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HISTORY, MEMORY AND THE LEGACY OF SAMORI IN SOUTHERN MALI, c. 1880–1898*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2008

BRIAN J. PETERSON
BRIAN J. PETERSON
Affiliation:
Union College, New York
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Abstract

This article seeks to situate local oral traditions on Samori Touré within the contexts of both internal African empire building and French colonial conquest. It takes into account the experiences of the vanquished on the periphery of Samori's empire in an effort to reassess his legacy. It argues that local traditions not only provide a corrective to the nationalist historiography on Samori, they also complicate the notion of ‘resistance’ by demonstrating internal dissent and even rebellion against Samorian rule at a time of Samori's vaunted ‘primary resistance’ to French conquest. Finally, this article concludes by providing a contemporary reading of the southern Malian historical landscape, rooting local Samorian history and politics in particular ‘sites of memory’.

Keywords

Maliresistancememorylocal historyimperialism
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , July 2008 , pp. 261 - 279
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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References

1 Interview, Souleyman Sidibé, Solona, 10 Apr. 2002. The Jaban is a small (30-kilometer long) tributary to the Sankarani River, along Mali's national border with Guinea.

2 On the historical landscape of southern Guinea during the time of Samori, see in particular J. Fairhead and M. Leach, Misreading the African Landscape: Society and Ecology in a Forest–Savanna Mosaic (Cambridge, 1996), 94–8.

3 On oral epics of Samori, see L. Kesteloot and B. Dieng, Les épopées d'Afrique noire (Paris, 1997); J. W. Johnson, T. A. Hale and S. Belcher, Oral Epics from Africa: Vibrant Voices from the Vast Continent (Bloomington, 1997); S. Belcher, Epic Traditions of Africa (Bloomington, 1999); and Jansen, J., ‘A critical note on the epic of Samori Touré’, History in Africa, 29 (2002), 219–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On postage stamps, see A. Adedze, ‘Commemorating the chief: the politics of postage stamps in West Africa’, African Arts (Summer 2004). See L'Empereur Almamy Samori Touré: grand administrateur et grand stratège, Révolution démocratique africaine 48 (Conakry, 1971), among other popular volumes. See also K. Fofana, L'Almami Samori Touré Empereur: récit historique (Paris, 1998).

4 M. R. Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Boston, 1995), 14–30, 53–60; Cooper, F., ‘Conflict and connection: rethinking colonial African history’, American Historical Review, 99 (1994), 1516–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar; the articles in International Journal of African Historical Studies, 33 (2000), especially R. Roberts, ‘History and memory: the power of statist narratives’, 513–22, and T. Sunseri, ‘Statist narratives and Maji Maji ellipses’, 567–84.

5 See, especially, S. Greene, Sacred Sites and the Colonial Encounter: A History of Meaning and Memory in Ghana (Bloomington, 2002); Terence Ranger, Voices from the Rocks: Nature, Culture & History in the Matopos Hills of Zimbabwe (Oxford, 1999); see Monson, J., ‘Memory, migration and the authority of history in southern Tanzania, 1860–1960’, Journal of African History, 41 (2000), 347–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 P. Nora (ed.), Realms of Memory: Rethinking the French Past, trans. A. Goldhammer, vol. i (New York, 1996), 8–12.

7 Legassick, M., ‘Firearms, horses and Samorian army administration, 1870–1898’, Journal of African History, 7 (1966), 95–115CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Y. Person, Samori: une revolution Dyula, vols. i–iii (Paris, 1968–75), and Person's briefer publications: ‘Les ancêtres de Samori’, Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, 13 (1963), 125–56; ‘Samori et la Sierra Leone’, Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, 25 (1967), 5–26; ‘Guinea-Samori’, in M. Crowder (ed.), West African Resistance: The Military Response to Colonial Occupation (New York, 1971), 111–43; J. Holden, ‘The Samorian impact on Buna: an essay in methodology’, in C. Allen and R. Johnson (eds.), African Perspectives (Cambridge, 1970), 83–108; A. S. Kanya-Forstner, The Conquest of the Western Sudan: A Study in French Military Imperialism (Cambridge, 1969). More recently, however, there was a conference organized in Conakry in 1998 to mark the 100th anniversary of Samori's capture and ‘martyrdom’. The papers represent the Bissandugu-centric perspective (Bissandugu, Guinea, being the capital of Samori's empire), and thus do not alter the nationalist image of Samori; in fact, they take new steps in manufacturing it. See Mande Studies, 3 (2001), and Centenaire du souvenir: Almami Samori Touré, 1898–1998: Symposium international de Conakry du 29 Sept. au 1 Oct. 1998 (Conakry, 2000).

