Status Updates From An African History of Afric...

I got an idea of just how extensively Islam grew in West Africa when I was in Senegal, which made up part of the Ghana Empire. In the Senegalese capital Dakar, when it was time for Friday lunchtime prayers just about everybody stopped what they were doing and headed to the mosque. Around 95% of Senegalese today are Muslim.

Dr. Kane explained to me how Ghana traded gold, weight for weight, for salt with the rulers of North Africa, which had abundant sources of rock-salt bars from salt mines.

Today, around 40% of the population of Morocco and 30% of Algerians are Berber, and there are small but sizable minorities in Tunisia and Libya as well as millions of people of mixed heritage. The Berber language is still often spoken within these communities.

Broadly speaking, Sunnis (who today constitute about 90% global Muslims) focus on following the Prophet's example, with no intercessor being necessary between the believer and Allah; whereas Shias emphasize the lineage of the Prophet's family through a series of imams and rely on a 'clergy' such as ayatollahs to guide them in their faith.