Minignan (also spelled Maninian) is a town in north-western

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

. It is a

sub-prefecture A subprefecture is an administrative division of a country that is below prefecture or province. Albania There are twelve Albanian counties or prefectures, each of which is divided into several districts, sometimes translated as subprefecture ...

of and the seat of Minignan Department. It is also a commune and the seat of

Folon Region Folon Region is one of the 31 regions of Ivory Coast. Since its establishment in 2011, it has been one of two regions in Denguélé District. The seat of the region is Minignan and the region's population in the 2021 census was 146,209, making it t ...

Denguélé District Denguélé District (french: district du Denguélé, ) is one of fourteen administrative districts of Ivory Coast. The district is located in the northwest corner of the country. The capital of the district is Odienné. Creation Denguélé Distr ...

History

The French explorer René Caillié stopped at Minignan in 1827 on his journey from Boké, in present-day Guinea, to

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; french: Tombouctou; Koyra Chiini: ); tmh, label=Tuareg, script=Tfng, ⵜⵏⴱⴾⵜ, Tin Buqt a city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. The town is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrativ ...

in Mali. He was travelling with a

caravan Caravan or caravans may refer to: Transport and travel *Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together **Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop *Camel train, a convoy using camels as pack animals *Convoy, a group of veh ...

transporting

kola nut The term kola nut usually refers to the seeds of certain species of plant of the genus ''Cola'', placed formerly in the cocoa family Sterculiaceae and now usually subsumed in the mallow family Malvaceae (as subfamily Sterculioideae). These cola ...

s to

Djenné Djenné ( Bambara: ߘߖߋߣߣߋ tr. Djenne; also known as Djénné, Jenné and Jenne) is a Songhai people town and an urban commune in the Inland Niger Delta region of central Mali. The town is the administrative centre of the Djenné Cercle, on ...

. He described the village in his book ''Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctoo''.

We halted towards two o'clock at Manegnan inignan a village inhabited by Bambaras; it contains about eight or nine hundred inhabitants; the natives call this part of the country Foulou, and like the Wassoulos they speak the Mandingo language; I did not perceive that they had any particular dialect. They are idolaters, or rather, they are without any religion; their food and clothes are like those of the inhabitants of Wassoulo; and they are equally dirty.

In 2014, the population of the sub-prefecture of Minignan was 14,521.

Villages

The 13 villages of the sub-prefecture of Minignan and their population in 2014 are:

References

Sub-prefectures of Folon Region Communes of Folon Region Regional capitals of Ivory Coast {{Denguélé-geo-stub