Mansa Musa: legacies of Mali

The final lesson in this three-part sequence widens the scope to show that Musa’s Mali was not an isolated power in Africa. The legacy of the Empire’s wealth and philanthropy - especially in learning - lasted into other empires and even survived the incursion of hostile powers such as the European colonists. Pupils should develop a sense of their being diverse and well-established political systems in pre-colonial Africa, as well as an understanding of the various forces that conspired to erase the legacies of empires such as Mali. The substantive concept to learn is ‘legacy’