to return using the Sahel route. He crossed the Red Sea & arrived in Ethiopia where he was killed by Afar men known to be expert knife fighters. One or more of the 7 sons of Bilal ibn Rabah, the first Muezzin and half black Habesha was said to have arrived in Manding by following the Niger River through this path. Traveling parallel to the Muslim Conquest in the north. Finally settling in Kangaba as Prince and vassal of the Ghana Empire. Which would later combine into the Mali Empire under the rule of the same descendants. Into the Americas There are two instances of a Wangara presence in the Americas. One being the possible success of Emperor Abu Bakr II of Mali two voyages across the Atlantic Ocean in the 14th century and the more proven recordings of black Muslim "Moors" in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Mansa Musa during his Hajj in Egypt told of his predecessor Abu Bakr II. Who abdicated his throne to explore the ends of the earth to never return. First sending a fleet of 400 ships and then later personally leading another consisting of 2,000. Proof of his success is scarce & any African admixture in modern Native populations would be indistinguishable from slaves brought later by Europeans. Although some Native art with debatably African features in the form of stone structures & tablets. Copper-gold speartips of possible African origin in the Caribbean. Clothing styles similar to Muslim headwear by some early encountered tribes. Even the attestment of Europeans themselves of seeing black Natives darker than the rest. Christopher Columbus himself wrote of his 3rd voyages mission to confirm reports of "canoes of the coast of Africa ready to sail". None have been confirmed but the matter has still been up for debate among historians. Many slaves in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade were black Muslim West Africans already educated and skilled, sometimes more so than their European slavers. The exact number is unknown but ranges from 20% to 30%. Undoubtedly some were participants or at the least had knowledge of the Wangara trade networks as the Muslim slave communities in the Americas were already familiar with each other's existence. This created a subcommunity of slaves that actively sought each other out through the practices of the "Cursed Sect of Mohamet". Though still divided among ethnic & linguistic lines they ultimately united through faith. Said