about 1667 he attacked the fortress built by Biton. The siege still
continued in 1670 and Mama-Magan, despairing of its coming
to an end, retired, following the right bank of the Niger; Biton
pursued him as far up as Niani, cornered him at the river and
forced him to conclude a treaty by the terms of which the
Mandinka sovereign engaged himself not to advance in the future
downstream from Niamina, Biton, on his side, promising not to go
upstream from this point. This event marked the end of the
Mandinka Empire, which from now on, reduced to the Malinke
provinces of the upper Niger and the upper Gambia, ceased to
count among the powerful States of Negro Africa.
Biton raised a professional army on the pattern of those of the askias,
by means of ton-dion or government slaves, and organised a State
flotilla, utilising the fishermen, called Somono, and their small craft.
He set his authority solidly on all the countries between Niamina and
Djenné, captured the Bagana, and imposed his suzerainty on the
Massina and Timbuktu. In 1710, he died of tetanus resulting from
an accident, and with him, his dynasty came to an end.
In fact, his army massacred his children and relatives and took
over power; but it became divided, part sustaining the chief of the
infantry and the other part the master of the cavalry, until a servant
of the former royal family, named Ngolo or Molo Diara,
succeeded in having himself proclaimed king and founded a new
dynasty (1750). One of his successors, Monson (1792-1808),
made himself especially celebrated by the war that he waged on
his congeners, the Bambara of the Kaarta, and by a punitive
expedition that he conducted in 1803 to Timbuktu, following the
refusal of this city to pay its annual tribute to Segu.
It was under his successor Da that the Massina freed itself from
Bambara suzerainty to constitute an independent kingdom under
the command of the Fulani marabout Seku-Hamadu, of the Bari or
Sangare family (1810). The latter captured Djenné, constructed a
capital at Hamdallahi on the right bank of the Bani, and wisely
organised the administration and the finances of his kingdom. He
converted to Islam the Fulani who until then had obeyed an ardo
of the Diallo family and succeeded in substituting at Timbuktu his
own influence for that of the king of the Bambara at Segu. In fact,
he captured Timbuktu in 1826 or 1827, but his compatriots were
hated and the Fulani garrison which had been installed there
could not remain. He was to have only two successors: his son
Hamadu-Seku and his grandson Hamadu-Hamadu, who was
vanquished and put to death in 1862 by the Tukulor conqueror
EI-Hadj Omar.As for the Bambara kingdom of Segu, it disappeared at the same
epoch and in the same fashion as the Fulani kingdom of the
Massina: EI-Hadj Omar, in fact, conquered Segu on 10 March
1861, and the following year he seized Ali himself, the last king
of the Diara dynasty, who, having taken refuge with Hamadu-
Hamadu, had, in the face of the common danger, become the
ally of his former enemy. The Bambara kingdom of Kaarta had
an even shorter duration. Its beginnings went back, like those of
the kingdom of Segu, to 1660 or 1670. Less than a century after-
wards, in 1754, King Sie captured Diara. His successors
became masters of the greater part of the other provinces situated
to the north of the upper Senegal and took Bambuk and Kita from
the Mandinka.TThhee TTuukkuul loor r CCo onnqquuees st t
It was towards the same epoch, in 1776, that a revolution took place
in the Futa-Toro which was to give a powerful impetus to the
Islamisation of the Senegalese peoples. The Tukulor Negroes, the
majority of whom had been Muslims for six centuries, triumphed over
the pagan Fulani; the iman or almani Abdulkader achieved a
decisive victory over Soule-Bubu, the last prince of the Denianke
dynasty founded by Koli, and established in the Futa-Toro a theocratic
State, in the form of an elective monarchy, which was to last until
1881, the date of its annexation to the French colony of the Senegal.However, the Bambara-Masasi had continued to progress and
towards 1810 they succeeded in momentarily establishing their
suzerainty over the Khasso (region of Kayes), where the Diallo, half
Fulani and half Mandinka, had founded a little State. In 1846,
Kandia, king of the Bambara of the Kaarta, had established his
capital at Nioro, but in 1854, this capital was taken by El-Hadj
Omar, Kandia was put to death by the Tukulor conqueror and the
kingdom of the Masasi ceased to exist.Head of a Queen Mother (Benin), 16thcentury.
Nigeria.
Brass, height: 35 cm.
The Board of Trustees of the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside,
National Museums Liverpool, Liverpool.
Around the beginning of the 16thcentury, in honour of his mother, Idia, the Oba
Esigie introduced the term Queen Mother to the Benin. The original memorial
heads made of brass in this form are attributed to this period and the peaked
headdress of coral beads assures us that it represents the Queen Mother.
Cockerels were represented on altars with the brass head representations
in the Queen Mother’s palace because it was believed that she held a special
bond with them. Over time, it appears that the brass heads became a link
between the ordinary and spirit worlds, but there is no known tradition of
personal portraiture.