Bamana kingdom

  General Description   The Bamana Kingdom was founded in 1712 by Biton Kulibali ^[1] and became part of the Tukulor (or Toucouleur) empire in 1861, when El Hajj Umar Tall seized the capital, Segu. ^[2] This polity derives its name from its dominant ethnic group, ^[3] and because an alternative name for this group is ’Bambara’, some sources will refer to the ’Bambara kingdom’. ^[4] Because this was not the only Bambara kingdom at the time, it is often known as the Bambara Kingdom of Segu, from the name of its capital. French spellings of some of these names are also commonly found in the literature ‒ for example, Kulibali is sometimes spelled Coulibaly and Segu is sometimes spelled Segou. ^[5]
The kingdom was located in the Niger Bend, in West Africa. Between 1725 and 1751, under Biton’s leadership, the Bamana of Segu conquered the whole of Bamana territory (including the Beledugu region, Jenne, and Timbuktu), and took Niani, the capital of the Mali Empire. ^[6] After a series of weak successors, Ngolo Diarra (1766‒1790) strengthened the kingdom’s hold over Timbuktu and Macina and conquered part of Dogon country. ^[7] The Bamana Kingdom reached its greatest size under the rule of Monson Diarra (1792‒1808), who extended Segu power from San to Timbuktu, and from the Land of the Dogons to Kaarta. ^[8]
Population and Political Organization
The Bamana kingdom was ruled by single leader, known as the faama, who also led the army and was advised by an assembly of 40 men, including warriors and holy men. This assembly was based on a pre-existing Bamana institution known as fla-n-ton or ton, that is, an association of young men who had undergone circumcision together. With exceptions like Biton Kulibali and Ngolo Diarra, it seems that most faama were weak and ineffectual, at the mercy of the assembly. Stronger rulers, however, were able to govern with few constraints. ^[7]
It is also worth noting that slavery was an important institution in the Bamana kingdom: the trade in slaves for guns and horses lay at the heart of the power of this nascent ’warrior-state’. ^[9]
No official population estimates could be found for the Bamana Kingdom. However, the kingdom covered about half the territory of modern Mali, Guinea and Senegal, and the total population of these three countries in 1960 was around 12 million. ^{[10] [11] [12]} No reference could be found to a population crash between 1800 and 1960, but demographic growth was probably slower in the 19th century than in the 20th century. The population of the Bamana Kingdom in 1800 may have numbered three or four million people.

[1]: (Brett-Smith 2002, 940) Sarah C. Brett-Smith. 2002. ’Bamana Identity, State Formation, and the Sources of Bamana Art’. American Anthropologist 104 (3): 939-52.

[2]: (Oloruntimehin 1972, 141) B. Olofunmilayo Oloruntimehin. 1972. The Segu Tukulor Empire. London: Longman.

[3]: (Brett-Smith 2002, 939-952) Sarah C. Brett-Smith. 2002. ’Bamana Identity, State Formation, and the Sources of Bamana Art’. American Anthropologist 104(3): 939-952.

[4]: (Izard and Ki-Zerbo 1992, 329-338) Michel Izard and Joseph Ki-Zerbo. 1992. ’From the Niger to the Volta’ in "General History of Africa, vol. 5: Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries", edited by Bethwell Allan Ogot. London: Heinemann.

[5]: (Brett-Smith 2002, 940) Sarah C. Brett-Smith. 2002. ’Bamana Identity, State Formation, and the Sources of Bamana Art’. American Anthropologist 104(3): 939-52.

[6]: (Izard and Ki-Zerbo 1992, 333) Michel Izard and Joseph Ki-Zerbo. 1992. ’From the Niger to the Volta’, in General History of Africa, vol. 5: Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries, edited by Bethwell Allan Ogot, 327-67. London: Heinemann.

[7]: (Izard and Ki-Zerbo 1992, 333-34) Michel Izard and Joseph Ki-Zerbo. 1992. ’From the Niger to the Volta’, in General History of Africa, vol. 5: Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries, edited by Bethwell Allan Ogot, 327-67. London: Heinemann.

[8]: (Izard and Ki-Zerbo 1992, 334) Michel Izard and Joseph Ki-Zerbo. 1992. ’From the Niger to the Volta’, in General History of Africa, vol. 5: Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries, edited by Bethwell Allan Ogot, 327-67. London: Heinemann.

[9]: (Brett-Smith 2002, 941) Sarah C. Brett-Smith. 2002. ’Bamana Identity, State Formation, and the Sources of Bamana Art’. American Anthropologist 104 (3): 939-52.

[10]: (World Bank 2016) World Bank, World DataBank. 2016. ’Mali: Population, total’ [dataset]. Retrieved from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=ML&view=chart.

[11]: (World Bank 2016) World Bank, World DataBank. 2016. ’Guinea: Population, total’ [dataset]. Retrieved from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?end=1960&locations=GN&start=1960&view=chart.

[12]: (World Bank 2016) World Bank, World DataBank. 2016. ’Senegal: Population, total’ [dataset]. Retrieved from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?end=1960&locations=SN&start=1960&view=chart.