Mansa Moussa is the tenth « mansa » (king of kings) of the Mali Empire from 1312 to 1337. He is the grandson of Soundjata Keïta, founder of the Mali Empire.
According to Forbes, he is the richest man of all time, whose fortune is estimated at 400 billion dollars. Under the reign of Mansa Musa, the Mali Empire represented almost half of the Old World gold reserves, according to the British Museum.
Under his reign, the kingdom of Mali developed considerably. He annexed 24 cities, including Timbuktu.
The kingdom stretched for about 3,000 kilometers, from the Atlantic Ocean to present-day Niger via Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and the Ivory Coast.
Mansa made a pilgrimage to Mecca accompanied by 60,000 men, 12,000 slaves, 80 dromedaries each loaded with 130 kilos of gold powder. Mansa built a mosque every Friday. He is the one who built the oldest university in Africa: the University of Sankore in Timbuktu.