Lesson 4: Trekking to Timbuktu: Mansa Musa Takes a Trip (Teacher Version)

NCSS.D2.His.1.6-8. Analyze connections among events and developments in broader historical contexts.

NCSS.D2.His.2.6-8. Classify series of historical events and developments as examples of change and/or continuity.

NCSS.D2.His.3.6-8. Use questions generated about individuals and groups to analyze why they, and the developments they shaped, are seen as historically significant.

NCSS.D2.His.4.6-8. Analyze multiple factors that influenced the perspectives of people during different historical eras.

NCSS.D2.His.5.6-8. Explain how and why perspectives of people have changed over time.

NCSS.D2.His.14.6-8. Explain multiple causes and effects of events and developments in the past.

NCSS.D2.His.15.6-8. Evaluate the relative influence of various causes of events and developments in the past. 

NCSS.D2.His.16.6-8. Organize applicable evidence into a coherent argument about the past.

Read through the activities and bookmark appropriate websites for later reference. Additional background information can be found at Mansa Musa.

Activity 1. The Pilgrimage

One of the obligations of every Muslim is to make a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. In 1324, Mansa Musa, Mali's Islamic ruler, set out on his journey - with a very large entourage.

• Access Musa and the Mali Empire. Read Pilgrimage to Mecca. Discuss with the students the emperor's magnificent entourage. Where did the emperor get all that gold? (See Lesson 2 of this curriculum unit.) How might the people of the Middle East have viewed the West African states before Mansa Musa's visit? How did he almost ruin the good impression he had made, and what does this say about his political savvy? How did this visit influence the way Europeans, Asians, and North Africans thought about the land of the Niger?
• The route of his pilgrimage can be viewed at A Center for Trade available through African Studies WWW. The pick axes on the map indicate salt mines, while the gold bars mark gold mines. Why might Mansa Musa have taken a slightly more southern route home? (This would have been an excellent opportunity to load up his camels, no longer carrying their burdens of gold, with salt.)

This is when Mali became known as "the Land of Gold." In fact, it has been estimated that it would soon supply two thirds of the gold used for European coins and artifacts.

Mansa Musa's pilgrimage was immortalized in a map of Africa contained in the Catalan World Atlas of 1375.

• Access The Catalan map. As you view the map with your students, you might explain that Guinea (Mansa Musa is referred to as the Lord of the Negroes of Guinea) was actually the coastal region of West Africa where many of the gold mines were located. At that time, it was also a part of Mali. Have the students describe the various objects they see. In what ways is Mansa Musa presented as a European might have envisioned him? (For example, did he wear a European type of crown and sit upon a throne?).

View the following photos of mosques built in Europe and Asia in earlier centuries: the Umayyad Great Mosque, Damascus, The Mosque of Gauhar Shad, Mashad, and The Sultan Ahmet Mosque, Istanbul available through Labyrinth. Then write a brief essay comparing the design and construction of these mosques with those built in West Africa.

Selected EDSITEment Web Sites

African Studies WWW

• Clickable Map of Africa
• Sankore Mosque
• The Road to Timbuktu

Internet Public Library

• Musa and the Mali Empire
• Timbuktu: Legendary City of Africa

Labyrinth

• The Sultan Ahmet Mosque, Istanbul

National Geographic Xpeditions

• Djenne, Mali
• Empires of the Western Sudan
• Ghana Empire
• Golden Age
• Mansa Musa
• Mansa Musu and Songhai Empire
• Songhay
• The Catalan map
• Timbuktu: City of Legends