<P> According to one account, Sakoura was murdered on his return trip from Mecca in or near present - day Djibouti by a Danakil warrior attempting to rob him . The emperor's attendants rushed his body home through the Ouaddai region and into Kanem where one of that empire's messengers was sent to Mali with news of Sakoura's death . When the body arrived in Niani, it was given a regal burial despite the usurper's slave roots . </P> <P> The Gbara selected Ko Mamadi Keita as the next mansa in 1300 . He was the first of a new line of rulers directly descending from Sundiata Keita's sister, Kolonkan Keita . But, seeing as how these rulers all shared the blood of Maghan Kon Fatta, they are considered legitimate Keitas . Even Sakoura, with his history of being a slave in the Keita family, was considered a Keita; so the line of Bilal had yet to be broken . </P> <P> It is during the Kolonkan Keita lineage that the defining characteristics of golden age Mali begin to appear . By maintaining the developments of Sakoura and Abubakari Keita I, the Kolonkan Keita mansas steered Mali safely into its apex . </P> <P> Ko Mamadi Keita was crowned Mansa Gao Keita and ruled over a successful empire without any recorded crises . His son, Mansa Mohammed ibn Gao Keita, ascended the throne five years later and continued the stability of the Kolonkan Keita line . </P>

What event led to the decline of the mali empire