Médine is a village and principal settlement (''

chef-lieu An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

'') of the commune of Hawa Dembaya in the Cercle of Kayes in the Kayes Region of south-western

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...

.. The village is located 12 km east of

Kayes Kayes ( Bambara: ߞߊߦߌ tr. ''Kayi'', Soninké: ''Xaayi'') is a city in western Mali on the Sénégal River with a population of 127,368 at the 2009 census. Kayes is the capital of the administrative region of the same name. The name "Kayes ...

on the left bank of the Sénégal River just downstream of the Félou Falls. The site of the village was historically important as the falls were the furthest point up the Sénégal River from Saint Louis that could be reached by boat. Navigation was only possible after the rainy season when the river was in flood.

History

In 1855 Louis Faidherbe, the French governor of Sénégal, constructed a fort at Médine to strengthen French control of the Sénégal River and to act a base in the expansion into the interior. The Siege of the Fort du Médine took place two years later in 1857 when the Toucouleur forces of al-Hājj Umar Taal unsuccessfully besieged French

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

troops under Faidherbe.

Background

France at this time was struggling to create a

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

n empire to rival the holdings of its powerful neighbor

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The previous year, the French legislature had voted the first funds for what would become the Dakar-Niger railway line, a key transportation system to link France's colonies. As the railroad line expanded toward the east, the army established a series of forts, moving troops and

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

into them by steamship where possible and overland where not. In 1848, Umar Tall launched his jihad against neighboring

Malinké The Mandinka or Malinke are a West African ethnic group primarily found in southern Mali, the Gambia and eastern Guinea. Numbering about 11 million, they are the largest subgroup of the Mandé peoples and one of the largest ethnic-linguistic g ...

regions. By 1855, his rapid expansion had led to several skirmishes with the French army. With the authorization of his ally, Khasso Quene Hawa Demba Diallo, Governor Faidherbe ordered a fort built at the Khasso village of Médina.

Siege

In April 1857, Umar Tall declared war against the Khasso kingdom, and marched on Médina Fort, their nearest outpost, with an army of 20,000 to 25,000 riflemen. He laid siege to the fort and began a series of assaults that resulted in hundreds of casualties for the Toucouleur army. In the 97 days that followed, the defenders' food supplies soon ran low, and the fort was on the verge of surrendering when Faidherbe arrived by steamboat with supplies and 500 reinforcements, breaking the siege.

Consequences

Realizing the difficulties of attacking the well-equipped French, Umar Tall turned his attention to the neighboring Bambara Empire, soon conquering most of its territory including its capital of

Ségou Ségou (; bm, ߛߋߓߎ, italic=no, ) is a town and an urban commune in south-central Mali that lies northeast of Bamako on the right bank of the River Niger. The town is the capital of the Ségou Cercle and the Ségou Region. With 130,690 ...

. However, the French continued to expand their West African presence, conquering Ségou and the

Toucouleur Empire The Tidjaniya Caliphate ( ar, الخلافة التجانية; also known as the Tijaniyya Jihad state or the Segu Tukulor or the Toucouleur Empire) (1861–1890) was founded in the mid-nineteenth century by Elhadj Oumar Foutiyou Tall of the T ...

less than thirty years after Umar Taal's death.

Today

On 19 March 2009 the Malian Government submitted the Médine Fort to be added to the tentative list of heritage sites of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. The Fort du Médine is open to the public. There is also an old railroad station on the Dakar-Koulikoro line 2 km to the west of the village and a European-style cemetery with graves from the mid-19th century. The village population is around 1800 with a small market daily.

References