The Empire of Wagadu (Ouagadou), more commonly known as the Ghana Empire, was a powerful state in the Medieval Sahel of West Africa, and one of the earliest in written record. With origins in antiquity and a reputation for wealth and glory in contemporary sources, it has long been an icon of Black history, though today it tends to be overshadowed by the later Mali Empire.

This video is part of Untold Black History, a collaboration organized by Jabari from From Nothing with the intention of shedding light on the history of Africans and the African diaspora. Check out the full playlist here:
https://youtube.com/playlist?l....ist=PLivC9TMdGnL93RM

Special thanks to@schrodingersmoose for providing the voice of al-Bakri, @KenKwameWrites for providing the voice of al-Zūhri, and @MostlyMiSinging for providing the collaboration theme!

Maps based on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOexUoPc6YU

Sources:
Bennison, Amira K. “The Almoravids: Striving in the Path of God.” In The Almoravid and Almohad Empires, 24–61. Edinburgh University Press, 2016. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctvhrczbp.8.

Burkhalter, Sheryl L. “Listening for Silences in Almoravid History: Another Reading of ‘The Conquest That Never Was.’” History in Africa 19 (1992): 103–31. https://doi.org/10.2307/3171996.

Conrad, David, and Humphrey Fisher. “The Conquest That Never Was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. I. The External Arabic Sources.” History in Africa 9 (1982): 21–59. https://doi.org/10.2307/3171598.

D'Andrea, A.C., Casey, J. Pearl Millet and Kintampo Subsistence. African Archaeological Review 19, 147–173 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016518919072

Ehret, Christopher. The Civilizations of Africa a History to 1800. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2016.

Gomez, Michael. African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019.

Hopkins, J.F.P, and Nehemia Levtzion. Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History. Cambridge , England: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Kevin McDonald, Robert Vernet, Dorian Fuller and James Woodhouse, "New Light on the Tichitt Tradition" A Preliminary Report on Survey and Excavation at Dhar Nema," pp. 78–80.

Mauny, Raymond. “Campagne De Fouilles à Koumbi Saleh .” Bibliotheque Numerique sur la Mauritanie, 1951. https://web.archive.org/web/20....110726200810/http://

Mauny, R. A. “The Question of Ghana.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 24, no. 3 (1954): 200–213. https://doi.org/10.2307/1156424.

McDougall, E. Ann. Review of Research in Saharan History, by James L. A. Webb Jr. The Journal of African History 39, no. 3 (1998): 467–80. http://www.jstor.org/stable/183363.

McIntosh, Susan Keech. “A Reconsideration of Wangara/Palolus, Island of Gold.” The Journal of African History 22, no. 2 (1981): 145–58. doi:10.1017/S002185370001937X.

Munson, Patrick J. “Archaeology and the Prehistoric Origins of the Ghana Empire.” The Journal of African History 21, no. 4 (1980): 457–66. http://www.jstor.org/stable/182004.

“State Building in Ancient West Africa: From the Tichitt Neolithic Civilization to the Empire of Ghana (2,200BC-1250AD.).” State building in ancient west Africa: from the Tichitt Neolithic civilization to the empire of Ghana (2,200BC-1250AD). African History Extra, March 27, 2022. https://isaacsamuel.substack.c....om/p/state-building-

00:00 Introduction
01:01 The Basics of Wagadu
01:55 The Sahel
03:13 The Salt-Gold Trade
05:15 Government in Wagadu
06:52 The Capital
09:21 Archaeology
11:55 Religion
14:55 Islam in Wagadu
17:06 The Almoravids
21:14 Decline and Fall
22:53 Conclusion

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Dr. Wanjiru Kamau is a Kenyan born educator and social activist with a philosophical grounding in multiculturalism and gender equity. She holds a doctorate in Counselor and Health Education from Pennsylvania State University, and diplomas in Mediation and Intercultural Communication. She has extensive experience in Counseling, Teaching, Consulting and Diversity Training. She holds leadership positions, awards and honorary appointments. Kamau is the founder of African Immigrant & Refugees Foundation (AIRF) a nonprofit organization whose mission is to facilitate the effective transition of the African immigrants to the American society and to support their productive and sustainable integration into their new homeland. Dr. Kamau’s publications are on Identity, women’s health and indigenous knowledge. She has produced two videos: Kuumithio Rites of passage and a Child of Two Worlds, and a Book The Tapestry of Menopause by Agikuyu women is in the press. Kamau is passionate about creating peace based on UBUNTU. www.airfound.org

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