Background
The African Trading Kingdoms consist of three main cultures, Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, all located in West Africa.  All three kingdoms maintained vast trading networks across the Sahara desert and into the Middle East and North Africa.  The main export was gold, which made each kingdom wealthy and strong, and provided them with the conditions necessary for cultural and intellectual achievement.

Islamic Influences
Ghana, Mali, and Songhai were all influenced by Islam to different degrees.  The kings of Ghana often had Islamic advisors, while Mali and Songhai established Islamic Empires after converting.  In Mali, the emperor Mansa Musa was famous for his pilgrimage to Mecca, one of the Five Pillars of Islam.  This pilgrimage gained Mali closer ties with the Islamic world, and increased trade between Mali and the Muslim Empire.

Arts & Literature
African art is often religious in nature.  Religious statues and masks were carved from ivory, wood, and bronze.  Some art was decorative, usually identifying royalty or membership in a particular clan.

Africans used both oral and written literary traditions.  Most written material is in Arabic due to the influence of Islam.  These writings contain information on government and law.  Histories and folktales were usually passed from generation to generation orally.  These stories often contained moral lessons and were used as a teaching device.

Education
During the 1400s, Timbuktu became a center of learning under the leadership of Mali emperor, Mansa Musa. Again, this is the influence of Islam, with Islamic scholars traveling from around the Muslim world to study and teach and the University of Timbuktu.

Commerce
Ghana, Mali, and Songhai established trade routes that were in use for centuries.  Besides gold, these kingdoms transported a number of agricultural products to the Mediterranean and then on to Europe.  A negative effect of this interaction was the start of the slave trade.