The Women Who Held Power in Mansa Musa's Mali

Mansa Musa: The Richest Man Who Ever Lived — Fexingo History · May 25, 2026 · 6m · transcript

When we talk about the Mali Empire, we talk about Mansa Musa—the gold, the Hajj, the libraries. But what about the women who shaped that world? In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the roles of women in 14th-century Mali: from noblewomen managing estates and trade while men were on pilgrimage, to the powerful queen mothers who influenced succession, to the everyday lives of women in Mande society. Drawing on the accounts of Ibn Battuta and Al-Umari, as well as the Sunjata epic and the Kouroukan Fouga charter, we uncover a society where women could own property, inherit, and even hold…