famous rulers
mansa musa
Mansa Musa is mostly remembered for his extravagant hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca with, according to the Arab historian al-Umari, 100 camel-loads of gold, each weighing 300 lbs.; 500 slaves, each carrying a 4 lb. gold staff; thousands of his subjects; as well as his senior wife, with her 500 attendants. With his lavish spending and generosity in Cairo and Mecca, he ran out of money and had to borrow at usurious rates of interest for the return trip. Al-Umari also states that Mansa Musa and his retinue "gave out so much gold that they depressed its value in Egypt and caused its value to fall."
sundiata
Sundiata was the son of Naré Maghann Konaté (variation: Maghan Konfara) and Sogolon Condé (variations: "Sogolon Kolonkan" or "Sogolon Kédjou", the daughter of the "buffalo woman", so called because of her ugliness and hunchback).[11] Sundiata was crippled from childhood and his mother (Songolon) was the subject of ridicule among her co-wives. She was constantly teased and ridiculed openly for her son's disability. This significantly affected Sundiata and he was determined to do everything he possibly could in order to walk like his peers. Through this determination, he one day miraculously got up and walked.
sunni ali ber
It was not until Sunni Ali Ber, a member of the Sunni dynasty, ascended to the throne in 1464, that the rulers of Gao looked beyond the confines of the Niger valley. In 28 years he turned the kingdom of Gao into the Songhai empire, which stretched from the Niger in the east to Jenne in the west and from Timbuktu in the north to Hombori, the wide arch formed by the Northern Niger bend, in the south. Songhai ultimately developed into the greatest of the Sudanic empires and, like Mali and Ghana, was strategically located along trans-Saharan trade routes
tenkamenin
Tenkamenin King of Ghana (1037-1075 AD) Alexander Bostic (1955-) Through careful management of gold trade across the Sahara, Tenkamenin's empire flourished economically yet his greatest strength was in government. He listened to his people and provided justice for all of them. His principles of democratic monarchy and religious tolerance make him one of the great models of African rule.
queen shanakdakheto
Shanakdakheto styled herself as Son of Re, Lord of the Two Lands, Shanakdakheto (Sa Re nebtawy, Shanakdakheto).
The only inscription mentioning her comes from Temple F in Naqa where her name appears "in Meroitic hieroglyphics in the middle of an Egyptian text." The name appears in the Meroitic script, the earliest known example of Meroitic writing. Her pyramid was identified at Meroë, but does not preserve her name.
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