During the 8 th century to 17 th century the Gold and Salt was the money maker for western Africa. The trade exchanged things like Islamic beliefs and well as goods. The trade supplied many riches for the kingdoms within West Africa for close to 9 centuries.

Kingdom of Ghana ( ) -Founded in 750 between the Senegal and Niger River. -Gained control over West African’s major trade routes which supplied them with lot of resources. - Strong military - Similar systems of European feudalism - The problem is in 1076 Muslims from North Africa invaded the Kingdom of Ghana and after the words the kingdom could not recover. - They dissolved into several smaller states

Kingdom of Mali ( ) Captured the old capital of Ghana and toke control of both salt and gold mines Mali’s most famous ruler, Mansa Musa believed in the faith of Islam and made a pilgrimage to mecca. When he came back he brought scholars and architects with him With the architects he commissioned a palace and giant mosque in Timbuktu With the scholars he created universities which attracted students from Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Kingdom of Songhai ( ) Sultan Sunni Ali captures Timbuktu Believed in Islam and hold on to wealth trade routes Problem it only lasted for 130 years because the Moroccans of Northern African wanted their wealth. Moroccans had guns and gunpowder compared to Songhai when had spears and arrows. The kingdom of Songhai was the last of the great west African kingdoms.

Ife and Benin -Developed in the rainforest of west Africa -Famous for their copper and bronze sculptures -Benin in the 16 century became large traders in slave to European countries for guns and iron goods. Zimbabwe -Located in the south -Famous for trading gold, copper, and ivory from Africa’s interior with Muslim traders Coastal Cities of East Africa -Sofala, Kilwa, and Mogadishu were independent city states that traded gold to Arabia and India.

Traditional African Societies -Both boys and girls were separated from community and underwent special ceremonies at puberty -Arranged by families and the groom paid a dowry to his bride’s family. Islam -women were limited to running the household - Men represented the family outside it