Our History, Black History: Mansa Musa, the Wealthiest Man in the World

 

February 13, 2020



There’s an old adage that says, “You never know where you are going unless you know where you have been.”

In the spirit of Black history month, the Monroe Dispatch will highlight stories and history of Black people that are not commonly known.

In 1312, a man by the name of Musa became Emperor of the Mali Empire. Given the Mansa, meaning “King” he went on to have a glorious reign. Mansa Musa was thought to be an extremely intelligent man, knowledgeable in Arabic and many other various subjects. He was a devote Muslim and was known as the first Muslim ruler in West Africa to make the journey to Mecca, a providence in Saudi Arabi. Mecca was known as a holy site for Islamic followers, and was an area all Muslims wanted touch.

During his reign the economy of the area in which he ruled thrived tremendously, and accumulated a large amount of wealth due to his land’s vast and amazing natural resources. So much in fact he decided to do a 4,000 mile pilgrimage to Mecca in order to build a better alliance with other leaders in other African and sub-Saharan areas. He also wanted to establish his region to be a place where scholars, mathematicians, astronomers, and intellectuals came to lend expertise and set up shop.

Some reports claim his traveling entourage to Mecca were hundreds, and other reports claimed it to consist of thousands of people. As they traveled, they generously doled out gifts of gold and other goods to leaders as well as poor citizens of the communities they traveled through and to. His handouts were so valuable and significant, that when they visited Cairo, Egypt, they temporarily devalued to cost of gold, leaving the economy to struggle. It took the Egyptian city somewhere between an estimated 10-20 years to recover. From this significant power, he was dubbed as the only person to single-handedly have the ability to control the value of gold and eventually helped the city to stabilize again.

Emperor Musa died in the 1330s, but left an empire filled with palaces and mosques built and left throughout areas in which he lived and traveled. The University of Sankore and the Djinguereber Mosque in Timbuktu are two of the remaining monuments from his reign still standing today.

According to calculations done about two years ago, Masa is considered to be the wealthiest man to ever live in the world. His estimated total worth was considered to be about $400 billion. As a point of perspective, the two current richest men in the world are Carlos Slim and Bill Gates, worth $69 billion and $61 billion respectively.

Let us use this incredible information as a source of confidence and affirmation that we as Blacks come from greatness. Pass along this information as it may encourage someone else to aspire and achieve similar greatness. Tell ‘em you read it in the Dispatch!

 

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