For several centuries, West Africa has experienced mental, social, political and spiritual upheavals that have shaped its ...

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 ...

Sundiata Keita rose to power by defeating the king ... In the east, Gao began its ascendancy while remaining part of the Mali Empire. In the early 1400's, Tuareg launched a number of successful ...

Ancient Mali was essentially a trade nation ... Islam spread across West Africa as a result of his religious devotion. In the early days of the empire, Sundiata Keita took control of everything. It is ...

The famous blind couple, Amadou & Mariam, helped take Mali’s rich musical traditions to a new global audience.

Early on in his new book, "Custodians of Wonder," BBC Travel writer Eliot Stein tallies some recent effects of globalization, a process that seems to only speed up. Nine languages, he notes, are ...

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 ...