[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

The cities of Timbuktu, Djenne, and Gao have preserved historical sites that date back into the 12th century. They were major trade cities and Timbuktu was noted as a city of scholars (Sankore was one of the major centers of learning), at one point having almost a quarter of it’s population as students of some kind. Hundreds of thousands of pages of scholarly works still exist.

During European colonialism, much of the history of these locations and former empires was either suppressed to keep the colonies under the heel of the French and Belgians who controlled the area or were dismissed as fanciful tales by European based scholars.

But archeology and historical examination show that the Ghana/Mali/Songhai empire thread held a large part of western Africa from around the 4th century until the late 16th century and the major cities of Timbuktu and Gao were important centers of trade and power from the 10th century into the 16th century.

[Ohioan]

Have not studied the other two cities, but Timbuktu had a cosmopolitan population in which the leadership was either Arab or Berber, at the time of the study that I read. It is a serious logical error to simply lump all the peoples in a vast geographical region together.

This is true not only in Africa, but everywhere. All Europeans are not similar in talent; nor are all Asians, etc.. Moreover, all aptitudes are not measured by IQ. The fact is that all races and sub-races are different, and should be respected for whom they are, not whom the internationalists & other international meddlers, seeking to remake other people's heritage, want to pretend they are.

People are not interchangeable. Those who want to pretend that they are have agendas that are not compatible with anyone's liberty or well being.

[antidisestablishment]

Africa has 2/3 of the world’s languages. The lack of a common language fosters tribalism. I had a very conservative linguistics professor in school who posited the suppression of a lingua franca was one of the major reasons for Africa’s lack of progress.

It’s no surprise the Democrats work so hard to devolve American into tribal cultures. It’s a very successful way to invite social disorder, and its resultant authoritarian governments.

[publius911]

You've go to do better than spout names facts and fantasies from unknown sources.
Give us links to documented sources or we can simply assume that you have a great imagination and are reluctant to name mythical sources.

No "great" civilization that leaves no evidence of its existence, other than enthusiastic believers is worth arguing about.