Timbuktu Before Columbus

Columbus wasn’t chasing gold—he was chasing ghosts. His own diary: “black men with gold-tipped

spears” already on the islands. Someone beat him to the punch. Problem: fifteenth-century

Europe thinks the world ends at the Sahara. So Columbus sails south,

smacks into Mali’s glittering ports—and the first thing he sees is a university bigger than any

in Spain. Mansa Musa’s heirs hand him paper, ink, astrolabes,

plus cotton cloth that feels like silk. Spain wanted spices; Africa offers algebra,

optics, and a Qur’an translated into Castilian in real time. Columbus—hungry

for status—converts on deck, renames his flagship “Amina” after the warrior-queen,