African Art

informed that the Mossi of the Yatenga had again invaded his
States; he immediately marched against them and succeeded in
making them retrace their steps, but in the course of the expedition
he was drowned crossing a torrent on 6 November 1492.

Here we will leave the history of the Songhoy, which we will take
up again in the following chapters, and we shall see what
happened from the 7thto the 15thcentury on the upper Niger and
at the interior of the bend of this river.

TThhee MMaannddiinnkkaa EEmmppiirree

On the left bank of the upper Niger, nearly midway betwen Siguiri
and Bamako, is the village of Kangaba, also called Joliba or
Jeliba, from the name of the great river of the borders of which it
is situated.^10 This village serves as the customary residence of the
chief of a Mandinka or Malinke family of the Kelta group that has
exercised the power there for more than thirteen centuries, with a
single interruption of fifteen years from 1285 to 1300. It is
probably the most ancient dynasty of the world still in power. Only,
after having been a simple chief of a canton, then head of a
kingdom, and finally of a veritable empire, the mansa of Kangaba
has descended the curve, becoming again a modest king or chief
of a province, to be nothing more today than the humble chief of
a canton, as was his most distant ancestor towards the beginning
of the 7thcentury.

However, this little village of the upper Niger was, during several
hundreds of years, the principal capital of the vastest empire that

was ever known in Africa and of one of the most considerable that

has ever existed in the whole world, the empire of the Mandinka

or Mande or, to employ the name which Arab historians and

geographers have bequeathed to us and which is only the Fulani

form of the word “Mande”, the empire of the Mali or Melli.

Manding or Mande is properly the province of which Kangaba is

the capital and in which are found the famous gold mines of Boure

or Boute, the Bitu of Arab authors. Its inhabitants bore, according

to the dialect, the name of Mandenga, Mandinga, or Mandinka,

from which we have made “Mandingue” [Mandinka in English] as

that of the people, and “Manding” as the name of the country;

they are called Malinke by the Fulani, a form which we have

adopted to designate the Mandinka, properly speaking, and their

dialect, reserving the appellation of “Mandinka” or “Mande” for

the whole of the population called Wangara by the Arabs.

For several centuries, the mansa or kings of Manding carried on

an obscure existence at Kangaba when, about 1050, the one

who then reigned was converted to Islam by an Almoravide,

made a pilgrimage to Mecca and began to enter into relations

with the neighbouring states which were favourable to the

growth of his power and to the development of his country, at

the same time ceasing to consider himself a vassal of the Empire

of Ghana. Until then, it was principally the Bambuk who fur-

nished the gold-dust for the commerce which enriched Ghana

and who undertook an active and continual exchange of

products between Sudan and North Africa. The Almoravides,

having learned the ways of the Mali and having taught it to the

Moroccan caravans, gave way for the Boure to become the

principal source of production of the precious metal, which not

only contributed to fill the treasury of the king of Mali, but also

opened new horizons for its people.

We learn from several authors that, in 1213, a mansa of

Manding, named, according to some, Mussa and, according to

others, Allakoy, made a pilgrimage to Mecca. During his reign he

returned there three times, travels which did not fail to increase his

prestige and which indicate that he disposed of a certain fortune.

But the riches of the king of Kangaba and the reputation of the

gold mines of the Boure excited envy. Profiting by the weakness of

the immediate successors of Mussa, called Allakoy, the king of

Soso, Sumanguru, undertook and accomplished, around 1224,

the conquest of Manding, which he brutally annexed to his state.

However, Sundiata Keita, also called Maridiata, grandson of

Mussa, resolved to make his country independent, which he

succeeded in doing. After procuring the alliance of the Mandinka

chiefs who resided in the west, south, and east of Kangaba, and

bringing them voluntarily or by force to obey him, he recruited from

among them the elements of a powerful army, at the head of

Head of a queen (Yoruba), 12th-15thcentury.
Nigeria.
Terracotta, height: 25 cm, diameter: 17 cm.
The National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Ife.

Upon discovering these figures in 1957 at Ita Yemoo, further excavations were
done. A shrine largely composed of worn-out grindstones was discovered
during the first season along with other terracotta sculptures. Of the four heads
found, two wore crowns, indicating that at least two queens existed. This head
once bore a crest on the front of the crown, much like the brass figure on an
Oonifrom the same site.