We all know the story of Mansa of Musa, he was the richest person in the history of the world. The amount of gold he had was so much that stories tell he was carrying tons of gold, and yes TONS, of gold, just to spread to people around him when he arrives in a new city, as basically charity or donation.

It is literally impossible to calculate his wealth, how can you calculate wealth of someone who can drop a ton of gold anytime he wishes, that type of wealth never existed in history before, certainly not back when money actually was tangible, unlike "networth" we have now. That was in Africa, and that was great for them. You know what happened? Imperialism, we had west developing military a lot faster, and they used that to enslave anywhere they seem fit, could be Africa, could be China, could be India, could be Americas, they just went and took what they want which left everyone else poor, but Africa even poorer because not only they took their resources, but they took their people too.