The Empire of Mali
In Our Time
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The Sahara and the Gold of the Almoravid Empire
The majority of the gold currency in North Africa, from the 11th century on, came from West Africa. So it was a very substantial proportion of gold coming into Northern Africa,. moving across to the Middle East and also then filtering up to Europe. And so most of these journeys across the Sahara, which has been quite risky, were to get the gold. Slaves is another commodity moving across the Sahara. The Berbers themselves also needed grain because they lived in an environment where they lived primarily off animal products, dairy products and meat. They needed grain. There are a number of different commodities in the trade, but gold is a very important one of those commodities.
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