Madagesh was another famous trade post of Mali. When word got out about the wealth of Africa, maps were drawn up depicting the wealthy lands of Mali and its emperor. The Mali Empire served as a model of statecraft for later kingdoms long after its decline in the 15th and 16th centuries.

             Songhai, the third of the Great West African Empires, was centered on the largest bend of the Niger River and reached its zenith in the 15th and 16th centuries. The people of Songhai were fishing and trading people who dominated petty adjacent states but was overshadowed by the affluence of the Mali Empire to the west. Under the Sunni dynasty, Songhai expansion incorporated the eastern part of Mali into its empire in 1471. The Sunni dynasty was then succeeded by the Askia dynasty that made Tombouctou once again a thriving cultural center. In 1591, an assault by Moroccan forces equipped with firearms crumbled the Songhai Empire, which never recovered.

             Another magnificent empire of Africans was Old Cairo. The origins of Old Cairo can be traced back to the Egyptian capital of Memphis near the head of the Nile River delta. The location of Old Cairo has commanded political power ever since its establishment. The Mamelukes established their capital in Cairo in the 13th century, and the city became renowned for its spending on scholarship and architecture through Africa, Asia, and Europe. Old Cairo was the center of international trade from the coasts of the Atlantic to East China. Early Europeans looked to cities such as Cairo for Renaissance art work and even changed their currency to gold coins, mimicking the currency of the Africans. Cairo was noted as “the metropolis of the universe.” Cairo declined after the mid 14th century when an epidemic of Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black death, struck the city; decimating its population. This disease was believed to have been brought to Africa by Europeans.