Bamana Empire

Origins

Around 1712 Mamari Kulibali, known as Biton, turned a young men's association of Bambara hunters and farmers into a standing army and made himself king at Segou. He defeated rivals, raided the Niger valley and created a kingdom that dominated the middle Niger from Djenne towards Timbuktu.

Rule and society

The army, the tonjon, was made up largely of war captives bound to the king, and in 1766 its commander Ngolo Diarra seized the throne and founded a new dynasty. Under Da Monzon Diarra in the early 19th century Segou reached its height. Most Bambara followed traditional religion, while Muslim Marka and Somono traders and boatmen handled commerce. Mungo Park passed through Segou in 1796.

Decline and legacy

Segou fought the Massina Empire for decades but fell to Umar Tall, who took the city in March 1861 and made it the capital of the Toucouleur Empire. Bambara memory of Biton and Da Monzon lives on in epic poetry.