BY: 

AASHNA TOGARI 

ADITI GOYAL

Niani, January 1324, Morning                         Journal Entry #1 

For me today is a significant day of my life. I am just one of 60,000 people, about 90 camels, and 24,000 pounds of gold. Of course, I am going on the hajj totally out of choice to fulfill my want for knowledge. This journey will be extremely hard since we shall be traveling for over 3,500 miles. I have mixed feelings as I move up toward Mansa Musa through the humongous crowd. It will be a great experience to go on this journey. Also, I might be remembered by many as one of the great scholars who accompanied the wealthiest man in the world in his most wide-known journey. Because of my social rank, Mansa Musa may ask me to help him pass out gold. Going on this trip is a great privilege. Although this trip has many great things, I am also a bit scared. In addition to being afraid of leaving my sister back in Nani, I am terrified about the journey to Mecca. There are other obstacles along the way too. We will have to cross harsh deserts and mountains. The camels are getting antsy, time to go!

                                                    Sincerely, Kankou 

Walata, February, 1324, Morning                   Journal Entry #2 

My caravan and I have been traveling for a few days now.  I hadn't had a good drink of water for quite a few days. Although we have plenty of water now, the journey ahead of us is really long, so the king ordered conservation of water. There are traders coming from Sudan and some North African Berbers. Gold and salt mines are pretty close by, so those are some items being traded.  A lot of the salt comes from the northern village of Taghaza. Since it is pretty quiet, I have a lot of time to think about things that I don't usually get time to think about.  For example, after a lot of thought, I have finally come up with a topic for my next book; I plan to start working on it once I am done with this.  Well, I hope that this journey continues to be good. Mansu Musa is calling me, I have to go.

                                                             Sincerely, Kankou 

Taghaza, March 1324, dusk                Journal Entry #3

So far, the journey to go on the hajj has been going pretty well.  Right now, I am in Taghaza, and I am in shock that the city is literally made of salt!  It is interesting to observe that all the currencies and trade are salt as well. Mansa Musa is giving away some gold here and there, but clearly it seems to have much less value to the Taghazan's than salt.  Even the water has turned into a horrible salty liquid.Recently, I have heard people arguing about this route that we have chosen to go on the hajj. As anxious as I am to get to my final destination in one piece, this route will give me tons of information to put in my books.  When I get back home, these books shall probably be added to one of the libraries here in Timbuktu,   Already, in my free time, I have started writing the first chapter of one of these books.  Anyway, I should get going; I prefer not to be in the back of the caravan.  

       Sincerely, Kankou