Samory Touré
Almami Samory Touré (* around 1830; † June 2, 1900 ) was a Muslim military leader in West Africa .
Life
Touré came from the Touré clan from the Malinke people of the Beyla region. First he fought as a soldier for a tribal leader, but then sat himself at the head of a tribe and built an army around 1870 that controlled the area between Fouta Djallon in the west and the land of the Ashanti in the east. Touré called himself "Almamy", made Islam the ideological basis of his empire, and built a functioning tax and judicial system. From Sierra Leone he was supplied with modern weapons by the British.
Anti-French resistance
From his capital Bissandougou, Touré initially met the French advancing from the coast with diplomacy. In the period from 1880 to 1893, however, protracted and bitter fighting broke out over the hinterland of Guinea , which the French wanted to colonize. The wars lasted 13 years, with Touré also encountering internal resistance from the non-Muslim population in view of his Islamization policy, which led to a popular uprising in 1888. In 1887 Samory besieged Sikasso , capital of Kenedugu , with 12,000 men , but had to withdraw again. In 1887 France was forced to acknowledge the conquest of its protectorate by Touré in a treaty. When signing the contract, the negotiating French officer referred to his counterpart as "Bonaparte des Sudan".
The other eastern conquests of Touré led from 1892 to renewed battles with France. After France had managed to get all of Guinea under control, Touré initially withdrew to the east via Odienné , but was nevertheless captured by the French in 1898 and after a suicide attempt was deported to a small island in the Ogowe River near Lambaréné ( Gabon ). There he died of pneumonia two years later.
His great-grandson, Ahmed Sékou Touré , became the first president of independent Guinea in 1958 and was able to build on the clan tradition of anti-French resistance. He had the remains of his great-grandfather transported to the state funeral in Conakry , the capital of Guinea. He also gave him in 1970 to the state-owned Syliphone- label with the LP Regard Sur Le Passé of Bembeya Jazz National -Orchesters put a musical monument.
literature
- A. Adu Boahen: African Perspective on Colonialism . Johns Hopkins University Press , Baltimore 1989. ISBN 0-8018-3931-9 .
- A. Adu Boahen: Africa Under Colonial Domination, 1880-1935 . University of California Press, Berkeley 1990. ISBN 0-520-06702-9 .
- Bethwell A. Ogot: Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century . University of California Press, 1992. ISBN 0-520-03916-5 .
- Person, Yves: Samori. Une révolution dyula . Mémoires de l'Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire (IFAN) Dakar 1968, 1970, 1975 (three volumes).
- O'Sullivan JM (1983): The French Conquest of Northwest Ivory Coast - The Attempt of the Rulers of Kabadugu to Control the Situation .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Touré, Samory |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Muslim military leader in West Africa |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1830 |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 2, 1900 |