Mansa Musa: The Richest Man Who Ever Lived
The Mali Empire's golden pilgrimage
About this story
In 1324, Mansa Musa of the Mali Empire set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca with a caravan so laden with gold that his spending single-handedly devalued currency across Cairo for over a decade. This is the story of the empire he ruled, the scholars he brought home to Timbuktu, and the legend his wealth left behind.
Transcript preview
Narrator: Long before Europe called it the Age of Exploration, an emperor in West Africa was already the richest man the world had seen.
Narrator: Mansa Musa inherited a kingdom rich in gold and salt, stretching across trade routes that connected the Sahara to the Mediterranean.
Narrator: When he set off for Mecca, twelve thousand attendants and a hundred camels of gold walked beside him.
Narrator: By the time he reached Cairo, the price of gold had collapsed — a single man's generosity had moved an economy.
Chapters
Author
Amara Nwosu
Nigeria
Oral historian and archivist documenting pre-colonial West African kingdoms.