African Kingdoms

Tukulor Empire (Fula-Mali State) (Africa)
AD 1854 - 1894

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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 AD 1250-1350. They came as farmers, traders, and Islamic clerics during the vigorous early century of the Mali empire.

That medieval Islamic West African 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 empire underwent various problems during its existence, including an antagonistic relationship with its eastern neighbour of later years, the Songhai empire.

Shortly after that empire fell to a Moroccan invasion, the remnants of Mandinka resistance also collapsed, between 1630-1645, in favour of the Bamana of Jenne (this formerly being a city within the Songhai empire which had been sacked in 1591). The Moroccans, though, were stretched too thin and could not follow up on their conquests in any meaningful way. Their withdrawal paved the way for the formation of the Segou empire.

It was core Mail territory in the nineteenth century which was swiftly formed into the Tukulor empire (alternatively shown as 'Tukolor' or 'Toucouleur', but potentially also referenced as the Tijaniyya 'Jihad State'). The Tukulor people originated on the banks of the River Senegal, at Mali's north-western corner, only penetrating deeply into the Mali area in the second half of the nineteenth century to take regional control. They were a mix of sub-Saharan Africans and Fula people who are predominantly of Libyan descent.

The empire's founder was Omar al-Hajj, an Islamic religious leader and chieftain who seems to have begun his career in Futo Toro, probably by the 1840s. He moved to Futa Jallon to found a religious settlement at Jegunko in 1840. He became the almamy (ruler) in 1848 before moving to a new-found settlement in the Tamba state in 1851. His gathering forces eventually prompted Tamba to confront him, but the king was defeated in battle in 1852.

(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 Mali (Flags of the World), and Mali (Rulers.org), and Nyaani Mansa Mamudu and the End of the Malian Empire, Yves Person (Publications of the French Society of the History of Overseasers, 1981, and available via Persée (in French)).)

1854 - 1864

Religious leader and chieftain from Futa Jallon.

1854 - 1861

Omar al-Hajj is a religious leader and chieftain who seems to have begun his career in Futo Toro, probably by the 1840s. His move to Futa Jallon had seen him become the almamy (ruler) there in 1848.

The forces of Omar al-Hajj attempted to resist French colonial forces in 1857, besieging their Medina Fort but ultimately failing when Louis Faidherbe, French governor of Senegal, arrived with relief forces

He launches a jihad in 1854 which sees him conquer most of the Ka'arta Bambara kingdom in what is now western Mali, plus other splinter states which have formed since the collapse of the Mali empire. Ka'arta's king is executed after he converts to Islam.

Al-Hajj's jihad is halted to the west by the French of the French Senegal colony when he fails to besiege one of their forts. He is still able to defeat the Fulani and enter Segou as a conqueror. Tukulor is firmly established by 1861, along the upper Niger River in what is now southern Mali.

His kingdom includes most of Segou and most of Ka'arta, although remnants of both continue to exist with their own rulers in command.

West Africa in the second half of the nineteenth century was a place of development, with large tribal empires existing or arising during the period (click or tap on map to view full sized)

1863 - 1864

Omar al-Hajj is repulsed in 1863 when attempting to capture Timbuktu. The victorious colatition of regional groups inflicts several more defeats on him in the same year. Then a rebellion breaks out in the Masina lands under the leadership of Ba Lobbo, cousin of the executed Masina monarch, Amadu III.

Al-Hajj suppresses the revolt in the spring of 1863 and reoccupies the city of Hamdullahi. Ba Lobbos's combined forces of Fulas and Kountas besiege him there, recapturing it in February 1864. Al-Hajj has to flee, finding refuge in a cave in Degembere where he dies on 14 February 1864.

1864 - 1893

Son. Kept the empire intact until conquered by France.

1879

The French establish their first presence in the region which they term the 'Upper River'. Joseph Galliéni is sent there to survey land between the River Niger and Dakar prior to the building of a railway. A military fort is also founded.

Ahmadu Tall's government was highly structured, with centrally-appointed governors and their deputies, the cadis, military commanders, and tax collectors, and with ministers in Segou controlling justice, the Niger river fleet, the public treasury, commerce, and relations with Europeans in the region

Galliéni later becomes 'famous' for abolishing the monarchy and becoming the first governor of French Madagascar. His actions in West Africa result in creeping colonisation over the course of the next decade and-a-half, principally as part of French Sudan. Ahmadu Tall is generally a just and strong ruler, but his best efforts cannot prevent 'colonial creep' across the empire.

1893

With Louis Archinard, military governor of the newly-formed French Sudan, tackling the various resistance fighters in the region, the Tukulor empire has effectively been conquered by the French. It is subsumed within French Sudan, more formally known as the 'Sudanese Republic'.