For 800 years, between the ninth and sixteenth centuries, sub-Saharan West Africa was controlled by a series of great empires. Taking advantage of their large resources of gold and trans-Saharan trade, the empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhay in turn expanded their influence over this region. I invite you to return with me to the history of these three great empires, to discover how they were born, how they flourished, and how they collapsed