Gold and Chains: Slavery and the Building of African Civilizations

The greatest empire medieval Africa produced sent its king to Mecca in 1324 with sixty thousand attendants, five hundred enslaved men walking before him each carrying a staff of gold. The world still talks about Mansa Musa's pilgrimage. It does not often talk about who carried the gold. Gold and Chains tells the story of Africa's great civilisations — Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Benin, the Swahili citie...