9 I am using the appellation ‘southern Mali’ for this region, part of which has been known as ‘Wasulu’ – which straddles the modern political boundaries of Mali, Guinea and Ivory Coast – since at least the eighteenth century.

10 M. Klein, Slavery and Colonial Rule in French West Africa (Cambridge, 1998); P. Lovejoy, Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa (Cambridge, 1983).

11 See D. Cordell, Dar al-Kuti and the Last Years of the Trans-Saharan Slave Trade (Madison, 1985); and W. K. R. Hallam, The Life and Times of Rabih Fadl Allah (Ilfracombe, UK, 1977).

12 See J. Gallieni, Voyage au Soudan Français, Haut-Niger et Pays de Ségou, 1879–1881 (Paris, 1885), 598.

13 Tiéba Traore was the king of Sikasso from 1877 to 1893, followed by Babemba from 1893 to 1898. See L. Holmes, ‘Tiéba Traore, fama of Kenedougou: two decades of political development’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1977); Collieaux, M., ‘Contribution à l'étude de l'histoire de l'ancien royaume de Kénédougou (1825–1898)', Comité d'Etudes Historiques et Scientifiques de l'Afrique Occidentale Française, 9 (1924), 128–81Google Scholar; and A. O. Konaré, Sikasso Tata (Bamako, 1983).

14 L.G. Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guinée par le pays du Kong et de Mossi, 1887–1889 (Paris, 1892), Part 1, 220.

15 S. Ellis, ‘Colonial conquest in central Madagascar: who resisted what?’ in J. Abbink, M. De Bruijn and K. Van Walraven (eds.), Rethinking Resistance: Revolt and Violence in African History (Leiden, 2003), 85–6; see also M. Diouf, Le Kajoor au XIXième siècle: pouvoir ceddo et conquête coloniale (Paris, 1990).

16 See J. Vansina, Oral Tradition as History (Madison, 1985), 17–32.

17 See M. Diawara, La graine de la parole: dimension sociale et politique des traditions orales du royaume de Jaara (Mali) du XVème au milieu du XIXème siècle (Stuttgart, 1990); M. Diawara, ‘Mande oral popular culture revisited by the electronic media’, in K. Barber (ed.), Readings in African Popular Culture (London, 1997), 40–8.

18 On Guinea, see E. Osborn, ‘Power, authority, and gender in Kankan-Baté’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 2000); M. McGovern, ‘Unmasking the state: developing political subjectivities in 20th century Guinea’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Emory University, 2004), 71–2; and Fairhead and Leach, Misreading the African Landscape, 96–9.

19 See L. White, S. F. Miescher and D. W. Cohen (eds.), African Words, African Voices: Critical Practices in Oral History (Indiana, 2001); and J. C. Miller (ed.), The African Past Speaks: Essays on Oral Tradition and History (Hamden, 1980).

20 S. Ellis, ‘Colonial conquest’, 86.

21 See A. H. Bâ, L'étrange destin de Wangrin (Paris, 1973).

22 Translation from A. H. Bâ, The Fortunes of Wangrin, trans. Aina Pavolini Taylor (Bloomington, 1999), 6.

23 Lt. Adjoint, Margaine, Commandant du cercle, Bougouni, à M. Gouv.-Gén., 1894, Rap. Pol. du cercle de Bougouni, Archives Nationales du Mali (ANM), Fonds anciens (FA), I E 27.

24 Interview, Namakoro Bamba, Kolondieba, 7 July 2002.

25 Interview, Solo Sanogo, Woblé, 5 May 2002.

26 Rap. Pol., Aug. 1900, Mar. 1902, ANM (FA), I E 27. See General Duboc, Samory le sanglant (Paris, 1947); for a nuanced colonial view, see J. Meniaud, Les pionniers du Soudan: avant et après Archinard (Paris, 1931).

27 See, for example, C. H. Cutter, ‘Genesis of a nationalist elite: the role of the Popular Front in the French Soudan, 1936–1939’, in G. W. Johnson, Double Impact: France and Africa in the Age of Imperialism (Westport, 1985), 107–39; F. G. Snyder, One-Party Government in Mali (New Haven, 1965), 24–5.

