Wayne Ford is the executive director of Wayne Ford Equity Impact Institute and co-Director of the Emmy Award winning Brown and Black Forums of America. He is a former member of the Iowa legislature and the founder and former executive director of Urban Dreams.

The news cycle today is filled with headlines declaring that Elon Musk may become the world’s first trillionaire. His wealth, tied to Tesla, SpaceX, and other ventures, rises and falls daily with the stock market. This possibility captures attention, raises eyebrows, and sparks debate about inequality in the modern age.

But history reminds us to pause. Long before the stock exchange existed, long before Wall Street tracked fortunes, there was a king in West Africa whose wealth was so extraordinary that no number could capture it. His name was Mansa Musa, and his crown jewel was the legendary city of Timbuktu.

THE RICHEST MAN WHO EVER LIVED

Mansa Musa ruled the Mali Empire from 1312 to 1337. Chroniclers of his era described him as the richest man in the world—richer than any king, merchant, or emperor before or after.

His empire controlled more than half of the known world’s gold supply, in an age when gold was the foundation of global trade. In 1324, Musa made a pilgrimage to Mecca with an entourage of 60,000 people, including 12,000 servants and dozens of camels carrying gold dust.

In Cairo, he distributed so much gold to the poor—and spent so freely—that the local economy collapsed. Inflation gripped the region for more than a decade. Imagine one man moving markets not just in his homeland, but across continents.

Today, some economists estimate Musa’s wealth at $400 to $600 billion in modern terms. Others say his fortune was so vast as to be incalculable. By some measures, he may have been the world’s first trillionaire.

Musa did not hoard his fortune. He invested in people and places,—commissioning mosques, schools, and learning centers that strengthened his empire long after his pilgrimage was over. His spending built institutions; it was not only a display of generosity, but also a foundation for Timbuktu’s intellectual flowering. His gold bought bricks, books, and teachers.

TIMBUKTU: THE JEWEL OF MALI

At the heart of Musa’s empire stood Timbuktu—a name that has become synonymous with remoteness, but was once a global center of wealth and wisdom.

Strategically located at the crossroads of the Sahara Desert and the Niger River, Timbuktu connected Africa to the Middle East and Europe. Traders carried salt, ivory, and gold through its gates. But trade was only part of the story.

Timbuktu also became a city of learning. Its mosques and universities drew students and scholars from across Africa, the Middle East, and even Europe. The University of Sankoré and other schools housed vast libraries. By the 15th and 16th centuries, Timbuktu was home to hundreds of thousands of manuscripts on mathematics, astronomy, medicine, law, and theology.

These libraries made Timbuktu one of the greatest intellectual centers of its age. Some scholars argue that the city’s collections rivaled or exceeded those of European libraries at the time. Knowledge flowed from Timbuktu outward, proving that Africa was not only a land of resources, but a land of ideas.

Detail from the Catalan Atlas Sheet 6 showing the Western Sahara. The Atlas Mountains are at the top and the River Niger at the bottom. Mansa Musa is shown sitting on a throne and holding a gold coin. Bibliothèque nationale de France, via Wikimedia Commons

In Timbuktu, books were often valued as highly as gold. Manuscripts were copied, traded, and preserved with the same care as treasures. Scholars exchanged ideas across continents, making Timbuktu one of the earliest knowledge economies in the world. Long before Silicon Valley spoke of “intellectual property,” Timbuktu showed how wisdom itself could be wealth.

HOW MEASURING WEALTH HAS CHANGED

Comparing Mansa Musa to Elon Musk requires humility. Musk’s fortune is built on stocks, valuations, and the future promise of technology. His wealth is measured in stock valuations and future bets on technology, numbers that rise and fall on screens in New York or Shanghai.

Musa’s fortune was rooted in natural resources, trade routes, and land. His wealth was measured in tangible assets — gold, salt, fertile land, and control of trade routes. The difference shows how the very meaning of wealth has changed over time. What counted as fortune in the 14th century was real and touchable; what counts today is speculative and virtual.

There was no stock market in the 14th century, no Forbes list to tally assets. And yet, chroniclers insisted Musa’s wealth was so extraordinary that it defied calculation.

