Bamana Peoples History
It was the 12th century when the Bamana peoples first lived in the middle Niger area of West Africa. By the 13th century, they were part of the Mali Empire. When Mali fell, the Bamana chiefdoms got their independence back, and they mostly kept it even when the Songhay kingdom grew to the northeast.
After Morocco invaded Songhay in the 1600s, the Bamana Peoples went on a raid on the city of Jenne in the Middle Niger Delta. According to local legend, the Bamana may have established a short-lived chiefdom in the Segu region around the middle of the seventeenth century under the leadership of KalaJan Kulubali, a descendant of Barama Ngolo. However, royalty (mansaya) didn’t start to appear at Segu until around 1712, when Mamari Kulubali built his power by reorganizing a men’s group called the ton and making it the most powerful group in society.
Mamari was made head of the ton and given the name Biton. From that position of power, he defeated rival groups and started building Bamana Segu into a major state that covered the Middle Niger Delta and controlled major trade routes and business hubs. Mali’s Segu city is on the south shore of the Niger River. It was once made up of four villages: Sekoro (Old Segu), Sebugu (Segu Hamlet), Sekura (New Segu), and Segu-Sikoro (Segu under the Si Trees).
In the area, there were nine other towns that were important to the bigger Bamana state.
Maraka traders ran the commercial hubs in these towns. The faama managed the four great boliws of Segu, which were powerful altars for sacrifices where the spiritual force needed for politics and the law lived. They were kept at the administrative center.
The Bamana kings of Segu used force to take and keep power. They were called faama, a military title, instead of mansa, a more polite word for “ruler,” “king,” “chief,” or “Lord.” After the Kulubali dynasty fell, the Jara dynasty rose to power, making the years between about 1757 and 1766 one of the most exciting in Segu history.
After Biton Kulubali (d. 1755), he had two sons: Cekoro was a leper whose cruel rule from about 1755 to 1757 led to his death by his members, who were called tonjonw. Bakari was king for a short time in 1757, but because he was a Muslim, getting along with the non-Muslim tonjonw was hard for him, and he couldn’t run the country well.
The tonjonw killed Bakari Kulubali and the rest of Biton’s family because they thought Biton’s way of running things was wrong and wanted to go back to the formerly fair system of the ton. Then Ton Mansa Dembele was chosen as the first of several former slaves to rule at Segu. However, he refused to move to Segu and instead chose to live in Ngoin, which is about 7 kilometers away.
Ton Mansa’s plans to build a waterway to bring water from the Niger to Ngoin made other Ton members worry about the rise of a new power center. One source claims that Ton Mansa died as a result of an infection, while another claims that one of his own men may have shot the arrow that struck him in the ear. The next slave chief to be chosen was Fula Kanubanyuma Bari, who lived from about 1760 to 1773.
People say that he spent a lot of time raiding his predecessor’s land for slaves. Bamana Tonjonw didn’t trust him because they thought that, as leader, he would give the Fula too much power in the ton. It’s not clear how Kanubanyuma died, but his chief foe, Kafajugu, may have helped him. Kafajugu became the third slave chief to be faama of Segu (around 1763–1766).
There is still debate about whether Kafajugu died of old age or was killed by another Ton chief. He was in power for two or three years.
After that, there was a time of doubt when no one dared to take charge. The older members were being cautious, and the younger ones weren’t sure if they had the support they needed. Biton used to own Ngolo Jara as a slave, but he was only one of many ton chiefs.
It looks like Ngolo didn’t think that if he became faama, his life would be any different from those of the faama who came before him unless he did something to stop his foes and enemies. Different sources have different stories about how Ngolo tricked his rivals and made them swear allegiance to him and his descendants.
However, the events that happened between Biton’s death and Ngolo’s rise to power made Segu famous for being a place full of betrayal and suspicion.
Ngolo Jara set up a family line called the Ngolosi (Ngol’s descendants) that would rule Segu for almost one hundred years. During his 25-year rule, Ngolo successfully reestablished Bamanafanga, or the king’s power. He also reorganized the army and the political system by putting one of his sons in charge of each of the five central districts. He also protected important commercial towns and used force to expand the Segu state.
All of the people who spoke about Ngolo agree that he died while leading his army into Mossi territory, which must have been before 1790. Even though Ngolo wanted his son Monzon to take over as king, three of his other boys wanted to share the power.
This caused a civil war, and one of the brothers joined forces with the nearby state of Kaarta in Barnana. After a long battle against larger, stronger armies, Monzon took over Kaarta, beat his brothers, and regained control of Segu in 1794 and 1795.
In 1805, when the brave Scottish traveler Mungo Park went by Segu, it was Monzon Jara who sent him a message promising to keep him safe all the way to Timbuktu. When Monzon died in 1808, he gave his power to Faama Da, who is said to have been the “favorite son” of the locals.
According to some sources, Cefolo was the oldest son and would have been next in line.
However, Da was by far more skilled in military things, and both backed up his father’s exploits and led successful campaigns himself. The tonjonw wanted to choose the next king from the older Cefolo and a few of Monzon’s brothers, but Faama Da took over Segu and made its land holdings stronger. When Faama Da died in 1827, his brother Cefolo finally took over (1827–1839).
Back in 1839, when Nyènèmba took over as king after Cefolo, the Fula kingdom of Masina rose up against Segu rule in a big way. Bakari Jan Koné, regarded as one of Segu’s best heroes, tamed Masina. Nasir Nyènèmba was the first Ngolosi king of Segu. Following him were Kirango Ben (1841–1849), Naluma Kuma (1849–1851), Masala Demba (1851–1854), Torokoro Mari (1854–1859), and Ali Jara, who was in charge when Alhaj ‘Umar Tal’s Tukulor army occupied Segu in 1861.
Also Read: Songhay Empire: The Incredible History of the Askiya Dynasty
