While lockdown, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, brought a period of turbulence to the education sector, it also brought a wealth of generosity, with a vast range of free online CPD offered by different providers. One in particular was the webinar series ‘West African History before the 1600s’ hosted by Nick Dennis, with lectures by Dr Toby Green and Professor Trevor Getz. Having chosen to participate for personal reasons, simply to enhance my own knowledge of West African kingdoms, I became enthralled and recognised how valuable such a study would be within our history curriculum. I began the process of re-auditing our schemes of work – the ‘curriculum journey’ on which we take our students – to find a way of introducing the kingdom of Mali in a format that would complement the other units we teach and help us more effectively achieve our overall learning intentions...