28 W. J. Foltz, From French West Africa to the Mali Federation (New Haven, 1965), 144.

29 Interviews, Kani Sidibé, Yanfolila, 11 Mar. 2002; Musa Diallo, Kolondieba, 17 June 2002.

30 See R. S. Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa (Oxford, 1964), 276–84.

31 See, especially, E. Schmidt, Mobilizing the Masses: Gender, Ethnicity, and Class in the Nationalist Movement in Guinea, 1939–1958 (Portsmouth NH, 2005), 107–8; and Morgenthau, Political Parties, 234–5.

32 Person, Samori, i–iii.

33 Klein, M., ‘The decolonization of West African history’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 6 (1975), 111–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 J. Vansina, Living with Africa (Madison, 1994), 56–7.

35 B. Jewsiewicki and D. Newbury (eds.), African Historiographies: What History for Which Africa? (Beverly Hills, 1986); A. J. Temu and B. Swai, Historians and Africanist History: A Critique (London, 1981).

36 On ‘generic memories’, see J. Kotre, White Gloves: How We Create Ourselves Through Memory (New York, 1995).

37 Person, Samori, i–iii.

38 See ibid. 391–6; E. Péroz, L'empire de l'Almamy-Emir Samory ou empire du Ouassoulou (Besançon, 1888); J. L. Amselle, Mestizo Logics: Anthropology of Identity in Africa and Elsewhere (Stanford, 1998), 89–90.

39 Bulletin Politique, May 1896, Rap. Pol., ANM (FA), I E 27; interview, Lamine Diakite, Yanfolila, 14 Apr. 2002.

40 Interview, Hari Sidibé, Yanfolila, 9 Apr. 2002.

41 Refugees placed themselves under the protection of the ‘war chief’ (kélétigi) San Musa Sidibé in Kati, Moriba Balan in Gualala, Wòyò in Jadafara or Debiningué in Solona. Interview, Amadou Sidibé, Solona, 10 Apr. 2002.

42 Interview, Hari Sidibé, Yanfolila, 9 Apr. 2002.

43 See Person, Samori, 494–5; interview, Drissa Diallo, N'Golobala, 18–20 May 2002.

44 Interviews, Doulaye Koné, Kolondieba, 19 Nov. 2002.

45 Binger, Du Niger, 70–2; Youssouf Coulibaly, Tenemakana, 15 May 2002.

46 Interview, Broulaye Doumbia, Tenemakana, 13 May 2002.

47 Interview, Broulaye Koné, Kolondieba, 21 Nov. 2002.

48 Interview, Sirakoro Traore, Moro, 6 May 2002.

49 Interview, Solo Sanogo, Woblé, 4 May 2002; see Binger, Du Niger, 168–73.

50 Person, Samori, 503.

51 Interview, Ngolo Sanogo, Woblé, 5 May 2002.

52 Larger villages were under the authority of one of Samori's delegates (dugukunsigiw). See the case of the village of Ouré. Binger, Du Niger, 66.

53 Ibid. 218–19; interview, Musa Sumoaro, Kolondieba, 20 Nov. 2002.

54 Interview, Youssouf Coulibaly, Tenemakana, 15 May 2002.

55 Interviews, Sekou Sidibé, Jelifin, 31 Mar. 2002; Imam Sidibé, Balafina, 2 Apr. 2002. See Rapport du Capt. Vuillemot, 1899, Politique musulmane, ANM FA, 4 E 42; Binger, Du Niger.

56 Person, Samori, 503.

57 On the broader context of this issue, see John Ralph Willis (ed.), Slaves and Slavery in Muslim Africa: Islam and the Ideology of Enslavement, vol. i (London, 1985).

58 Interview, Musa Sumoaro, Kolondieba, 20 Nov. 2002.

59 Interview, Drissa Diallo, N'Golobala, 18 May 2002.

60 For the background on French conquest, see Kanya-Forstner, The Conquest of the Western Sudan, 84–270.

61 Interviews, Namakoro Bamba, Kolondieba, 1 June 2002.

62 Interview, Youssouf Coulibaly, Tenemakana, 21 May and 6 Oct. 2002.

63 Interview, Broulaye Koné, Kolondieba, 19 Nov. 2002.

64 Ibid. See D. Conrad, ‘Mooning armies and mothering heroes: female power in the Mande epic tradition’, in R. Austin (ed.), In Search of Sunjata: The Mande Oral Epic as History, Literature, and Performance (Bloomington, 2000), 189–224. Sekou Camara, personal communication, Bamako, Oct. 2002.

