Ghana (Serahule, Soninke)
	Mali (Manding, Mandinka, Malinke)
	Songhai (Songhay)

Mansa Musa on the throne of the Mali ancient civilization.

Background: The peoples of the various areas of Western Africa have been connected to one and other by trade routes since antiquity. Prior to the advent of camels in North Africa in around 300 AD, trade took place over comparatively short distances, employing the use of the horse, donkey or other beasts of burden to transport loads. However, by the 5th century CE camels had become the main type of transport in the Sahara Desert. This was a vital development for more rapid and efficient trade in the region as the animals had a number of advantages over oxen and other beasts of burden. Camels could carry the same load as oxen, but at a constant pace over a much greater distance in sand, enduring hot daytime temperatures and  night time cold, and requiring much less drinking water. Growth in Trade: As the centuries passed, North African Berbers and other peoples crossed the Sahara, linking up with traders from the south, whose own desert caravan routes crossed the coastal and riverine trade networks of other peoples. These interconnecting networks promoted long-distance trade in certain commodities such as salt, gold, iron, kola nut, spices, including Black African slaves. The major trade goods were desert salt from the north which were required to preserve food and supplement diets. These were exchanged through the barter system for food, gold and slaves from the southern tropics. At the southern edge of the Sahara, local, regional, and long-distance commerce was made possible by progress made in the field of agriculture which allowed specialisation in other occupations besides farming. In the first millennium CE, small trading settlements, growing with the caravan traffic, became commercial centres for craftsmen who worked in leather, ivory, metals, and wood, ivory. Later the rulers of these cities extended their authority and influence to other regions of the neighbouring countryside. West Africa south of the desert was the area of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest and most sophisticated states in the period before the 19th century. People could travel and communicate over long distances either on horseback or foot across the dry savanna or along the water routes of the mighty Niger River. And their location between the trans-Saharan trade routes and the northern parts of commercial networks from gold-producing areas meant that the great empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai could profit from the commerce passing through their territories. They also were influenced to varying degrees by Islam, which gradually spread through trade to the lands south of the desert, which the Arabs called the bilad al-sudan, or "the land of the blacks." Social Organisation: West African societies also shared similar types of social organisation, which made it easier for members of different kingdoms and chieftaincies to relate to each other. These societies all organized young men and women into "age groups," such as the Mandinka's Kafo, who who went through the various rites of passage together and could be called upon for communal work responsibilities. They all recognized secret institutions like the Poro society, a religious group spread throughout the western Sudan. And they all conformed to well-known standards of hospitality and good behaviour for hosts and travelers. Certain occupational groups, like the Dyula traders, also cut across geographic and political demarcations. So did the occupational caste groups of griots, blacksmiths, and leatherworkers. Religion: Religious beliefs and ceremonies were broadly similar among the peoples of West Africa. Whatever the protocol details, West African traditional religion incorporated 4 categories of supernatural phenomena interacting with each other and with humankind: a creator god remote from everyday affairs and difficult to communicate with; ancestors, who could intercede with other spirits on behalf of their descendants and the community at large; spirits believed to live in the earth, waters, plants and animals; and amulets, which blacksmiths made to contain the magical powers of animal, vegetable, and mineral substances. Islam spread steadily in this religious context, brought along by traders and scholars and focused its activities and influence in the cities. Rulers of West African kingdoms welcomed Muslim administrative help as Muslims were the only people who were able to read and write and this ability enabled them to better organise their administration more effectively. Royal power also rested on traditional African religion, which held that spirits of the land ensured agricultural success and ancestors made contacts with spirits of the land. Most West Africans who had contact with Islam simply added Allah to the existing pantheon of gods, without seeing any contradiction. The result was a spectrum of beliefs which rulers patronised in the interests of political and social and co-existence. Just as Ibn Battuta had observed the king of Mali celebrate the end of Ramadan in the morning and listen to bards in bird-head masks sing his praises in the afternoon, so a ruler of Jenne is said to have constructed a mosque which he split into two areas, one for Muslims and one for pagans. By the final years of the Songhai Empire, such religious contradictions contributed to political fragmentation. The Trans-Saharan trade continued however, joined after about 1,500 CE by the ever growing European slave trade on the Atlantic coastline.