Clan and Village Communication. After the year 500, the populations of Soninke towns in the kingdom of Ghana averaged about 500 to 1,500 people. Larger cities, such as Kumbi Saleh, developed as centers of trade on the Niger and Senegal Rivers while about 80 percent of the people lived in small farming compounds and worked the land cooperatively. Several farming compounds where families worked together formed a clan and from it a village. A village leader appointed by the local king assigned land to each family as needed. One family might be assigned to grow food on a piece of land, while another received the right to harvest fruit from trees growing on the same property. If a disagreement arose about who could do what, families could go to the local king for a decision or to the king in the capital city. Writing in...