Kaarta

Kaarta was a Bambara kingdom in the dry Sahel of what is now western Mali, ruled for around two centuries by the Massassi clan. Together with its rival, the Ségou Empire on the Niger, it ranked among the leading states that emerged in the region after the collapse of the Songhai Empire. It lost its independence in the jihad of El Hadj Umar Tall in the mid-1850s.

Tradition says that Sunsana, son of Niangolo, founded the first capital, Sounsan, near Mourdiah around 1635. His son Massa, who reigned from 1650 to 1710, is remembered for building his power through his many daughters, whose husbands joined him in raiding the neighbouring peoples. Under Benefali (1710–1745) Kaarta fought a long war against Bitòn Coulibaly, who in 1712 had taken power in Ségou. When Benefali's son Foulakoro besieged Mourdiah, its people called on Bitòn for help; Foulakoro was defeated, captured and died a prisoner, and the first Kaarta state came to an end.

Sey Bamana Coulibaly, who fled Ségou in 1754, re-established the kingdom. He and his brother Deniba Bo (r. 1758–1761) lived by constant raiding of weaker neighbours for captives. Under Sira Bo (1761–1781), Kaarta became a regional power again: he settled the court permanently at Diangounté or Guemou, made Diarra and Khasso his vassals in 1777, and raided Beledougou and Bambuk. His successor, Desse Koro, was defeated by Ségou's ruler Mansong Diarra in 1794, during a long period of war between the two Bambara kingdoms. The Scottish explorer Mungo Park crossed the semi-desert of Kaarta in 1795 and 1796 on his way to the Niger.

Unlike Ségou, where the throne was frequently fought over, Kaarta's succession rarely caused conflict. Power stayed tightly within the Massassi clan, which kept the warrior class, the tondjon, loyal and commanded the core of the army directly. Offices went to clan members who traditionally served the royal family's guardian spirit. Much of its wealth came from salt carried south from Tagant and Hodh in the Sahara, which was sold in Kaarta or passed on to other markets.

Bodian Moriba (1818–1832) restored Kaarta's strength, made peace with Ségou after some thirty years of fighting, and shifted his capital from Yélimané to Nioro du Sahel. In the 1850s El Hadj Umar Tall launched his jihad across the upper Senegal and Niger region. Accounts date the fall of Kaarta to 1854 or to April 1855, when Umar seized Nioro and made it his capital. He put the last faama, Mamady Kandian, and his family to death, ending the Massassi dynasty. The newly conquered Bambara rose against the imposition of Islam in 1855 and 1856, and Kaarta became a province of the Tukulor Empire, governed after his death by his son Mokhtar and later by other members of the Tall family.

French forces from Senegal destroyed a Tukulor fort at Sabouciré in July 1878, and in 1890 Colonel Louis Archinard conquered the whole of former Kaarta. It was formally absorbed into French West Africa in 1904.

Our 1783, 1800 and 1815 maps show Kaarta in the western Sahel; on the 1783 map the Ségou kingdom, labelled Segu, lies to its east.