Diarra is a small town and commune in the Cercle of Nioro du Sahel in the

Kayes Region Kayes Region ( Bambara: ߞߊߦߌ ߘߌߣߋߖߊ tr. Kayi Dineja, ) is one of ten first level national subdivisions in Mali called Regions. It is the first administrative area of Mali and covers an area of . Its capital is the town of Kayes. The ...

of south-western

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 ...

. In 1998, the commune had a population of 6794.

History

Local histories recount that the village was founded by two brothers, Mana Maga and Fata Maga. They were starving, and Mana Maga gave some of his own flesh to his brother to keep him alive. His wound healed, and the place of convalescence was named 'Diara' meaning 'healing' in the

Soninke language The Soninke language (Soninke: ''Sooninkanxanne'', ), also known as Serakhulle or Azer or Maraka, is a Mande languages, Mande language spoken by the Soninke people of West Africa. The language has an estimated 2.3 million speakers, primarily lo ...

. It was founded in the aftermath of the 1076

Almoravid The Almoravid dynasty () was a Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire that stretched over the western Maghreb and Al-Andalus, starting in the 1050s and lasting until its fall to the Almo ...

attack on the

Wagadu Empire The Ghana Empire (), also known as simply Ghana, Ghanata, or Wagadu, was an ancient western-Sahelian empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali. It is uncertain among historians when Ghana's ruling dynasty began. Th ...

. Diarra was for centuries the center of an eponymous kingdom, sometimes referred to as Kingui, ruled by the Niakhate and later Diawara clans.

References

Communes of Kayes Region {{Kayes-geo-stub