Mansa Musa and Islam in Africa: Crash Course World History #16

In which John Green teaches you about Sub-Saharan Africa! So, what exactly was going on there? It turns out, it was a lot of trade, converting to Islam, visits from Ibn Battuta, trade, beautiful women, trade, some impressive architecture, and several empires. John not only covers the West African Malian Empire, which is the one Mansa Musa ruled, but he also discusses the Ghanian Empire and even gets over to East Africa as well to discuss the trade-based city-states of Mogadishu, Mombasa, and Zanzibar. In addition to all this, John considers emigrating to Canada.

Chapters:
Introduction: African History 00:00
King Mansa Musa of Mali 1:22
Mali, the Berbers, and the Islamization of West Africa 3:23
An Open Letter to Ibn Battula 5:29
The End of the Malian Empire 6:17
The Swahili Civilizations of Eastern Africa 6:55
Credits 9:56

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[SvenniTayivek]

It's quite refreshing to see something about African history that isn't just ancient Egypt, then thousands of years of nothing, then European slave trade and colonization.

[morgangardner]

Words cannot explain how happy this makes me! In school, very rarely do teachers talk about African history, creating an assumption that Africa is and has always been backwards and not worth studying. African culture and history is fascinating, sophisticated and very deserving of recognition. 

[KidJapan]

No racist comments what?! Is this All jokes aside its refreshing to not see racist comments

[wardjones]

All of these young people who like history. Great!

[emilyflores]

"You think oral tradition is uncivilized yet here you are listening to me TALK!!" lmao

[neeks]

With everyone talking about how they never heard of this, I gotta say, thank you so much Mrs. Smith for teaching AP World and letting us understand that Europe isn’t the center of everything.

[samatarh]

Wow a video with Islam in it and the comments aren't so bad....I'm impressed guys 

[raspberryalya]

I love how self-aware this show is with regards to eurocentrism of history!

[imaginareality]

Can't believe that we didn't learn any of this in history class. Africa was just completely left out (except for a little bit about colonies) and so was the arab region (I don't know how to call it). German schools should seriously revise their curriculum.

[disarmyouwitha]

Mansa Musa.. making it rain all the way to Mecca. xD

[daewolfo]

"The King of Mali is so rich that he's going on tour to let everyone know. "Wow that guy's rich" everyone said"

[railz]

i think you forgot to mention that mansa musa was the richest man to walk the earth

[Ldizzil]

Cnt believe I had been brainwashed. This history is more interesting than most of the stuff in high school

[jzefeirlan]

A video about Africa, black with Islam in it and the comments aren't so bad

[ProtoStar]

Do more African based history lessons!!

[JoStylin]

Actually, this story is not a myth, this is very true. His name was Musa Keita. 'Mansa' just means King. Mansa Musa still has descendants that are alive today. Their is a singer called Salif Keita who is a direct descendant. Oh and the gold is still there, mainly in modern day Ghana (which was also part of the Mali Empire) and the Chinese are setting up illegal mines to get it.

[mrmister]

I wish Most of Africa had written the history down, it makes me mad that so much of our stuff had been lost

[mykey]

The funny thing is that when the Mali Empire was thriving, Europe was poor, violent and primitive.

[JordanWindhamBenford]

This video has really made me want to go to Africa. I really am interested to see the remaining historical monuments and ruins and get a feel for my peoples roots.

[alsyrriad]

If only we learned this much about Africa in schools. In almost every one I went to, it was all Europe this, Europe that, and I am getting tired of Europe.