Goundiourou Dougouba | |
|---|---|
Village | |
  Goundiourou Location within Mali | |
| Coordinates: 14°24′N11°26′W / 14.400°N 11.433°W | |
| Country |  Mali |
| Region | Kayes |
| Cercle | Kayes Cercle |
| Elevation | 33 m (108 ft) |
| Time zone | UTC+0 (GMT) |
Goundiourou, sometimes spelled Gunjur, also known as Dougouba, is a village in Mali just south of the city of Kayes. It was historically an important center of trade and islamic thought, mentioned in the chronicle of Al Bakri under the name Ghiyaru. [1]
The name 'Goundiourou' comes from the Soninke term 'gunjeere' meaning a virgin forest. [2]
There have been multiple villages with the name Goundiourou, making historical reconstruction difficult. The first settlement presumably pre-dated the arrival of Islam in the region, and was mentioned by Al Bakri in his 11th century travelogue as a major center of trade in the orbit of the Ghana Empire. [3] Specifically Ghiyaru, as he called it, was a densely populated area which was the source of the best gold, 12 miles from the Senegal river on the north bank. [4] According to oral traditions, a second Goundiourou on the south bank was founded by Mamadu Khumba Drame in the 12th or 13th century. [5]
While nominally a part of the Kingdom of Diarra, Goundiourou maintained a degree of legal independence as the center of a small theocracy under the rule of Qaids and Islamic judges. The king of Diarra would come to the city every year during Ramadan to pray and honor the scholars. [6]
Goundiourou was sacked by the king of Kaarta in the early 1790s, after which it was abandoned for 20 years. [7] A new Goundiourou, sometimes known as 'Dougouba', meaning 'big village', was eventually built on the ruins. [6] Mahmadu Lamine Drame, a prominent marabout and resistance fighter against French colonialism, was born in Goundiourou. The French destroyed the town as punishment, although it was eventually rebuilt. [8]
The Senegal River is a 1086-kilometre-long (675 mi) river in West Africa; much of its length marks part of the border between Senegal and Mauritania. It has a drainage basin of 270000 km2, a mean flow of 680 m3/s (24,000 cu ft/s), and an annual discharge of 21.5 km3 (5.2 cu mi). Important tributaries are the Falémé River, Karakoro River, and the Gorgol River. The river divides into two branches once it passes Kaédi The left branch, called the Doué, runs parallel to the main river to the north. After 200 km (120 mi) the two branches rejoin a few kilometers downstream of Podor.
Takrur, Tekrur or Tekrour was a state based in the Senegal River valley in modern day Mauritania and Northern Senegal, Northwestern Africa, which was at its height in the 10th and 11th centuries, roughly parallel to the Ghana Empire. It lasted in some form into the 18th century.
Musa ibn Nusayr was an Arab general and governor who served under the Umayyad caliph Al-Walid I. He ruled over the Muslim provinces of North Africa (Ifriqiya), and directed the Islamic conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom that controlled the Iberian Peninsula and part of what is now southern France (Septimania).
The Bambara are a Mandé ethnic group native to much of West Africa, primarily southern Mali, Ghana, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Senegal. They have been associated with the historic Bambara Empire. Today, they make up the largest Mandé ethnic group in Mali, with 80% of the population speaking the Bambara language, regardless of ethnicity.
Kayes is a city in western Mali on the Sénégal River with a population of 127,368 at the 2009 census. Kayes is the capital of the administrative region of the same name. The city is located 420 kilometres (260 mi) northwest of the capital Bamako.
Ouadane or Wādān is a small town in the desert region of central Mauritania, situated on the southern edge of the Adrar Plateau, 93 km northeast of Chinguetti. The town was a staging post in the trans-Saharan trade and for caravans transporting slabs of salt from the mines at Idjil.
Koumbi Saleh, or Kumbi Saleh, is the site of a ruined ancient and medieval city in south east Mauritania that may have been the capital of the Ghana Empire. It is also a commune with a population of 11,064.
Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb ibn ʿAmr al-Bakrī, or simply al-Bakrī was an Arab Andalusian historian and a geographer of the Muslim West.
Bakel is a town and urban commune, with a population of 18,939, located in the eastern part of Senegal, West Africa. The town is located on the left bank of the Sénégal River, 65 kilometers (40 mi) from the Malian border and linked by canoe ferry to the village of Gouraye in Mauritania.
The Soninke (Sarakolleh) people are a West African Mande-speaking ethnic group found in Mali, southern Mauritania, eastern Senegal, The Gambia, and Guinea. They speak the Soninke language, also called the Serakhulle or Azer language, which is one of the Mande languages. Soninke people were the founders of the ancient empire of Ghana or Wagadou c. 200–1240 CE, Subgroups of Soninke include the Jakhanke, Maraka and Wangara. When the Ghana empire was destroyed, the resulting diaspora brought Soninkes to Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinée-Conakry, modern-day Republic of Ghana, Kano in Nigeria, and Guinea-Bissau where some of this trading diaspora was called Wangara, leading to the saying “when Americans landed on the moon, a Soninke was already there” in Senegal, with other versions across West Africa.
al-Hajj Mahmadu Lamine Drame,also known as Ma Lamine Demba Dibassi, was a nineteenth-century Tijani marabout who led a series of rebellions against the French colonial government in what is now Senegal.
Samaale, also spelled Samali or Samale is traditionally considered to be the common forefather of several major Somali clans and their respective sub-clans. His name is the source of the ethnonym Somali.
Mila is a city in the northeast of Algeria and the capital of Mila Province. In antiquity, it was known as Milevum or Miraeon, Μιραίον and was situated in the Roman province of Numidia.
Articles related to Mali include:
Aghmat was an important commercial medieval Berber town in Morocco. It is today an archaeological site known as "Joumâa Aghmat".
The Banu Ifran or Ifranids, were a Zenata Berber tribe prominent in the history of pre-Islamic and early Islamic North Africa. In the 8th century, they established a kingdom in the central Maghreb, with Tlemcen as its capital.
The Ghana Empire, also known as simply Ghana, Ghanata, or Wagadu, was a West African classical to post-classical era western-Sahelian empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali.
The Gao Empire was a kingdom that ruled the Niger bend from approximately the 7th century CE until their fall to the Mali Empire in the late 14th century. Ruled by the Za dynasty from the capital of Gao, the empire was an important predecessor of the Songhai Empire.
Gajaaga, also known as Galam, was a Soninke kingdom in on the upper Senegal river that existed from before 1000CE to 1858. The kingdom was mainly located in present day Senegal and some parts of Mali. It was sometimes referred to as the Land of Gold, which it exported in large quantities, and 'Galam' in fact means 'gold' in Wolof. In the middle of the 17th century, Gajaaga was perhaps the most powerful state in the upper Senegal river region. It controlled both banks of the river from the area of Kayes downstream to Bakel.
Silla or Silli was an ancient town in the Senegal River Valley. Its exact location is debated. Possible identifications include the site of Sinthiou Bara in the Matam Region of Senegal, the village of Silla near Kaedi in Mauritania, or a site closer to the juncture of the Senegal and Faleme rivers.