This is a book about the three great states of West Africa - Ghana, Mali and Songai, who have succeeded each other for a millennium. Long before Europeans came to Africa, these states developed with their thriving large cities, with their schools and temples. The fame of the ancient powers of West Africa, created and successfully ruled by the Africans themselves without any outside interference, has spread far beyond the African mainland. In the huge trading and craft cities of the Middle East, in the noisy Mediterranean ports of Western Europe - in a word, wherever people involved in trade met, there was rumor about the myriad riches of African kings, about their military power, about their generosity and nobility.