Decline of the Ghana Empire

Timeline

1. 1131–1135Koumbi Saleh · MauritaniaAfter the Murabit conquest of 1076, the Ghana royal house briefly returned to Koumbi but was unable to rebuild its former hegemony. Archaeological layers of Koumbi in the 1130s show population decline and abandoned buildings; although the name 'Wagadu' was still used, actual rule had shrunk to a limited area around the capital.
2. 1135–1140Senegal River basin and the Niger bend · SahelFormer vassals such as the Sosso and Kaniaga gradually broke free in the 1130s, no longer paying tribute to Koumbi. Parts of the trans-Saharan gold-salt trade shifted eastward to the Niger River basin, where Mande merchant communities in Gao and Djenné accumulated wealth and political capital, transitioning West Africa's power structure from a unipolar empire to a multipolar system of city-states and emerging kingdoms.