Mali in latest SVN, this is the first game I didn't get Egypt and Jerusalem lately:
1. Found Timbuktu 1E from starting tile - covers 1 desert hill. 2nd settler go to Accra (don't found yet), 3rd go to Coast of Ivory, or you may found on one of plain ivory. Switch to OR + warrior code. Missionary spread Islam to Timbuktu.
2. 2 Starting units go to map the coast, 1 go NE to meet Arabs and Moors. Timbuktu build barracks.
3. On 4th turn, buy fishing+sailing by gold, buy code of laws + calender + meditation from Moors by DR. Found Accra(whip work boat on the following turn) and the other city, Timbuktu build monastery and whip at 4, then whip barracks, then use surplus hammer to build a missionary, in case you don't get automatically spread. You have chance to capture workers from Arabs, attack! I captured 4 workers near Tripoli.
4. SWITCH TO THEOCRACY-AGRARIANISM-FANATICISM-MERCENARY, build 5-6 catapults and 2-3 war elephants and also a few skirmishers, then conquer the Moors! This is when you don't get flipped camel archers or fararis(not too useful). Conquer them at all cost.
5. At the same time, Accra build a settler and settle east, 1e from the cow and by the lake. That city can grow to 9. Go on expand to east Africa, there are some plain hill by lakes that can be a decent city with low need of workforce.
6. After conquest, switch back to OR+warrior codes.
7. Research paper-printing press, switch to Catholicism before you complete. You can buy feudalism from Europeans when converted. Guilds, engineering, gunpowder, compass, optics can all be bought. Go for liberalism after PP, bulb constitution, switch to republic + representation.
8. build jails all around and begin stealing tech. You can buy astronomy from the Dutch as well, Settle North America. Contact Mughals ASAP, they have nice trade rate. Respawned Chinese sells replaceable parts. Then you'll grow too big to buy teches. Steal, steal, steal communism (from Spanish) and have a GE ready for Lubyanka, then you are good.
Europeans will be normally strong, because we can't annex them in early game. Mali got bad tech rate but decent trade and UP, so use spies.
9. In mid game, I capitulated Portugal, gifted Lisboa to French before Spain took it(they got a huge stack). in late game, I've fought French, Spanish and English, took 2-3 cities and made peace, they collapsed by themselves later (Germans conquered Paris) - Spanish empire was no more after South America revolutions. I also hexed Turks by influencing religion for only 94 EP, which made their cities fall into anarchy for 5 turns. English collapsed after I stole flight. The most important tech: assembly line, I stole from my vassal America (I conquered San Francisco from Mexicans, and Americans are scripted to conquer it in 1850). The final helper is Xi'an with Porcelain Tower and the Forbidden Palace, which lifted my income by 600 golds.