African King who found America. Abubakari II, Mansa of Mali, before Columbus traded with new world

You may have heard of Mansa Musa, one of the richest men to have ever lived, the king of Mali who lined his path to Mecca with gold and put his kingdom on the map, literally. But have you heard about the one who made him king? Before Mansa Musa, there was Mansa Abu Bakr II. He was Mansa Musa's brother and king of the Mali empire. So how did Musa become king? On his legendary journey from Mali to Mecca, Mansa Musa crossed paths with Damascene historian Shihab al-Umari and told him how, The monarch who preceded me would not believe that it was impossible to discover the limits of the neighbouring sea. He wished to know. He persisted in his plan. Mansa Abu Bakr II was an avid traveller and had roamed all around his vast empire before yearning to discover what lay beyond the Atlantic. So he called on engineers of the Lake Chad to build ships so he could launch a fleet across the ocean. He hired a crew of sailors, traders, builders, artists, warriors and learned men and supplied them with enough rations to last two years. He told them not to return until they reached the end of the ocean or until they had run out of food and water. But after a lone captain and only one of the ships from the 200 he had sent returned to Mali, claiming that the other ships had been pulled into a current and disappeared, Mansa Abu Bakr II began to prepare a fleet once more. But this time, the brave and adventurous king decided to make the journey himself in 1311, almost 200 years before Columbus set foot on American shores. Just as Mansa Musa's journey to Hajj was legendary, so was his brother's across the Atlantic. A great leader, Mansa Abu Bakr II travelled with his men on a thousand ships and sent a further thousand ships with supplies, trade materials, crops and animals, and of course gold, which was abundant in his kingdom. So did Mansa Abu Bakr II arrive in the Americas? We may never know, but there are many signs that West African Muslims did. Some of the strongest evidence comes from the pen of Columbus himself, who wrote in his journal that Native Americans confirmed, black-skinned people had come from the southeast in boats trading in gold-tipped spears. Not only were these spearheads described as guanine by Native Americans, which was the Mandinkan word for gold, the language of the Mali Empire, but chemical analysis of those spearheads found that the gold most likely originated from West Africa. Columbus and his son also found that Native Americans had handkerchiefs like those used in West Africa and clothes similar to the Muslim Moors of Spain. Whether or not Mansa Abu Bakr II himself made it to the lands beyond the Atlantic, we cannot deny that this courageous ruler of one of the richest and largest empires on earth gave up wealth and power in pursuit of knowledge and discovery. His determination to reach the Americas could very well mean that West Africa's relationship with the Americas did not begin with slavery, but with sailors, explorers, and kings.