Originally Posted by
sktarq
One thing to remember-the part of Africa you are focused on is a hotbed of Sufi Islam. Which has some rather different takes on things like saints, what is witchcraft, and prophecy than the more classically known and D&D mined Sunni Islam. I won't go into it here but it could be a good thing to research away from these forums.
Also cavalry was a key aspect of the Sahel communities becoming the larger and powerful Mali-Songhai type. And horse took a while to arrive historically and were limited by TseTse fly lands (a major factor in limiting these nations advance.
Try figuring out who they are trading with and what they are trading for as this may offer clues to how various groups are seen within the society. In any such trade focused group who are defined by their interaction with outsiders you need to understand said outsiders.
Also the festivals of recoating major mudbrick buildings (which is a thing there even today) could well be played up.
Also with Timbuktu style learning-there were more small family libraries than a big centralized one. The teaching system was very competitive but each place of learning was rather small-major "centres" of learning were more like a mall of different small schools than anything else I could easily explain. Also these family libraries were very important to family honor and name-hell a fair number are still around-so you get a local shop owner selling prepaid cellphones who also maintains and guards a couple hundred books that are hundreds of years old and probably been hidden in secret places a few times a generation whenever there has been political upheaval. Which also means any house of significant size could have all sorts of secret vaults in your game.
Also-modern Mali is more centred around Bamako than places in the Sahel like Gao or Timbuktu. Make sure that this is what your player is aiming for. If her family is more southern then looking at the History of the Kingdoms of Ghana and Benin may well be more helpful.