The "Bright Age." While Europe was going through the Dark Ages and Middle Ages and then entering its Renaissance, West Africa was in its "Bright Age." The thriving kingdom of Ghana, founded near the Senegal and Niger Rivers, reached its peak in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Like the later West African empires of Mali and Songhai, Ghana had all the elements of a strong civilization, including a formal government, industry, urbanism, religion, arts, and commerce. These advanced civilizations south of the Sahara Desert were founded by indigenous peoples, not by Muslims from the north or by people from the Mediterranean region.

Historical Sources. The history of the West African kingdoms was passed on by oral traditions and some written sources that included what was called "the knowledge" of the people. Much of this information was subsequently lost. Many of the historical sources available to modern scholars are...