African Kingdoms

Kangaba / Ka-Ba (Mandingo Clan State) (Africa)
c.AD 1050 - 1235

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The Mandingo ethnic group in today's Sierra Leone in Africa form a branch of the West African Mandinka people. The Mandingo first settled in the Sierra Leone area after migrating from what is now Guinea to its immediate north around 1250-1350. They came as farmers, traders, and Islamic clerics during the vigorous early century of the Mali empire.

That empire was itself founded by a Mandingo group, one which had already created a small but successful clan state by the name of Kangaba (the name of its chief settlement, although Ka-ba was its contemporary form). Mandingo groups remain to this day in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, but the eleventh century Kangaba state was located in what is now the south-western corner of modern Mali.

This clan state's founding - supposedly around AD 1050 - is shrouded in mystery as nothing more than a set of names exist for its early rulers. Other clan states surrounded it, including Futa Jallon to its south-west, Wangara to its north-west, and Macina to the north-east. During this period it initially remained a vassal on the southern edges of the empire of Old Ghana, but in 1076 it took the opportunity to throw off Old Ghana's domination.

At the start of the thirteenth century a new ruling family emerged which, once it had ended a brief Sosso interlude of governance, built the Mali empire out of a confederation of local Mandinka tribes. Their ruler at the time, Mari Jata, made the most of Old Ghana's weakness to effectively terminate the empire in 1237 or 1240.

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(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from the John De Cleene Archive, from History of West Africa, J F Ade Ajayi & Michael Crowder (Longman, 1985), from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), from African States and Rulers, John Stewart (McFarland, 2005), from Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, Djibril Tamsir Niane, (Longmans, 1965), from The New Atlas of African History, G S P Freeman-Grenville (Rex Collins, London, 1991), from Times Atlas of World History (Maplewood, 1979), and from External Links: Encyclopaedia Britannica, and BBC Country Profiles.)

c.1050 - c.1090

Seemingly the Mandinka founder of this small state.

1076

Fourteen years of war against the fanatical Almoravids ends with the capture and burning of the capital of Old Ghana at Kumbi Saleh. The Almoravids are unable to hold onto their prize though, and the much-weakened Old Ghanaians retake it.

The Mandinka of Kangaba now take the opportunity to break away from Old Ghanaian rule, while the weakening of Old Ghana seems to be a major trigger for the migration (or increased migration) into the east of the empire of the Sahel's Akan people.

One group of Mandinka, the Kangaba, founded the great empire of Mali with a dynasty which continued virtually uninterrupted for thirteen centuries, well after the empire fell

c.1090 - c.1150

Relationship unknown.

1100 - 1230

Old Ghana ceases to be a commercial or military power after 1100, at least partially due to new trade routes being opened to its east which robs it of most of its trade in gold and salt.

For a brief period, until about 1230, the rabidly anti-Muslim Sosso people control a kingdom which makes up the southern portions of the Old Ghanaian empire (as well as Kangaba itself for a brief period), but the Almoravid revolution effectively halts the growth of kingdoms and empires in the Sahel for almost a century.

c.1150 - c.1190

Relationship unknown.

c.1190 - c.1200

Last of the 'old' dynasty.

c.1200 - c.1218

Relationship uncertain. Also called Naré Maghann Konaté.

c.1218 - 1228

Son. Also known as Dankaran Touman Keïta.

1228 - 1235

The Kangaba state falls under Soninke rule in 1228, but only briefly. The fate of Danagaram Tumo is unclear but his half-brother, Mari Jata, eventually defeats the invasive Sosso ruler, Soumaoro Kanté, to reclaim his inheritance. He quickly creates a Mali empire out of the restored state.

The Mandinka and other peoples of the Manden region of south-western Mali gather every seven years to celebrate when a new thatch roof is installed in top of the kamablon (or 'House of Speech') in the village of Kangaba which was built in 1653