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Concept
Ghana Empire
Summary
The Ghana Empire (غانا), also known as simply Ghana, Ghanata, or Wagadou, was a West African classical to post-classical era western-Sahelian empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali. No native written records have been unearthed although decades of archaeological study as well as a plethora of native (local-Malian/adjacent West-African) and non-native (medieval Arabic) accounts have substantiated and reinforced the empire's ancient existence. It has been hypothesized to originate initially as a much earlier proto-polity, plausibly a collection of ancient but unspecified proto-Mande agro-pastoralist chiefdoms, a period of time roughly spanning before or around (1300 BCE - 300 BCE) give or take. Ultimately, over the millennium or so, the Mande peoples gradually rose to demographic prominence in the region closely surrounding the western most portion of the Niger River basin, galvanizing their ambitions of state-craft then eventually empire-building from c. 1st century AD - 3rd century AD until 12th century. The fundamental empire-builders of the Ghana Empire amongst the collective Mande peoples in particular, was the ethnic group known as the Soninke, a sub-group of the larger Mandé peoples who united all Mande tribes, with its capital based in the city of Koumbi Saleh.
Complex societies established by proto-Mande polities and chiefdoms had long existed in the ancient Niger River Basin for centuries at the time of the Wagadu empire's formation, with strong indicators pointing further back in history. The introduction of the camel to the western Sahara in the 3rd century AD served as a major catalyst for the transformative social changes that resulted in the empire's formation. By the time of the Muslim conquest of North Africa in the 7th century, the camel had changed the ancient, more irregular trade routes into a trade network running between North Africa and the Niger River. The Ghana Empire grew rich from this increased trans-Saharan trade in gold, textiles, foods, and salt, allowing for larger urban centers to develop.
Official source
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