Top 10 Richest Pre-Colonial African Kingdoms

Summary

Ghana's king taxed every donkey-load of salt: one gold dinar coming in and two going out. He kept every gold nugget mined in his country for himself, leaving only gold dust to his people (al-Bakri, 1068, via Boston University African Studies Center)
When Mansa Musa passed through Cairo in 1324, the gold mithqal fell from at least 25 silver dirhams to 22 or less. According to al-Umari, the effect lasted about twelve years, though some historians question how unusual the drop was (al-Umari, in Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus of Early Arabic Sources, 1981)
Songhai's chronicle records that 300,000 mithqals of gold, about 1,275 kg, were recovered from Sonni Ali's treasury after his death (Tarikh al-Sudan, via African History Extra)
After sacking Kumasi in 1874, Britain demanded an indemnity of 50,000 ounces of gold from Asante. The British Crown Jewellers, Garrard, paid £11,000 for hundreds of looted gold items (British Museum; Victoria and Albert Museum)

#	Kingdom (Modern Country)	Peak Wealth Period	Main Source of Wealth	Headline Figure
1	Kush, Meroë (Sudan)	c. 300 BC–AD 350	Gold, iron, Nile trade	Queen Amanishakheto's tomb: 10 bracelets, 67 signet rings
2	Aksum (Ethiopia, Eritrea)	c. AD 270–610	Red Sea and Indian Ocean trade	Gold coins about 95% pure under Endubis
3	Ghana, Wagadu (Mauritania, Mali)	c. 900–1076	Gold, salt tax	1 dinar in, 2 dinars out per load of salt
4	Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe)	c. 1220–1450	Gold, ivory, cattle	Capital of up to 18,000 people
5	Kilwa Sultanate (Tanzania)	c. 1300–1505	Re-export of Sofala gold	Only gold coins struck on the East African coast
6	Mali (Mali, Senegal, Guinea)	1312–1337 (Mansa Musa)	Gold, salt, trade	Cairo gold price fell from 25+ to 22 dirhams
7	Benin (Nigeria)	15th–17th centuries	Ivory, pepper, palm oil, brass	13,000 manillas on one ship, 1513
8	Songhai (Mali, Niger)	1493–1591	Gold, trans-Saharan trade	300,000 mithqals (about 1,275 kg) in one treasury
9	Kongo (Angola, DR Congo, Rep. of Congo)	15th century–1651	Nzimbu shell monopoly, raffia cloth	Royal income of 20 million shells a year (1640s)
10	Asante (Ghana)	1701–1874	Gold	50,000-ounce indemnity demanded, 1874

This list is ordered by peak period, oldest first, rather than ranked. There is no reliable common measure for comparing the wealth of kingdoms separated by two thousand years, so each entry gives its own documented figures.

Selected Details About Each Kingdom on the List

1. Kush, Meroë (Sudan)

Rich enough that one queen's grave still filled two European museums. In 1834, the Italian treasure hunter Giuseppe Ferlini destroyed the pyramid of Queen Amanishakheto at Meroë and took her jewellery: 10 bracelets, 9 shield rings, 67 signet rings and more (Wikipedia, "Amanishakheto"). He reportedly blew the tops off more than 40 pyramids searching for gold. Most of the "Ferlini Treasure" is now in the Egyptian museums of Berlin and Munich (British Museum, object EA68502). Kush's wealth rested on more than gold. Meroë had a strong iron industry; its metalworkers were among the best of the ancient world, and it exported cotton textiles, pottery and jewellery. The Egyptian word for gold, nub, may even be the source of the name Nubia. Meroë served as Kush's last capital from about 600 BC to about AD 350, the same city where Kush built more pyramids than Egypt.

2. Aksum (Ethiopia and Eritrea)

One of the few ancient states in the world to mint its own gold coins. Aksum began minting under King Endybis around AD 270, and its coins have been dug up as far away as Caesarea and southern India (Wikipedia, "Kingdom of Aksum"). The gold coin weighed half a Roman aureus. It was about 95% pure under Endubis but had fallen to 50% or less by about 610, when gold coinage ended (CoinWeek). These were the only coins made in Africa south of the Sahara in ancient times. Aksum traded with Egypt, Rome, Persia and India, exporting frankincense, myrrh, gold, ivory and salt. Its standing was global: the 3rd-century prophet Mani counted it among the world's four great powers, alongside Persia, Rome and China. The coins also record history. King Ezana's conversion shows up in Aksum's coin designs, just as Constantine's did on Rome's (CoinWeek).

