The Tuareg people of West Africa were among the many people like the Soninke, Mende, Bambara, Songhai, Madinka, Mossi and so on that had facilitated the trans-saharan trade that saw west African empires swell with riches. According to Ibn Battuta, a 14th century CE Morocan writer and explorer who was the "African Macopolo," 12,000 train of camels, per trip, snaking through the Sahara desert to trade in the Mediterranean, was an awe to behold.

The Tuareg people of West Africa were among the many people like the Soninke, Mende, Bambara, Songhai, Madinka, Mossi and so on that had facilitated the trans-saharan trade that saw west African empires swell with riches. According to Ibn Battuta, a 14th century CE Morocan writer and explorer who was the "African Macopolo," 12,000 train of camels, per trip, snaking through the Sahara desert to trade in the Mediterranean, was an awe to behold. 

West African economies were flourishing at this time, and in the medieval era. What facilitated the trade was a new innovation that arrived from Arabia in the 4th century CE. The camel had arrived west Africa. Before then, horses and donkeys were the only means of transportation in West Africa.

Goods like ivory, Cocoa beans, soya beans, palm oil, palm kernel, sugarcane, gold, groundnuts, hides, cashew nuts and so many produce from forest empires like the Benin empire, Ashanti kingdom, city-states like Kano and the commercial cities of the earlier Nok Civilization like "Mai Kudi"(later called by a combination of tribes like the Tiv people, Igala, Gwari, Idoma etc as 'Makurdi') which was situated on the bank of the Benue river. Today the region around this city is recognized by Nigerian authorities as the "food basket of the nation."

Mediterranean goods like spices, horses and salt (which was scarce in west Africa and was sometimes used as money as well as for the preservation of food and for making African hyssops), were, in the process, obtained in the Mediterranean. 

Beside the Tuareg, who obtained local produce from Gando and Gao (goods that sometimes came from as far as the Benin city, old Kumasi, Bida and communities around the lake Chad etc), the Hausa were a well-travelled people and were able to spread their language around the Sahel, which is still widely used in west Africa till date. #AfricaThe Tuareg people of West Africa were among the many people like the Soninke, Mende, Bambara, Songhai, Madinka, Mossi and so