In the 1230s, a man called Sundiata Keita incorporated a series of smaller kingdoms into the Mali Empire. The empire was central to several key trading routes, and with the support of a well ...

Mali emerged against the back-drop of a declining of Ghana under the dynamic leadership of Sundiata of the Keita clan. But the region he took over had a past rich in trade and powerful rulers.

Dr. Cherif Keita Dr. Cherif Keita, a scholar of the Sundiata epic, teaches Francophone literature of Africa and the Caribbean, as well as advanced language courses at Carleton College. A native of ...