& human rights abuses. Have little oversight and zero trickle down to the people. Essentially dismantling any control of the gold trade Wangarans may have had left. Expansion Between the 12th and 14th centuries, the Wangara extended their trade networks eastwards towards the Gao Empire & Lake Chad basin. They also moved several hundred kilometers northwards from Koumbi Saleh where they established agricultural colonies and fortified oasis towns, which served as caravanserai. Earlier travels between the 9th-11th centuries into western Takrur and Futa Jallon took place. As well as the Guinea Highlands and Volta River to the south. Their strategic movements were a response to increased commercial traffic along the trade routes - a consequence of Almoravid and Almohad political and social hegemonies and commercial activity in the Maghreb and Andalusia (9th–15th century) and, in part, an effort to consolidate Ghana's political interests in the southern Sahara. After many years of assimilating with local populations many Wangara communities identified more as a social class of their own than just ethnically Soninke. Into Yoruba Lands During the reign of Mansa Musa in the 14th century, the Wangara had traveled farther than ever before and in doing so reached the Yoruba states of southwest Nigeria. There it was called Esin Imale, "Religion of the Malians" or "Hard Knowledge". After a 2nd wave of Songhai speaking Wangara and a 3rd wave by Muslim Fulani, many Yoruba subgroups such as the Ijesa, Oyo, Ilorin, Egba & Ijebu had sizable Muslim communities by the 19th century. Into the Atlantic Coast By the 16th Century improved sailing techniques and better ships began to cause the slow decline of the long dominant Trans-Saharan trade. A much longer and dangerous route. This shift in trade from Sahara north to Pepper Coast south caused by the advent of European & Barbary ships began to weaken many African states. The new Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade fueled intertribal rivalries making matter worse. In 1505 A.D. a number of Mali Empire clans called the Mane people migrated from the Niger river to Atlantic coast in a supposed dispute turned exile of a noblewoman named "Mabete Macarico" of the Camara Clan by the Mansa (Emperor) when she addresses his incompetence. By 1570 A.D. the Mane people assimilated all the native inhabitants of modern Sierra Leone & Liberia to varying degrees. Whether it be linguistically, religiously or culturally. It is through here and Senegambia that