warrior of Wagadu

Warrior of WAGADU (also known as the GHANA EMPIRE), 9th-11th centuries AD, during the peak of the empire. Despite its name, this Medieval West African empire was located much further north than the modern country named Ghana. The Ghana Empire or as its people called it, Wagadu, corresponded to what is now southern Mauritania, western Mali and Senegal, in the transition zone between the Sahara Desert and the savanna known as the Sahel. The word “ghana” was the royal title given to the kings of Wagadu. Despite some Medieval Arab sources wrongly attributing a Berber origin to the people of Wagadu, modern scholars attribute the foundation of Wagadu to the ancestors of the Soninke people, a Mande-speaking ethnic group.

Most of what we know about Wagadu comes from Medieval Islamic sources, particularly from Al-Andalus, as the Ghana Empire exported enormous quantities of gold from West Africa to the Mediterranean and Medieval Europe, in exchange for salt from the Sahara and other luxury products from the Islamic world, such as silk or glass. Most people in Wagadu practiced their indigenous African religion, but Islam also started gradually expanding into the region during that period, and the capital of Wagadu had a Muslim district. Wagadu was probably founded sometime around 300 AD, and according to Islamic sources, the Berber-speaking Almoravid dynasty conquered Wagadu in 1076-1077 AD, presumably making it a vassal of their empire. The same Almoravids famously conquered Al-Andalus in the late 11th century, during the time when the mercenary knight Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar “El Cid” was fighting for Christian and Muslim rulers alike. A violent Almoravid conquest of the Ghana Empire has not been confirmed by archaeology, even though the kings of Wagadu formally converted to Islam around that time. In the 13th century, Wagadu was finally annexed by the Mali Empire.

The 11th century Andalusi geographer Al-Bakri describes Wagadu men wearing golden jewellery, splendid wrapped robes (indigo blue tie-dye cotton is a fair guess), braided hair with gold ornaments and shaven faces. The multi-coloured glass beads are based on Early Medieval finds from West Africa.