3. Ghana, Wagadu (Mauritania and Mali)

Called the richest kingdom on earth in its own time. Writing in 951, Ibn Hawqal described the king of Ghana as the wealthiest on the face of the earth, thanks to stocks of gold accumulated by him and his predecessors (Boston University African Studies Center). In 1068, al-Bakri recorded how the system worked. All nuggets from the kingdom's mines were reserved for the king, and only gold dust was left for the people, which stopped gold from losing its value. Al-Bakri also reported that the king owned a nugget as large as a big stone. In 1154, al-Idrisi wrote that the king had a single gold brick weighing thirty pounds (African History Extra). Al-Bakri never visited: he compiled his account in al-Andalus from merchants' reports. His court scene, with dogs wearing collars of gold and silver, comes from those reports. The gold came from fields such as Bambuk, whose location the Soninke kept secret from Muslim traders (Metropolitan Museum of Art).

4. Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe)

Wealthy enough to build the largest ancient structure south of the Sahara. The kingdom's capital, Great Zimbabwe, was built from the 11th century and expanded until the 15th. At its height, it covered 1,780 acres and housed up to 18,000 people (HeritageDaily). Its Great Enclosure has walls up to 11 metres high, running about 250 metres. The wealth came from controlling the gold and ivory trade from the interior to the south-east coast, through a network linked to Kilwa. Archaeologists have found glass beads from Persia, Chinese porcelain and Arabian coins at the site. It also ruled a large system: the kingdom taxed rulers across the region and had more than 150 tributaries based in their own smaller stone enclosures. Decline came in the 15th century. Around 1430, Prince Nyatsimba Mutota founded the new Kingdom of Mutapa, which soon eclipsed it. By 1450, the capital had largely been abandoned.

5. Kilwa Sultanate (Tanzania)

Struck the only gold coins ever made on the East African coast. Sultan al-Hasan ibn Sulaiman issued coins in three metals, built the huge palace of Husuni Kubwa, enlarged the Great Mosque, and hosted Ibn Battuta (African History Extra). The years from 1300 to 1330 were an era of exceptional wealth and the only time Kilwa's rulers minted gold (Fountain Magazine, 2022). Kilwa made its money from gold it did not mine. Its rulers took over the gold trade of Sofala, in modern Mozambique, and grew rich charging customs duties on visiting merchants. Much of that gold originally came from the Zimbabwe plateau. When Ibn Battuta visited in 1331, he called Kilwa one of the most beautiful cities in the world (UNESCO). Kilwa minted its own currency from the 11th to the 14th century. Its great dome, built in the 13th century, remained the largest in East Africa until the 19th century.

6. Mali (Mali, Senegal, Guinea)

Home to the ruler most often called the richest person in history. Mansa Musa set out on pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 with 8,000 courtiers, 12,000 servants and 100 camel loads of gold, according to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art (Northwestern Magazine, 2019). In Cairo, al-Umari wrote, Musa gave a load of gold to every court emir and royal official. The Cairenes profited so much from trading with his party that gold lost value in Egypt. Not all historians accept that this was exceptional: some see the price drop as normal for the period (Hero Bullion). Mali's fame reached Europe. A Spanish map of 1375 shows the king of Mali holding a gold nugget (Metropolitan Museum of Art). After returning from Mecca, Musa brought scholars and an Andalusian architect back to Timbuktu to build the Djinguereber mosque.

7. Benin (Nigeria)

Turned imported metal into one of the world's great art traditions. After trade with the Portuguese began in the late 15th century, Benin's royal brass-casting guilds greatly increased their output, fed by brass manillas, bracelet-shaped metal currency (Princeton University Art Museum). In 1513, one merchant ship alone brought 13,000 Portuguese-made manillas to Benin (Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek). In the 16th century, Benin is thought to have received about 2 tons of manillas a year (Occupational Medicine, Oxford Academic). The kingdom exported ivory, pepper, cotton and palm oil, and it also sold enslaved people. Chemical tests found that the metal in more than 700 Benin Bronzes closely matches early Portuguese trade manillas (Chemistry World). European visitors described a planned capital. From the king's court, at least 30 straight streets ran into the distance, each about 120 feet wide (The Collector). In 1897, British forces looted the palace and burned much of the city.

