Challange: Malian Colonies.

Would it be possible for Mali to:
a) Not get really bad leaders and go into decline
b) have some colonies at least 500 miles away from mainland Mali

IDK how far back the PoD has to be,
 
Would it be possible for Mali to:
a) Not get really bad leaders and go into decline
b) have some colonies at least 500 miles away from mainland Mali

IDK how far back the PoD has to be,

Your beat bet would be for Mali to take over Morroco in it's initial stages of growth.... Then maybe Mali would come into contact with Europeans, when this happens give Mali a leader who is western minded so he can modernize the army. Mali has a ton of gold I'm sure some power would impart knowledge for the gold and valuable map routes across Africa. What do you think.
 
Have Musa I follow up on what previous mansas had done and send expeditions West across the Atlantic. Eventually you get Islamic West African colonies in the New World at least a century before Christian West European ones.
North African sources describe what some consider to be visits to the New World by a Mali fleet in 1311. According to these sources, 400 ships from the Mali Empire discovered a land across the ocean to the West after being swept off course by ocean currents. Only one ship returned, and the captain reported the discovery of a western current to Prince Abubakari II; the off-course Mali fleet of 400 ships is said to have conducted both trade and warfare with the peoples of the western lands. It is claimed that Prince Abubakari II abdicated his throne and set off to explore these western lands. In 1324, the Mali king Mansa Musa is said to have told the Arabic historian, Al-Umari that "his predecessors had launched two expeditions from West Africa to discover the limits of the Atlantic Ocean."
 
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