Page 127 - Empires of Medieval West Africa

E m p i r E s o f m E d i E v a l w E s t a f r i c a

route to the interior of Africa by continuing up the Sénégal River and
then overland to the Niger River. But there were two powerful West-
ern Sudanic empires standing in their way.
One of these empires was founded by al-Hajj Umar Tal (ca. 1796–
1864), a Muslim who belonged to a group called Tukulor in the Fonta
Toro region near the Sénégal River. In the 1830s and 1840s, Umar
Tal established a new religious movement. He also began equipping
his many Muslim followers with firearms purchased from coastal
traders.
Between 1848 and 1852, Umar Tal began using the concept of
jihad, or armed struggle in the service of God, as a reason to conquer
many of the small kingdoms of the Western Sudan. He took over lands
from the Sénégal River to the Inland Delta of the Niger. In 1861, Umar
Tal’s Tukulor army captured the powerful kingdom of Segu, which con-
trolled territory that had once belonged to both the Mali and Songhay
Empires.
From 1862 to 1863, the Tukulor army conquered the Fula states of
Hamdullahi and Masina in the Inland Delta, and looted Timbuktu. The
Fula and their allies soon rebelled, and Umar Tal was killed. His son
Shehu Amadu maintained the Tukulor Empire until it was weakened
by internal fighting in the 1870s and 1880s. It was finally occupied by
invading French forces in the early 1890s.
The other Western Sudanic empire blocking the French route to
the Niger River was founded by a Maninka named Samori Touré (ca.
1830–1900). Samori was from a family of non-Muslim traders. In the
1860s, he organized a private army to protect their business interests.
Sometime in the late 1860s or 1870s, Samori became a Muslim. In 1884,
he took the prestigious Islamic title of almami (or imam, a religious
leader).
Throughout the 1870s, Samori expanded his power into the
ancient goldfield of Buré and southward into the forest of what is today
eastern Guinea. The populations in the territories conquered by Samori
were mostly non-Muslim. By the mid-1880s, Samori had established
what came to be known as the Maninka Empire in what is now eastern
Guinea, western Mali, and northern Côte d’Ivoire.
To promote pride and solidarity in the population, he encouraged
them to identify their state with medieval Mali. In 1888, he tried to
convert the entire population to Islam. But many people rebelled and he
had to withdraw that policy.

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