Names and basic facts
The state called Ghana in Arabic sources was a Soninke kingdom in the western Sahel, between the upper Senegal and Niger rivers. “Ghana” was originally the title of its ruler, and the Soninke themselves referred to the land as Wagadu. Its main period of prosperity is usually placed between about the 8th and 11th centuries CE, although its roots may be older.
One point of confusion deserves stating plainly. The modern country of Ghana, independent in 1957, took its name from the medieval empire as a symbol of African history, but it lies further south-east and does not overlap with the old kingdom’s core territory. The ancient state belongs to what is now Mauritania and Mali.
What the sources say
Almost everything known about Ghana’s court comes from Arabic writers. One of the earliest is al-Fazari, a scholar writing in the late 8th century, who called Ghana the land of gold. The most detailed description is that of al-Bakri, a geographer in Córdoba, who completed his book in 1068. He never visited, and he relied on reports from merchants and travellers, so his account has to be handled with care.
Al-Bakri described a royal town and a separate Muslim town several kilometres apart. The king was served by ministers, some of whom were Muslims, and his court showed marks of wealth: gold ornaments, horses with gold-embroidered cloths and dogs wearing gold and silver collars, he says. Traditional religion was practised at the king’s town, and the Muslim merchants had mosques in their own. This picture of coexistence is one of the more interesting details and is probably an accurate reflection of how trading communities functioned.
The gold and salt trade
Ghana did not itself mine most of the gold. The gold came from fields to the south, in areas often identified as Bambuk and Bure, and was brought north to Ghana’s markets. From the north came salt, mined in the Sahara, and copper, along with goods such as cloth, beads and horses. The kingdom sat at a point where goods from different ecological zones could be exchanged, and its ruler profited from taxes.
According to al-Bakri, the king charged a tax on salt and copper entering the country and on gold leaving it. He also reserved the large gold nuggets for himself, leaving gold dust to be traded by others, a practice he said was intended to keep the supply of gold from flooding the market. Whether the policy worked as described is uncertain, but it indicates an administration that understood supply and price.
Trade across the desert depended on camels. The animals came into regular use in the Sahara during the first millennium CE, much earlier than Ghana’s prime, and they made it possible to carry bulk goods over the long dry stages between wells and oases. Earlier desert societies, such as the Garamantes with their foggara tunnels, had already built networks of oasis settlements in the Sahara. The relationship between gold, salt and the camel trade resembles the incense trade of Arabia in the way a commodity in demand at one end of a route created wealth for those who controlled its passage. Gold of this kind also supplied the markets of North Africa and, through them, the currencies of the Mediterranean, where metal needed for coin minting was always in demand.
Koumbi Saleh
The capital is usually identified with the site of Koumbi Saleh, in southeastern Mauritania. Excavations there, beginning in the early 20th century and continued by later teams, uncovered stone buildings, a large mosque and a sizeable town, which fits al-Bakri’s account of a Muslim quarter. The identification is widely, but not universally, accepted. Scholars point out that the royal town described by al-Bakri has not been definitely located, and that Koumbi Saleh may represent the Muslim merchants’ town, or a later phase of the settlement.
Decline and the Almoravid question
An older version of the story held that the Almoravids, a Berber Muslim movement from the western Sahara, conquered Ghana in 1076 and destroyed it. Many modern historians doubt this. Evidence for a decisive conquest is thin, and some think the Almoravids’ influence worked more through trade disruption and religious pressure. Other factors may have contributed, such as droughts, changes in the gold-producing zones, and the growth of rival states.
What is clearer is that by the 13th century Ghana’s role had been taken over by other powers, and the region was absorbed into the Mali Empire. The Soninke remain a large population today, and many of them look back on Wagadu as part of their history, in stories that tell of the origins of their clans.
What to keep in mind
Ghana is a good example of a state known mostly through outsiders’ writing. The Arabic accounts give detail but come from far away, and the archaeology is incomplete. The bold claim that Ghana was the “first” empire of West Africa should therefore be avoided, as earlier settlements such as the Jenne-Jeno region show that complex societies existed well before it. What can be said is that Wagadu was a significant medieval power, and that its control of trade made it known across the Sahara and beyond.