Amy Hernandez
Remembering Samori Touré
Samori catching the attention of villagers.
Samori Touré was a great man, he was a leading African opponent of European imperialism who used warfare & diplomacy against the French in West Africa. "He held the French at bay for 15 years and created one of the most powerful, best-organized states in the western Sudan. His military and administrative genius was compared to Napoleon's.” -Thomson Gale (Writer of his biography)
How did he come to be?
Samori Toure holding the Coran
Samori Touré was born in the Milo Valley of the western Sudan. His father was a trader, leading Touré to follow his family’s occupation. In the 1850s, he enrolled in the military forces at Madina to liberate his mother, who was a member of the Malinké ethnic group, who was captured during a raid. He “successively acquired military skills during various campaigns he undertook for local chiefs before starting his own career.”
The Leader
Touré became a well-known leader by training and commanding a growing and disciplined army. He built a united empire called Mandinka. In the 1880s, the empire expanded from Bamako, Mali, to the Ivory Coast, and Liberia in the east and south. In 1880 he began a new jihad (meaning holy war) to convert the pagans and push out the Europeans if necessary. When Touré’s empire reached its apogee between 1883 and 1887, he took the title of Almami, meaning the religious head of a Muslim empire. After the 1884 Berlin Conference which partitioned Africa, French forces began intruding on Mandinka. As the result of a series of battles lasting until 1885, Samori made a peace treaty, ending hostilities. He agreed to send his son to France as a hostage. In addition, Samori agreed not to cross the Niger River in search of further conquests. On May 1, 1898, when the French seized the town of Sikasso, just north of the new empire, Touré and his army took up positions in the Liberian forests to resist a second invasion. This time, however, starvation and desertion weakened his forces and the French seized Touré on September 29, 1898, who was exiled to Gabon, where he died on June 2, 1900.
“He held the French at bay for 15 years and created one of the most powerful, best-organized states in the western Sudan. His military and administrative genius was compared to Napoleon's.” -Samory Touré Biography
Questions
- Who is Samori Touré?
- How did Samori Touré die?
Source: Blackpast.org, Touré, Samori, 2007-2011, 2/19/13, http://www.blackpast.org/?q=gah/toure-samori-1830-1900