African metalworks

Self-governed for all but sixty-five years of French colonial rule, the peoples of the western Sahel formed a succession of storied empires and kingdoms, from ancient Ghana (ca. 300–1200), Mali (ca. 1230–1600), and Songhay (ca. 1464–1591) to Bamana Segu (ca. 1712–1861) and the Umarian state (ca. 1850–90). As these shifting centers of political power rose…