What Life Was Like For Women In Ancient Mali

Regarding the role of women in ancient Mali, there is, unfortunately, very little firsthand information. Much can be inferred, and decent insight comes from Ibn Battuta, who, according to Britannica, was a traveler and author of the medieval Muslim world who traveled 120,000 kilometers during his life.

Upon visiting Walata, an ancient Mali city now in southeast Mauritania, Battuta was appalled at what he considered poor manners for a Muslim society. One anecdote recounts him visited a judge's (qadi) house and being greeted by an attractive young woman, which he considered inappropriate. In another instance he visited a scholar's house and found the man's wife in conversation with someone who was not her husband. When Battuta called out what he believed to be the impropriety of the situation, the man talking to the scholar's wife said, "The association of women with men is agreeable to us and a part of good manners, to which no suspicion attaches. They are not like the women of your country." In another story, Mansa Musa, on the aforementioned visit to Egypt, as stated on Global Security, was told by an Egyptian official that concubines were not allowed according to the Quran. Musa, it's recorded, renounced the practice on the spot.

Based on these accounts, it seems that Mali women lived at the intersection of Mali custom as interpreted by the Quran, with perhaps some tension when abutting the views of those outside of their own culture.