Bamana peoples were present in the middle Niger region of West Africa as early as the twelfth century, and during the thirteenth century they were integrated into the Mali Empire. With the decline of Mali, Bamana chiefdoms regained their independence, which they largely maintained despite the rise of the Songhay empire to the northeast. After the sixteenth-century Moroccan invasion of Songhay, the Bamana raided northward to the city of Jenne in the Middle Niger Delta. Local oral tradition indicates that in the midseventeenth century the Bamana may have established an ephemeral chiefdom in the neighborhood of Segu under KalaJan Kulubali, a descendant of Barama Ngolo. However, it was not until the early eighteenth century (c.1712) that kingship (mansaya) emerged at Segu, when Mamari Kulubali developed a power base by reorganizing a men’s association, or ton, that became the dominant force in society. Mamari became the ton’s leader, received the name Biton, and from his position of power defeated opposing factions and began establishing Bamana Segu as an important state that expanded over the delta of the Middle Niger and held sway over important trade routes and commercial centers.
The city of Segu, which is located on the south bank of the Niger River in Mali, originally consisted of four
Bamana Hunter. Segu, Mali, 1976. Photograph © David C. Conrad.
Street Scene. Segu, Mali, 1976. Photograph © David C. Conrad.
Villages: Sekoro (Old Segu), Sebugu (Segu Hamlet), Sekura (New Segu), and Segu-Sikoro (Segu under the Si Trees). Nine other towns, commercial centers run by Maraka traders, were located in the immediate vicinity and were also regarded as central to the larger Bamana state. The four great boliw of Segu, potent sacrificial altars in which resided the spiritual force essential to political power and the judicial process, were kept at the administrative center because they were controlled by the faama. The Bamana rulers of Segu, who imposed and maintained their authority through force of arms, were known by the military title faama in preference to the more benign mansa, which is the usual term for “ruler,” “king,” “chief,” or “Lord.”
One of the most eventful periods in Segu history was the period of transition between c. 1757 and c. 1766, which saw the demise of Kulubali power and the rise of the Jara dynasty. Biton Kulubali (d.1755) was succeeded by two sons: Cekoro was a leper whose despotic rule (c. 1755-1757) led to his eventual assassination by members of the ton, who were known as tonjonw. Bakari ruled for a short time in 1757, but he was a Muslim, which complicated his relations with the non-Muslim tonjonw and made it impossible for him to rule effectively. Concluding that the governing style introduced by Biton was unacceptable and wishing to restore the previously egalitarian system of the ton, the tonjonw killed Bakari Kulubali along with the rest of Biton’s family.
Ton Mansa Dembele then became the first of several former slaves elected to rule at Segu, but he insisted on living at Ngoin, about 7 kilometers from Segu. This and Ton Mansa’s determination to build a canal to bring water from the Niger to Ngoin caused other ton members to fear the emergence of a new center of power. One source claims that Ton Mansa was ambushed by the ton members, and another says he died of infection from an arrow in the ear that was possibly shot by one of his own men.
The next slave chief to be elected was Kanubanyuma Bari (c. 1760-1763), who was a Fula. He is said to have been particularly occupied with raiding his predecessor’s territory for slaves, and was regarded with suspicion by Bamana tonjonw, who feared that his leadership meant too much Fula influence in the ton. Kanubanyuma died in mysterious circumstances, possibly helped along by his chief rival Kafajugu, who became the third successive slave chief to be faama of Segu (c. 1763-1766). Kafajugu died after two or three years in power, and again there is disagreement about whether he died a natural death or was killed by another ton chief.
A period of uncertainty followed, when nobody dared to assume authority, the elder ton members due to prudence, and the younger ones because they were not sure if they had the necessary support. Ngolo Jara, who had once been a slave of Biton, was just one ton chief among many. It does not appear that Ngolo had any reason to believe that if he became faama his fate would be any different than that of his immediate predecessors unless he did something to forestall his rivals and enemies. Sources differ about how Ngolo outwitted his rivals and forced them to swear their allegiance to him and his descendants, but the entire sequence of events that transpired during the period of transition between the death of Biton and the rise of Ngolo contributed greatly to Segu’s reputation as a place of treachery and intrigue.
Ngolo Jara established a dynasty, the Ngolosi (descendants of Ngol) that would rule Segu for nearly a century. During his reign, which lasted some 25 years, Ngolo successfully reasserted Bamanafanga, or power of the king, reorganized the army and political administration (putting his sons in command of each of the five central districts), placed important commercial towns under state protection, and expanded the Segu state through military conquest. The oral sources agree that Ngolo died while leading his army into Mossi country, apparently sometime before 1790. Ngolo had chosen his son Monzon to succeed him, but three of Ngolo’s other sons wished to divide the power among themselves. This resulted in a civil war in which one of the brothers allied himself with the neighboring Barnana state of Kaarta. After a prolonged struggle against numerically superior forces, Monzon conquered Kaarta, overcame his brothers, and reestablished his power at Segu in 1794-1795. When the intrepid Scottish explorer Mungo Park passed by Segu in 1805, it was Monzon Jara who sent him a message assuring him protection as far as Timbuktu.
Monzon died in 1808 and handed over power to Faama Da, whom oral tradition recalls as being the “favorite son.” According to some sources, the eldest son was Cefolo, who would normally have been next in line, but Da was by far the more accomplished in military matters, providing strong support for his father’s exploits as well as leading successful campaigns himself. The tonjonw wanted to consider the elder Cefolo and several of Monzon’s brothers for the succession, but Faama Da gained control of Segu and consolidated its territorial possessions. Upon Faama Da’s death in 1827 his brother Cefolo finally took power (1827-1839). During the reign of Cefolo’s successor Nyenemba, the neighboring Fula kingdom of Masina staged a strong rebellion against Segu authority in 1839. Masina was subdued by Bakari Jan Kone, hailed by oral tradition as one of Segu’s greatest heroes. Following the brief rule of Nyenemba there were five more Ngolosi rulers of Segu: Kirango Ben (1841-1849), Naluma Kuma (1849-1851), Masala Demba (1851-1854), Torokoro Mari (1854-1859), and Ali Jara, who was in power when Segu was conquered in 1861 by the Tukulor army of Alhaj ‘Umar Tal.
David C. Conrad
Further Reading
Bazin, Jean. “War and Servitude in Segou.” Economy and Society, no. 3 (1974): 107-144.
Conrad, David C. (ed.). A State of Intrigue: The Epic of Bamana Segu according to Tayiru Banbera. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Djata, Sundiata A. The Bamana Empire by the Niger: Kingdom, Jihad and Colonization 1712-1920. Princeton, N. J.: Markus Wiener, 1997.
Kesteloot, Lilyan. “Le Mythe et l’Histoire Dans la Formation de l’Empire de Segou.” Bulletin IFAN, no. 3 (1978): 578-681.
Kesteloot, Lilyan (ed.). Lepopde Bambara de Segou. 2 vols. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1993.
Park, Mungo. Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa in 1795, 1796, and 1797 (1799) and The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa in the Year 1805 (1815). In The Travels of Mungo Park, edited by Ronald Miller. London: Everyman, 1960.
Roberts, Richard L. Warriors, Merchants, and Slaves: The State and the Economy in the Middle Niger Valley, 1700-1914. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1987.
World History