8. Songhai (Mali and Niger)

The largest of the West African empires, with treasuries measured in tonnes of gold. The Tarikh al-Sudan records that 300,000 mithqals of gold, about 1,275 kg, were recovered after Sonni Ali's death. Askia Muhammad spent part of it on pious works during his pilgrimage (African History Extra). He made the pilgrimage in 1496 with 500 horsemen and 1,000 infantry (Wikipedia, "Askia Muhammad I"). He reportedly took 300,000 pieces of gold and gave 100,000 to charity in the holy cities (Encyclopedia.com). Leo Africanus, who visited in 1510 and 1513, wrote that the king owned gold plates and sceptres, some weighing 1,300 pounds, a figure most historians treat as exaggeration (Boston University African Studies Center). He added that Timbuktu's coins were unstamped gold. Gold also flowed outward: Askia Ishaq sent 10,000 mithqals of gold to the Moroccan sultan al-Mansur. Morocco later invaded Songhai in 1591, drawn by its gold.

9. Kongo (Angola, DR Congo, Republic of Congo)

Ran its economy on a currency the king controlled at the source. Nzimbu, small sea shells, were harvested at the island of Luanda and held as a royal monopoly. Only the larger shells entered the market (LiquiSearch, from Wikipedia). Prices were fixed in shells: 100 bought a hen, 300 a garden hoe and 2,000 a goat. Big payments used standard units such as the funda (1,000 shells), lufuku (10,000) and kofo (20,000). Dutch visitors in the 1640s put the crown's income at twenty million nzimbu, on top of tolls on the large cloth trade. The kingdom had well over 2 million people at its peak (World History Encyclopedia). It lost its money supply in war. Garcia II gave Luanda island to the Portuguese in 1651 and switched the currency to raffia cloth. Kongo had also sold enslaved people to the Portuguese since Afonso I's reign. Its capital, Mbanza Kongo, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017.

10. Asante (Ghana)

Built an entire economy on gold. From around 1600, gold dust was used for all commercial transactions, and anyone involved in trade owned or had access to a set of brass weights and scales (Victoria and Albert Museum). Asante reached the peak of its power in the early 1800s. In 1817, the British envoy Thomas Bowdich described the Asantehene seated in a chair of ebony and gold, and watched royal goldsmiths cast in gold using the lost-wax method. The wealth made Asante a target. On 4 February 1874, British forces ransacked the palace in Kumasi. They demanded an indemnity of 50,000 ounces of gold, which King Kofi Karikari could not pay, and he fled (British Museum). The looted gold was sold in London: Garrard paid £11,000 for hundreds of pieces. In 2024, 17 of the items held by the V&A went on show in Kumasi, for the first time in over 150 years.

Quick Answers to Commonly Asked Questions About this Topic

Who was the richest African king in history?

Mansa Musa of Mali is the usual answer, based on accounts of his 1324 pilgrimage. Modern dollar figures for his fortune, such as $400 billion or more, are guesses. Historians lack an inventory of his assets, so his wealth cannot be reliably converted into today's money.

Which African kingdoms minted their own coins?

Aksum minted gold, silver and bronze coins from about AD 270 until the early 7th century. No other state south of the Sahara minted coins until Kilwa, centuries later. Kilwa minted coins from the 11th to the 14th century, and its rulers struck gold coins only during their wealthiest period, around 1300 to 1330.

Did Mansa Musa really crash the price of gold?

Al-Umari, writing in Cairo a few years later, said Musa's spending pushed the gold mithqal down from at least 25 dirhams to 22 or less, and that the effect lasted about twelve years. Other historians argue that prices in Cairo regularly moved within that range, so the 1324 drop may not have been exceptional.

Where did West Africa's gold come from?

Al-Bakri named Ghiyaru, eighteen days' travel from the king's town, as the source of Ghana's best gold. Modern historians point to the Bambuk goldfields, which Ghana's Soninke rulers kept secret from foreign traders. Later, much of Songhai's gold probably came from the Akan goldfields to the south.

What happened to the treasures of these kingdoms?

Many were looted. Ferlini took the Meroë gold in 1834, and British troops took regalia from Kumasi in 1874 and from Benin City in 1897. Much of it remains in European museums. Some has begun to go back: in 2024, the V&A sent 17 pieces of Asante gold regalia to Kumasi on loan.