The area that now is the AFF has been occupied by peoples of all ethnicities since nearly the dawn of time. Berbers, Mandé people, Arabs, Bafours, and many more have occupied the area and changed from their nomadic ways to create the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, and the Songhai Empire. Timbuktu was a key city in these empires as an outpost for trans-Saharan trade and a center for scholarship.