That is the teaching moment: wealth cannot be measured the same way across centuries. But if we allow ourselves to think beyond modern systems, we see that Musk may not be the first trillionaire after all. Centuries ago, a Black African king already embodied unimaginable wealth—wealth so vast that his generosity could alter entire economies.

WHY THE WORLD FORGOT

If this story is so powerful, why don’t most people know it? Why is Timbuktu remembered as a myth instead of a monument to human achievement?

Part of the answer lies in colonialism and Eurocentric history. European colonizers often downplayed or erased Africa’s achievements. School systems in the West praised Greece, Rome, and Europe, while Africa’s civilizations were minimized or omitted.

Even Timbuktu’s manuscripts, written in Arabic and African languages, remained locked away for centuries, inaccessible to most of the world. In recent times, political instability and extremist violence in Mali have further endangered these treasures.

The result is that generations grew up never learning that one of the greatest libraries of the medieval world was in Africa, or that a Black African king once ruled with more wealth than anyone before or since.

AFRICA AS TEACHER

This story becomes even richer when placed alongside the deeper history of Africa’s intellectual influence. Long before Timbuktu’s rise, ancient Egypt shaped the foundations of Western thought.

Historians note that philosophers like Plato, Pythagoras, and others studied in Egypt, drawing on African wisdom. Even Socrates, who taught Plato, is remembered for his openness to knowledge from beyond Greece. In this way, Africa’s intellectual traditions helped shape Greek philosophy—which in turn shaped Europe .

Seen in this light, Timbuktu was not an anomaly. It was part of a longer continuum in which Africa stood not just as a participant, but as a teacher of the world. From Egypt’s temples to Timbuktu’s libraries, Africa’s role in advancing human knowledge has been consistent and profound.

A LESSON FOR TODAY

This story is not about guilt. It is not about rivalry between races or civilizations. It is about education.

When we say Musk may be the first trillionaire, we should pause—because centuries ago, Mansa Musa of Timbuktu was already described as possessing wealth beyond measure. There was no stock market then, but there was prosperity, generosity, and knowledge on a scale the world had rarely seen.

Mansa Musa and Elon Musk reflect two very different models of wealth. Musa’s was rooted in natural abundance and shared through institutions. Musk’s is rooted in technological vision and financial markets. One built schools and libraries; the other builds rockets and electric cars. Both reshape their worlds. The lesson is not to choose between them, but to ask how today’s wealth can be used, like Musa’s, to lift people and preserve knowledge.

And when we acknowledge that Africa has been both a land of resources and a land of ideas—influencing Greece, hosting libraries as great as Europe’s, and producing a king whose fortune dwarfs imagination—we broaden our understanding of civilization itself.

If we can approach history this way, not with guilt but with curiosity and respect, we move closer to each other. Education becomes the bridge.

To sum up: Timbuktu was not just a desert city. It was a civilization. It was a beacon of trade, wisdom, and faith. It was the home of a king whose wealth still sparks awe.

Elon Musk’s fortune may dominate today’s headlines, but Mansa Musa’s story expands the horizon of history. And that is the greater treasure: not gold or stock, but knowledge. Knowledge that Africa was, and is, central to the human story. Knowledge that when we look honestly at each other’s histories, we come closer to walking together in respect.

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Sources and Notes
1. UNESCO, General History of Africa, Vol. IV: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century (Paris: UNESCO, 1984).
2. John O. Hunwick, The Timbuktu Manuscripts (Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 1999).
3. “Who Is the Richest Person Ever?” Investopedia, updated 2023.
4. Martin Bernal, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (Rutgers University Press, 1987).
5. Henry Louis Gates Jr., Africa’s Great Civilizations (PBS, 2017).
6. John Henrik Clarke, African People in World History (Black Classic Press, 1993).
7. Al-Umari, Arab historian, quoted in Niane, D.T. (ed.), General History of Africa, Vol. IV.

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Top illustration: Empire Mansa Musa, 355-1492 A.D. The Mighty Moorish Empire of North Africa, South West Asia, Iberian Peninsula and The Americas. Artwork by HistoryNmoor, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0, available via Wikimedia Commons.