65 Interview, Musa Sumoaro, Kolondieba, 20 Nov. 2002.

66 See M. Klein, ‘Defensive strategies: Wasulu, Masina, and the slave trade’, in S. A. Diouf (ed.), Fighting the Slave Trade: West African Strategies (Athens, 2003), 64–5.

67 Interviews, Karim Danyoko, Tenemakana, 11 Oct. 2002; Yacouba Danyoko, Tenemakana, 23 June 2002.

68 Interview, Namakoro Bamba, Kolondieba, 7 July 2002.

69 On honor in comparative context in Africa, see J. Iliffe, Honour in African History (Cambridge, 2005).

70 Interview, Musa Sumoaro, Kolondieba, 20 Nov. 2002.

71 The Fàama (king) of Sikasso, Tiéba Traoré, was able to repel Samori, owing to Sikasso's formidable fortress that effectively neutralized the weapons differential. Binger, Du Niger, 95–6; Klein, Slavery and Colonial Rule, 109–10.

72 Interview, Drissa Diallo, N'Golobala, 18 May 2002.

73 Binger, Du Niger, 66–7.

74 Person, Samori, 1050–64.

75 Interview, Drissa Diallo, N'Golobala, 18 May 2002.

76 Person, Samori, 1062.

77 Rap. Pol., 5 Feb. 1894, and 11 Jan. 1894, ANM (FA), I E 27. See Klein, Slavery and Colonial Rule, 109–11.

78 Kanya-Forstner, The Conquest of the Western Sudan, 216–21.

79 May 1894, Rap. Pol., ANM (FA), I E 27.

80 Jan. 1895, Rap. Pol., ANM (FA), I E 27. Interview, Jan-Jan Sidibé, Balafina, 3 Apr. 2002.

81 Interview, Youssouf Sidibé, Koniba-Barila, 27 Mar. 2002; Rap. Pol., Mar. 1894, ANM (FA), I E 27; Klein, Slavery and Colonial Rule, 111–19; R. Roberts, ‘The end of slavery in the French Soudan, 1905–1914’, in S. Miers and R. Roberts (eds.), The End of Slavery in Africa (Madison, 1988), 282–307.

82 1899 and 1895, Rap. Pol., ANM (FA), I E 27; interview, Bourama Dembele, Tenemakana, 16 June 2002.

83 Interview, Broulaye Koné, Kolondieba, 21 Nov. 2002.

84 January 1895, May 1900, Rap. Pol., ANM (FA), I E 27.

85 May 1896, Rap. Pol., ANM (FA), I E 27; interview, Youssouf Sidibé, Koniba-Barila, 27 Mar. 2002.

86 Rap. de Tournée, 10 June 1899, ANM (FA), I E 27.

87 Interview, Broulaye Doumbia, Tenemakana, 13 May 2002.

88 Interview, Hawa Diallo, Tenemakana, 21 May 2002; Bourama Dembele, Tenemakana, 14 June 2002.

89 See René Caillié, Voyage à Tombouctou, vols. i–ii (Paris, 1996); Rapport du Capt. Vuillemot, 1899, Politique musulmane, ANM (FA), 4 E 42. Most of my informants noted that the ‘coming of prayer’ occurred during the colonial period.

90 Interview, Drissa Diallo, N'Golobala, 18 May 2002.

91 Interviews, Broulaye Doumbia, Tenemakana, 13–21 May 2002 and 6 Oct. 2002; Doulaye Koné, Kolondieba, 19 Nov. 2002; Adama Diallo, Niamala, 7 Oct. 2002; Souleyman Sidibé, Solona, 10 Apr. 2002; Moussa Sumoaro, Kolondieba, 20 Nov. 2002; Youssouf Sidibé, Koniba-Barila, 27 Mar. 2002; Imam Sidibé, Balanfina, 3 Apr. 2002.

92 See A. J. Arberry (trans.), The Koran Interpreted (New York, 1955), 65; interviews, Sekou Sidibé, Jelifin, 31 Mar. 2002, and Youssouf Coulibaly, Tenemakana, 21 May 2002.

93 Interview, Adama Diallo, Niamala, 10 Oct. 2002.

94 Interviews, Imam Sidibé, Balanfina, 2–3 Apr. 2002; Sekou Sidibé, Jelifin, 31 Mar. 2002; Adama Diallo, Niamala, 10 Oct. 2002; Drissa Diallo, N'Golobala, 18 May 2002.

