Best wishes, John Green. One more thing about Monsa Moussa, there are lots of stories that Monsa Moussa attempted to engage in maritime trade across the Atlantic Ocean. And some historians even believe that Malians reached the Americas. CNA investigation may one day prove it, but until then, we'll only have oral tradition. The Malian Empire eventually fell to Songhai, which was itself eventually overthrown for being insufficiently Islamic. All of which is to say that like China or India or Europe, West Africa had its own empires that relied upon religion and war and incredibly boring dynastic politics. Man, I hate dynastic politics.