Threads

Long reads on African history, governance, economics, culture, and what comes next.

All eras Ancient (before 500 CE) Medieval (500–1500 CE) Pre-colonial (1500–1884) Colonial era (1884–1960s) Independence era (1960s–2000) Contemporary (2000–present) Future systems & solutions

Economic Systems Medieval (500–1500 CE)

The Mali Empire's trade network — gold, salt, and scholarship from Timbuktu to Cairo

When historians describe medieval Mali they usually start with gold. That is the wrong end of the story. Gold was the commodity but the genius of the Malian …

5 min read · West Africa · 57 views

Governance & Political Systems Medieval (500–1500 CE)

Great Zimbabwe — what a stone city tells us about Shona statecraft

For a century after Carl Mauch publicized Great Zimbabwe in 1871, European antiquarians insisted the walls were built by Phoenicians, by Sabaeans, by anyone except the Shona who …

1 min read · Southern Africa · 48 views

Economic Systems Medieval (500–1500 CE)

Swahili coast trade — Kilwa, Mombasa, and the Indian Ocean before Vasco da Gama

The standard European narrative of the Indian Ocean places Vasco da Gama's 1498 arrival at Calicut as the moment the ocean became a connected commercial space. The Indian …

2 min read · East Africa · 19 views

Economic Systems Medieval (500–1500 CE)

Mansa Musa's Hajj — what the sources actually say, against the internet's exaggerations

Mansa Musa I of Mali's 1324-1325 pilgrimage to Mecca has, in recent years, become a viral subject under the framing 'the richest person in history.' The viral version …

2 min read · West Africa · 19 views

Culture & Traditions Medieval (500–1500 CE)

Swahili Coast c.1100-1498 — revisiting Mark Horton on Shanga and the origins of Swahili statehood

Mark Horton's excavations at Shanga on Pate Island, conducted from 1980 through the early 1990s, transformed the understanding of Swahili coastal origins. The pre-Horton interpretation — articulated by …

2 min read · East Africa, Indian Ocean · 19 views

Economic Systems Medieval (500–1500 CE)

Mansa Musa's pilgrimage — and the global price-shock that followed

In 1324 the *mansa* of Mali — Musa I — left Niani for Mecca with what the Egyptian chroniclers described as 60,000 people, 12,000 slaves, and so much …

5 min read · West Africa, North Africa · 26 views

Culture & Traditions Medieval (500–1500 CE)

Ge'ez liturgy, vernacular faith — language and authority in Ethiopian Orthodoxy

Walk into an Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo service on a Sunday morning in Addis Ababa, Adwa, or Asmara, and you will hear the liturgy partly in Ge'ez — a …

2 min read · Horn of Africa, Ethiopia, Eritrea · 18 views