Rafiki’s Journey By: Athena, Candace, Kirsten, Sydney, Vanessa

Hi! My name is Rafiki and I am a trading camel. I live in West Africa and the Mali Empire is now in power. Welcome to my journey!

I am on an important journey across the Sahara desert. I have an essential task of carrying gold and salt from West Africa to trade for shells and books from North Africa. There is a lot of local trade that goes on within Africa and I am glad I can provide my people with luxury and foreign goods. Gold, Salt, and Trade… Oh my! The camels on this map represent my trade routes across West Africa!

I know a lot of people are counting on me to be successful on this journey and I don’t want to let anyone down- especially my merchant, Mufasa. Mufasa works very hard to make his living through trade, and to keep his high position in society. If we are lucky today, Mufasa might trade the gold and salt for a horse! I’ve always wanted a friend. From salt mining to salt trading! A salt mine in West Africa. I am the camel patiently waiting second from the left!

I’m On My Way! My journey started in Taoudenni and I am on my way to Timbuktu, my destination! It took Mufasa’s workers forever to collect the salt and gold. I had to wait for so long! Thank god I am not a human, they have to do so much work! All I have to do is carry it! Life as a camel is the best, don’t you wish you were me?

Emperor, Emperor! Speaking of humans, there they are now! This is an extremely rare opportunity for us, because that right there is the Mansa Musa! He is the tenth Emperor of the Mali empire, and following him are tens of thousands of men, including his guards, soldiers, and slaves. Judging by the amount of gold they’re carrying, he must be returning from a very successful pilgrimage! He seems busy now, but we’ll be seeing him soon anyway.

What about the others? While we’re here anyway, let’s go check out some other human families. Here is Kovu! His family’s ancestors participated closely with Sunjata in founding the Mali empire. Because of that, Kovu and his family are wealthy aristocrats who are expected to hold property and lead the community, kind of like mini community kings. Horses are not from these parts of Africa, and because it takes so much effort to take care of one, it indicates that Kovu is very rich, compared to the slaves and merchants below him.

The Mayor of Araouane and His Decision! I told the army what happened and they said to go find the mayor, who controls all of Araouane, and take this to court. But, the mayor and his judges told me that it’s going to be impossible to find the thief! I need the salt and gold back so that Mufasa’s hard work doesn’t go to waste, and since I don’t like what the mayor told me, I went to Timbuktu to find the King! The mayor told me that Mansa Musa loves to read manuscripts, which are hand-written documents, so he might be busy when I get there! This is a photo of the manuscripts in Timbuktu! Mansa Musa worked very hard to make it so that more people could learn how to read and write these manuscripts!

I finally made it to Timbuktu! I’m so thirsty! But I keep seeing all these people go into this weird looking building! I wonder what it is? As I get closer I see people praying, it must be a mosque! I want to go in! It doesn’t matter, I have no time! I need to hurry and get to the King! I Can’t Believe It! I pass by the extraordinary Sankore Mosque in Timbuktu. Mali on my journey!

Look! It’s Mansa Musa holding a gold nugget on a map of Africa! What a surprise! The king, Mansa Musa, was already expecting a trading camel to come by! His guards had caught a suspicious man coming through with my salt and gold, and found the scroll of instructions that had been put inside a bag of gold, with Mufasa’s name on it! The King’s laws are very strict, and I knew that he would find who did this! It is so strange, though! People rarely ever steal because of how serious the laws are, so this is very serious. I’m happy to have my goods back, and I let the king deal with the thief! To The King!

Thanking Emperor Musa Mansa Musa is not only the emperor of Mali but he is also the priest. He has special ways of communicating with the spirit world to find the sources of problems. This way he was able to communicate with the spirits and help solve my problem. I would like to thank him for all of his help!

To the Mosque Now that my journey is over and I have all my goods back, I think I will return to the mosque I saw earlier. I am going to try and communicate to the spirit world and send thanks to the spirits and the emperor for solving my problem. A mosque is a place of worship for the religion of Islam.