Gold Coast 45Africa before ce 1300. Its stone houses and tombs, the
elaborate royal court, and several magnifi cent mosques
were important features of the capital. In Kumbi Saleh and
coursing through trade centers throughout Wagadu were
commodities originating from hundreds, if not thousands,
of miles away, including horses, dates, silk, cowrie shells,
and ivory. Wagadu’s commercial power was more than
matched by its military might. With the ability to fi eld up to
60,000 conscripted and regular soldiers, the empire was the
dominant military force in the western Sudan. In addition,
iron smelting and the importation of horses combined to
create signifi cant military advantages that would be shared
by subsequent Sudanic empires. Iron weapons—particu-
larly swords, lances, javelins, and arrow tips—and the use
of fast-moving cavalries allowed Wagadu to crush all local
states. Th is uncontested domination came to an end in 1076
when the Almorvids, a kingdom of Islamic North Africans,
defeated Wagadu’s military and conquered the empire. Th e
Almorvids had been Wagadu’s principal rival for control
over trans-Saharan trade routes. With Wagadu’s defeat, its
former tributary states would vie for power for more than
150 years before the emergence of Mali as the next great
Sudanic empire.
See also: Mali; Sahel; Senegambia; Songhai; Sudanic Em-
pires; Timbuktu; TributeWalter C. RuckerBibliography
Conrad, David C. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali,
and Songhay. New York: Facts on File, 2005.
Davidson, Basil. West Africa before the Colonial Era. London:
Longman, 1998.
Quigley, Mary. Ancient West African Kingdoms: Ghana, Mali, and
Songhai. Chicago: Heinemann Library, 2002.Gold Coast
Derived from the Portuguese in the late 15th century and
later adopted by the British, Gold Coast is the colonial name
of the region located on the coast of West Africa, neighbor-
ing present-day Togo to the east, Côte d’Ivoire to the west,
and Burkina Faso to the north. Th e region comprises pri-
marily the Akan, Ewe, Ga, and Moshi-Dagomba peoples.
Gold, as the name suggests, was plentiful in this region,
attracting both African and European traders. In the earlyfrom great distances to study at the Islamic schools that had
been established throughout the Futa Jallon region.
But, above all else, it was through trade that the Fulbe ex-
tended their infl uence throughout the region. Th e slave trade
continued to be of paramount importance to the state of Futa
Jallon long aft er its formal abolition by the British in 1807.
Many slaves taken by the Fulbe were war captives, victims of
various campaigns that had taken place between Futa Jallon
and its neighboring rivals.
See also: Senegambia; Sierra Leone
Moshe TerdimanBibliography
Ade Ajayi, J. F., ed. General History of Africa VI: Africa in the Nine-
teenth Century until the 1880 s. Oxford, UK: Heinemann
International, 1989.
Gray, Richard, ed. Th e Cambridge History of Africa. Vo l. 4 , From
c. 1600 to c. 179 0. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 1975.
Ghana
Founded by Soninke-speaking peoples, the Sudanic empire
of Wagadu (Ghana) was the fi rst of its kind in the region.
Wagadu is also known more popularly as Ghana, a name
derived from the Soninke word for “king,” which Arab
and North African merchants applied to the entire king-
dom beginning in the eighth century ce. While the precise
origins of Wagadu are unclear, in a text entitled Tarikh as-
Sudan written in Timbuktu in 1650 the author claimed that
there were at least 22 kings of Wagadu before ce 622. If
true, this would place the origins of the kingdom at about
ce 300. By ce 800, Wagadu had emerged as a powerful
trading kingdom with an advantageous geographic locale
in the region known as the Sahel. Th is transitory zone be-
tween the northern desert and the southern forests proved
a fortuitous region for Wagadu as its rulers had the ability
to collect tax revenues from the lucrative gold–salt trade. In
addition to these revenues, the kingdom managed to sub-
jugate an increasing number of smaller polities that were
forced to pay tribute in the form of agricultural surplus,
gold, and other commodities.
Wagadu’s capital city, Kumbi Saleh, was the epitome
of the wealth of the growing empire. Housing 15,000 to
20,000 people, Kumbi Saleh was the largest city in West