Nioro du Sahel, often referred to as simply Nioro, is a town and urban commune in the Kayes Region of western Mali, 241 km from the city of Kayes. It is located 275 miles north-west of the Malian capital Bamako. As of 1998, the commune had a population of 60,112, although current estimates are nearer to 69,100 people.
Ségou is a town and an urban commune in south-central Mali that lies 235 kilometres (146 mi) northeast of Bamako on the right bank of the River Niger. The town is the capital of the Ségou Cercle and the Ségou Region. With 130,690 inhabitants in 2009, it is the fifth-largest town in Mali.
The Bamana Empire was one of the largest states of West Africa in the 18th century. Along with Kaarta it was one of the most important successors of the Songhai Empire. Based on an earlier kingdom established in 1640, it grew into a powerful empire in the early 18th century under Bitòn Coulibaly. The empire existed as a centralized state from 1712 until the 1861 invasion by the Toucouleur conqueror El Hadj Umar Tall.
Hadji Oumarûl Foutiyou Tall, born in Futa Tooro, present day Senegal, was a Senegalese Tijani sufi Toucouleur Islamic scholar and military commander who founded the short-lived Toucouleur Empire, which encompassed much of what is now Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea and Mali.
The Toucouleur Empire (1861–1890) was an Islamic state in the mid-nineteenth century founded by Elhadj Oumar Foutiyou Tall of the Toucouleur people of Senegal.
The Caliphate of Hamdullahi, commonly known as the Massina empire, was an early nineteenth-century Sunni Muslim caliphate in West Africa centered in the Inner Niger Delta of what is now the Mopti and Ségou Regions of Mali. It was founded by Seku Amadu in 1818 during the Fulani jihads after defeating the Bambara Empire and its allies at the Battle of Noukouma. By 1853, the empire had fallen into decline and was ultimately destroyed by Omar Saidou Tall of Toucouleur.
The siege of Fort Medina took place in 1857 at Médine, on the left bank of the Senegal River in present-day Mali. The Toucouleur forces of Omar Saidou Tall unsuccessfully besieged native and French colonial troops commanded by Paul Holle. After 97 days of siege, a relief force under French Governor Louis Faidherbe lifted the siege and forced the Toucouleur army to retreat.
Ahmadou Sekou Tall was a Toucouleur ruler of the Toucouleur Empire (1864–93) and (Faama) of Ségou from 1864 to 1884.
Tidiani Tall was a Toucouleur leader who succeeded his uncle, El Hadj Umar Tall, as head of the Toucouleur Empire in the former Massina Empire following Umar's 1864 death near Bandiagara.
Ngolo Diarra was faama of the Bambara Empire from 1766 to 1790.
Mansong Diarra, also rendered Monzon Jara, was the faama of the Bambara Empire. Son of king Ngolo Diarra, he the throne of Ségou following his father's death in battle. He earned renown as a great warrior, with defeats against several other groups, including Kaarta, Massina, Dogon, and Mossi.
Khasso or Xaaso is a region and former West African kingdom of the 17th to 19th centuries, occupying territory in what is today the Kayes Region of Mali. From the 17th to 19th centuries, its capital was at Medina until its fall.
Futa Toro, often simply the Futa, is a semidesert region around the middle run of the Senegal River. This region, along the border of Senegal and Mauritania, is historically significant as the center of several Fulani states, and a source of jihad armies and migrants to the Fouta Djallon.
The Imamate of Futa Toro was a West African theocratic monarchy of the Fula-speaking people in the middle valley of the Senegal River, in the region known as Futa Toro. Following the trend of jihads in the late 17th century and early 18th century, the religious leader Sulayman Bal led a jihad in 1776. His successor, the expansionist Abdul Kader defeated the emirates of Trarza and Brakna and by his death in 1806, power became decentralized between a few elite families of Torodbes. Threatened by both the expansion of the Toucouleur Empire and the French in the mid-19th century, Futa Toro was eventually annexed in 1859. By the 1860s, the power of the Almamy became nominal and the state was further weakened when a cholera epidemic killed a quarter of its population in 1868.
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The Battle of Ségou was a decisive point in the growth of the Toucouleur Empire (1850-1890), which spread throughout the upper Niger River and Senegal River bassins in the late 19th century. It marked the destruction of the last of the Songhay successor states, the beginning of El Hadj Umar Tall's conflict with fellow Fula Jihad leader of Macina, and a Toucouleur movement to the east under pressure from French Colonial expansion in the Senegambia.
Louis Alexandre Esprit Gaston Brière de l'Isle was a French Army general who achieved distinction firstly as Governor of Senegal (1876–81), and then as general-in-chief of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps during the Sino-French War.
Médine is a village and principal settlement (chef-lieu) of the commune of Hawa Dembaya in the Cercle of Kayes in the Kayes Region of south-western Mali. The village is located 12 km east of Kayes on the left bank of the Sénégal River just downstream of the Félou Falls. The site of the village was historically important as the falls were the furthest point up the Sénégal River from Saint Louis that could be reached by boat. Navigation was only possible after the rainy season when the river was in flood.
Nyamina is a small town and rural commune in the Cercle of Koulikoro in the Koulikoro Region of south-western Mali. The commune lies to the north of the Niger River and covers an area of 1,283 km2. It includes the town of Nyamina and 47 villages. In the 2009 census the commune had a population of 35,548. The town lies on the left bank of the river, 80 km northeast of Koulikoro.
Gajaaga, also known as Galam, was a Soninke kingdom in on the upper Senegal river that existed from before 1000CE to 1858. The area today is split between Senegal and 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.
