Mali: Political History and Notable Figures

1235 - 1610 - Mali Empire (All Facts)

• Empire whose capital was at Timbuktu

• Based in modern-day Sudan, it flourished by the 1300s

1235 - 1255 - Sundiata Keita (All Facts)

• First Mansa and Founder of the Mali Empire

  • He was a Malinke chief who liberated his people from the yoke of Samunguru Kante, King of Sosso

    • He escaped King Samunguru Kante of Sosso’s persecution of his 11 heirs, despite being a sickly and semi-crippled child and thrived and escaped to exile

    • He was then called back by his people and united the Malinke against the Sosso, leading them to victory

    • He and his Malinke forces defeated Samunguru Kante and his Sosso forces in the Battle of Kirina, thus laying the foundations for the establishment of the Mali Empire

• He built the Mali Empire, which stretched from the Atlantic in the West to the Gao in the East; he

  • Expanded his kingdom, having occupied the Kingdom of Ghana

  • All the major caravan entrepots of the southern Sahara

• He was a Muslim who used his connections with others of his faith to establish trade relationships with North African and Arab merchants

  • In so doing, he cultivated a thriving gold trade in Mali

  • Thus, under his reign, Mali’s wealth grew tremendously

• His empire was the biggest and richest in Africa at the time, having under his control

  • the copper mines at Takedda

  • the salt mines at Taghaza

  • the gold mines at Bure

• So rich was Mali under his reign that it was described as having “mountains of gold” and in which the trans-Saharan caravan trade to Morocco was, in Europe, called “the golden trade of the Moors”

1260s - Uli (All Facts)

• 2nd Mansa of the Mali Empire

• He embarked on a famous pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj)

1312 - 1337 - Mansa Musa (All Facts)

• Ruler of the Mali Empire

• Made a Hajj where his lavish displays of gold left a lasting impressions

  • His entourage was the most lavish recorded in the annuals of the haj, having consisted of 500 slaves and 100 camels carrying gold and escorted by 15,000 cavalry

  • He was so wealthy that his visit caused inflation in Egypt and in Europe it was said that he determined the price of gold

  • Afterwards, he returned to Timbuktu, his home and capital of his empire

• While most Muslim rulers during his time made Hajj as an exercise in political prestige-building, his lacked in political motivation so much so that even the most cynical were impressed by the sanctity of his motivations

  • When he discovered that an audience with the Egyptian Mameluke Sultan al-Malik an Nisran meant kissing the ground in his honor, he refused, saying that he would only kiss the ground in honor of its creator Allah

• When he reached Gao upon his return from the Jajj, he ordered his royal architect, as-Sahali, to build a new Mosque there

• During his reign, he developed Timbuktu into the main Saharan entrepot for the Mali Empire’s gold exports

• Under his reign, a university developed that attracted scholars from all over the Islamic World

1652 - 1682 - Kaladian Coulibaly (All Facts)

• King of Mali / Segou who made his kingdom into a regional power, guaranteeing the independence of the Bambara people

1712 - 1861 - Segou Empire (All Facts)

• Founded by the Bambara people, from the Jenne region, when they overthrew the last of the kings of the Kingdom / Empire of Mali

• It was a non-Muslim state which challenged and eventually overtook the declining Kingdom / Empire of Mali to its west

• It was located upstream from Timbuktu

1712 - 1755 - Bitòn Mamary Coulibaly (All Facts)

• First Ruler and Leader of the Segou Empire / Kingdom (modern-day Mali)

• He was elected head of the ton-den brotherhood, in which began to conscript young Bambara men into it, destroying its previously egalitarian nature

• He established the ton-den and himself as the dominant powers in the community in the Segou Empire