Babemba was the fifth and final '' Faama'' of the Kénédougou Kingdom, ruling from the 1893 death of his brother

Tieba Traoré Tieba Traoré was the fourth king of the Kénédougou Kingdom, reigning from 1877 until his death in 1893. Mansa Douala had five sons, of whom Tieba was the youngest. As a prince he was captured after the battle of Bleni against the Bobo people, ...

until the capture of

Sikasso Sikasso ( Bambara: ߛߌߞߊߛߏ tr. Sikaso) is a city in the south of Mali and the capital of the Sikasso Cercle and the Sikasso Region. It is Mali's second largest city with 225,753 residents in the 2009 census. History Sikasso was a small ...

by the French in 1898. He is today remembered as a hero of anti-colonial resistance in

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

Reign

As he assumed the throne, Babemba faced both an expanding

Wassoulou Empire The Samorian state, also referred to as the Wassoulou empire, Ouassalou empire, Mandinka empire or Samory's empire, was a short-lived West African state that existed from roughly 1878 until 1898, although dates vary from source to source. It span ...

under

Samori Ture Samori Ture ( – June 2, 1900), also known as Samori Toure, Samory Touré, or Almamy Samore Lafiya Toure, was a Mandinka people, Malinke and a Soninke people, Soninke Muslim cleric, military strategist, and founder of the Wassoulou Empire, an Is ...

and an aggressive French colonial army that was in the process of conquering what remained of the

Toucouleur Empire The Tukulor Empire (; ; ; also known as the Tijaniyya Jihad state or the Segu Tukulor or the Tidjaniya Caliphate or the Umarian State) (1861–1890) was an Islamic state in the mid-nineteenth century founded by Elhadj Oumar Foutiyou Tall of the ...

. He chose to maintain the relatively close relationship that his brother had established with the French, and expanded Kenedougou territory into modern-day

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...

and

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

. By 1898 the French had succeeded in conquering much of Samori Ture's empire and turned their attention to Sikasso. The colonel Audeoud, temporary French commander of

French Sudan French Sudan (; ') was a French colonial territory in the Federation of French West Africa from around 1880 until 1959, when it joined the Mali Federation, and then in 1960, when it became the independent state of Mali. The colony was formall ...

, was seeking a new military victory to enhance his reputation. He sent a commission to Sikasso to establish a French garrison there, a humiliatian that Babemba categorically refused. He expelled the commission, stopped paying the yearly tribute and, according to French sources, sent troops to attack them on the way back to

Bamako Bamako is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2022 population of 4,227,569. It is located on the Niger River, near the rapids that divide the upper and middle Niger valleys in the southwestern part of the country. Bamak ...

. The French responded with an invasion, beginning a major artillery barrage against Sikasso's walls on April 15, 1898. The defenders' fierce sallies were unable to drive the besiegers away, and the city fell on May 1 amid furious house-to-house fighting. Babemba, wounded during the defense of the citadel, ordered his bodyguards to kill him, an action still celebrated in

today. Sikasso was sacked, with 4000 captives taken and shared as slaves among the victorious soldiers, both conscripted Africans and Europeans.

Legacy

The stadium of

, Stade Babemba , today bears his name. There is also a statue of him, as well as another of his brother, in the city.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Traore, Babemba 1898 deaths Malian royalty 19th-century monarchs in Africa Year of birth missing Kénédougou Kingdom People of French West Africa Faamas

Reign

Legacy

See also

References