95 Interview, Doulaye Koné, Kolondieba, 19 Nov. 2002.

96 Interview, Imam Sidibé, Balafina, 2 Apr. 2002.

97 Ibid.; interview, Amadou Sidibé, Solona, 10 Apr. 2002.

98 Interviews, Jan-Jan Sidibé, Balafina, 2–3 Apr. 2002; Drissa Diallo, N'Golobala, 18 May 2002; Monographie de Bougouni, 1906, ANM (FA), I D 37; Rapport du Capt. Vuillemot, 1899, Politique musulmane, Rapports sur l'Islam, ANM (FA), 4 E 42.

99 See Peterson, B. J., ‘Slave emancipation, trans-local social processes and the spread of Islam in French colonial Buguni (southern Mali), 1893–1914’, Journal of African History, 45 (2005), 421–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

100 See J. Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History (Cambridge, 1995), 29–53, 78–116.

101 See studies which situate environmental and social histories within local landscapes: R. Harms, Games Against Nature: An Eco-Cultural History of the Nunu of Equatorial Africa (Cambridge, 1987); J. McGregor, ‘Living with the river: landscape & memory in the Zambezi Valley, Northwest Zimbabwe’, in W. Beinart and J. McGregor (eds.), Social History & African Environments (Oxford, 2003), 87–105; E. Akyeampong, Between the Sea and the Lagoon: An Eco-Social History of the Anlo of Southeastern Ghana, c. 1850 to Recent Times (Athens OH, 2002).

102 Interviews, Mori Koné, Koloni, 7 Oct. 2002; Fatumata Doumbia, Zimpiala, 11 Oct. 2002.

103 Interviews, Yacouba Danyoko, Tenemakana, 15 Nov. 2002; Broulaye Doumbia, Tenemakana, 13–14 May 2002. In 1912, a colonial official observed eight man-made cave entrances between Tenemakana and Wakoro. Large caves were also reported in Ouélénkala, one of which could hold thirty people. See Notes sur les habitations de troglodytes dans le cercle de Bougouni, Rap. Pol., 1912, ANM (FA), I E 27.

104 Informal conversation, Abou and Moro Sidibé, Yanfolila, 15 Mar. 2002.

105 Interviews, M'Bemba Sidibé, Balafina, 3 Apr. 2002.

106 On post-conquest reconstruction, see E. Kreike, Re-Creating Eden: Land Use, Environment, and Society in Southern Angola and Northern Namibia (Portsmouth NH, 2004).

107 Interview, Namakoro Bamba, Kolondieba, 7 July 2002.

108 Interview, Youssouf Sidibé, Koniba-Barila, 27 Mar. 2002.

109 Interviews, Yacouba Diallo, N'Golobala, 20 May 2002; Bangali Koné, Bunjoba, 24 June 2002. See E. Tonkin, Narrating our Pasts: The Social Construction of Oral History (Cambridge, 1992), 11; D. W. Cohen and E. S. Atieno Odhiambo, Burying SM: The Politics of Knowledge and the Sociology of Power in Africa (Portsmouth NH, 1992), 20; S. Kuchler, ‘Landscape as memory: the mapping of process and its representations in a Melanesian society’, in B. Bender (ed.), Landscape: Politics and Perspectives (Providence, 1993), 96.

110 See J. Scott, Weapons of the Weak (New Haven, 1985), 178.

111 Trouillot, Silencing the Past, 55.

112 On the other hand, bards (jeliw) sing praises to Samori, while being fully aware of his destructive wars. Personal communications, Sekou Camara, Bamako, Oct. 2002; and Mamadou Diabaté (jeli), New York, Mar. 2007.

113 Interviews, Souleyman Sidibé and Amadou Sidibé, Solona, 10 Apr. 2002, and Imam El Hajj Sekou Sidibé and Drissa Balla, Jelifin, 31 Mar. 2002.

114 Person, Samori, 1111 fn. 30.

115 Interview, Souleyman Sidibé, Solona, 10 Apr. 2002.

116 Conversation with Karim Sidibé, Jelifin, 7 Apr. 2002; and interviews, El Hajj Sekou Sidibé and Drissa Balla, Jelifin, 31 Mar. 2002.

117 Interview, Musa Sumoaro, Kolondieba, 20 Nov. 2002.

118 See Isabel Hofmeyer, We Spend Our Years as a Tale That Is Told: Oral History Narratives in a South African Chiefdom (Portsmouth NH, 1993); and Gengenbach, Heidi, ‘Naming the past in a “scattered land”: memory and the power of women's naming practices in southern Mozambique’, International Journal of African Historical Studies, 33 (2000), 523–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.