musa, a Muslim, had crossed the Sahara on the hajj to Mecca with a huge caravan and spent and gave away so much gold on the way that writers in Egypt and beyond told of it for years. In 1375 a mapmaker on the Mediterranean island of Majorca drew the Catalan Atlas. In West Africa it shows a crowned ruler, labeled as Musa, seated on a throne and holding up a large piece of gold.

5Under Mali and then Songhai, Timbuktu became a center of Islamic learning as well as trade. Scholars taught at mosques such as Sankore, and books were bought and sold in its markets alongside salt and gold. In the 1650s a Timbuktu scholar, al-Sa'di, wrote a long chronicle, the Tarikh al-Sudan, about the rulers of Songhai and the Moroccan invasion that ended their empire. Families in Timbuktu still keep collections of old manuscripts today.

1.
Based on paragraph 3, why should historians check al-Bakri's description of Ghana against other evidence?
  • A. He was a griot whose story changed with each retelling.
  • B. He wrote from merchants' reports, not his own visit.
  • C. He wrote in Timbuktu, far from Ghana's capital.
  • D. He wrote it hundreds of years after Ghana had fallen.
2.
How do the finds at Koumbi Saleh relate to al-Bakri's account?
  • A. They support his report of a town with Muslim merchants.
  • B. They prove that al-Bakri traveled to Ghana's capital.
  • C. They suggest Ghana traded little with Muslim North Africa.
  • D. They contradict his report that the town had mosques.
3.
What is the epic of Sundiata most useful for, according to paragraph 2?
  • A. Learning what the Mande people remembered about Mali's founding
  • B. Finding the exact day and place of each of Sundiata's battles
  • C. Counting how much gold Mali sent north across the Sahara
  • D. Reading a description that al-Bakri wrote down in 1068
4.
A student is researching four questions. Draw a line from each question to the source that would help most.
  1. How did Europeans picture Mali's ruler in the 1300s?B
  2. How do the Mande people tell the story of Mali's founding?D
  3. How did Songhai's empire come to an end?C
  4. What did Ghana's capital look like in the 1000s?A
  1. A. Al-Bakri's account and the Koumbi Saleh ruins
  2. B. The Catalan Atlas
  3. C. The Tarikh al-Sudan
  4. D. The epic of Sundiata

Read the timeline

Use the timeline and the passage to answer.

Timeline: West Africa's Trading Kingdoms
Date (CE)Event
About 800Arab writers call Ghana a land of gold
1068Al-Bakri describes Ghana's capital
1100sGhana loses much of its power
About 1235Sundiata defeats Sumanguru
1324Mansa Musa of Mali makes the hajj
1352–1353Ibn Battuta visits Mali
1375Catalan Atlas is drawn in Majorca
1468Sunni Ali of Songhai takes Timbuktu
1493Askia Muhammad rules Songhai
1591Moroccan army defeats Songhai
1650sAl-Sa'di writes the Tarikh al-Sudan
5.
Use the timeline and the passage. Sort each event by the kingdom it is about.
Arab writers call it a land of goldSundiata defeats SumanguruSunni Ali takes TimbuktuAl-Bakri describes two townsIbn Battuta's visitAskia Muhammad's rule
GhanaMaliSonghai
Arab writers call it a land of gold
Al-Bakri describes two towns
Sundiata defeats Sumanguru
Ibn Battuta's visit
Sunni Ali takes Timbuktu
Askia Muhammad's rule
6.

The Catalan Atlas was drawn 51 years after Mansa Musa's hajj.

7.
The ruler on the Catalan Atlas is most likely Mansa Musa. What does the map, together with the timeline, suggest?
  • A. Mansa Musa traveled to Majorca to have the map drawn.
  • B. Mali had stopped trading gold before the map was drawn.
  • C. Stories of his wealth were still known in Europe decades later.
  • D. Europeans first learned of West Africa from this map.
8.
Al-Sa'di wrote the Tarikh al-Sudan in the 1650s. For which event was he writing closest in time, so that older people he knew may have heard about it from eyewitnesses?
  • A. Askia Muhammad begins to rule
  • B. The Moroccan army defeats Songhai
  • C. Mansa Musa makes the hajj
  • D. Sunni Ali takes Timbuktu
9.
Underline the sentence from paragraph 5 that best shows Timbuktu was rich in learning as well as in goods.

Under Mali and then Songhai, Timbuktu became a center of Islamic learning as well as trade.Scholars taught at mosques such as Sankore, and books were bought and sold in its markets alongside salt and gold.Families in Timbuktu still keep collections of old manuscripts today.

10.
Which statement about the timeline is accurate?
  • A. Songhai rose to power before Ghana did.
  • B. Songhai took Timbuktu before Mansa Musa's hajj.
  • C. Ibn Battuta visited Mali after Songhai took Timbuktu.
  • D. Mali rose to power after Ghana lost much of its power.
11.
Claim: To understand West Africa's kingdoms, historians need sources made inside West Africa, not only accounts by outsiders. Do you agree? Use evidence about at least two sources from the passage or timeline, and explain your reasoning.

I agree. Al-Bakri never visited Ghana and wrote from merchants' reports, and the Catalan Atlas shows only how Europeans pictured Mali's gold. Sources from inside West Africa add what outsiders missed: the epic of Sundiata, kept by griots, shows how the Mande people themselves remembered Mali's founding, and the Tarikh al-Sudan was written in Timbuktu by a scholar who knew its history. Outside accounts still help, since the Koumbi Saleh ruins support al-Bakri, but using both kinds gives a fuller and fairer picture.