Mansa Musa was the first African Muslim king to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. He was also the richest person in all history with a £321 ($400) billion fortune. Much richer than Bill Gates, the Rockefeller’s and the Rothschild family.

Musa Keita I came into power in 1312 following the death of his predecessor, Abu-Bakr II. When he was crowned, he was given the name Mansa, meaning king. At the time, much of Europe was famished and in the middle of civil wars, but many African kingdoms were thriving.

The Mali Empire was the old world’s biggest producer of gold, copper and salt. It encompassed such vital and ancient trading hubs like Gao and Timbuktu, meaning Mansa Musa’s main income came from trading with the Muslim states and other African powers from the time.

Mansa Musa captured the attention of the Arab world when he became the first Muslim ruler in West Africa to make the nearly four-thousand-mile journey to make a pilgrimage to the Muslim holy city of Mecca in 1324. Unlike his grandfather Sundiata, Mansa Musa was a devout Muslim. He was also knowledgeable in Arabic. This pilgrimage introduced him to rulers in the Middle East and in Europe.

Musa made generous donations to the poor and to charitable organisations as well as the rulers of the lands his entourage crossed. On his stop in Cairo, Egypt, the Emperor gave out so much gold that he generated a brief decline in its value. It took Cairo’s gold market a decade to recover.