Jews of the Bilad al-Sudan (Judeo-Arabic: אַהַל יַהוּדּ בִּלַדּ אַל סוּדָּן‎) describes West African Jewish communities which were connected to known Jewish communities which were expelled from the Middle East, North Africa, or Spain and Portugal and migrated to West Africa. Various historical records state that at one time, they were present in the Ghana, Mali, and Songhai empires, which was then called the Bilad as-Sudan a name which is derived from the Arabic term which means Land of the Blacks. In later years Jews who were expelled from Spain, Portugal, and Morocco and migrated to West Africa, also formed their own communities off the coast of Senegal as well as on the Islands of Cape Verde. These Jewish communities continued to exist for hundreds of years but they eventually disappear