Tunka Menin
Tunka Menin
Circa 1010-circa 1078
Ruler of ghana
A Model Ruler. Having become tunka (ruler) of Ghana in 1063, Menin was on the throne when al-Bakri visited the empire in 1067 and wrote his description of that Western Sudan polity. Tunka Menin was also the ruler when Almoravids led by Abu Bakr attacked Ghana and tried to destroy it. Tunka Menin’s rulership is now used by historians as the model against which they measure the success and effectiveness of other West African statesmen of the 500-1590 period. He was highly respectful of the community traditions through which he had achieved his exalted position. He rode through community streets daily to hear his constituents’ pleas and complaints, and he dispensed justice regularly. He also administered an economic system that controlled trans-Saharan and intraregional caravan traffic, providing income and wealth for himself and the merchant elites in Ghana. He protected the trade routes, provided ethical business leadership, and used magic and mystery to wrap himself in an aura of “divine kingship,” which gave his many subjects a sense of divinely guarded safety.
Source
J. F. A. Ajayi and Michael Crowder, eds., The History of West Africa, second edition, 2 volumes (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976, 1987).