Traditional African Boat Designs

I usually don't make topics on forums but people have covered other interesting African cultural topics here and I thought indigenous water vessels, rarely discussed at all for some reason, should be touched on more as well. It might also help remedy the Malian voyage to the Americas theory. I'm going to try to post up some of the larger, more ship-like ones while I'm at it. Niger river From Wiki: It is known by historians that at its height the Mali Empire built a large naval fleet under Emperor Mansa Musa in the late 13th and early 14th century.[23] Arabic sources describe what some consider to be visits to the New World by a Mali fleet in 1311.[24] Wiki on Cape Verde Possible visits from Africa The Portuguese explorers discovered the islands in 1456 and described the islands as uninhabited. However, given the prevailing winds and ocean currents in the region, the islands may well have been visited by Moors or Wolof, Serer, or perhaps Lebou fishermen from the Guinea (region) c