The Mandinka empire of Samouri ion Toure 1870 - 1898 and the French. The empire occupied an area of the Western Such bordered on the West by the Futa Jalon, on the south by the forests on the north by the Tokoiar empire and on the east by the Mossi and Asante kingdoms. The Mandinka were organised in hundreds of towns or village groups. One group of the Mandinka - tne Diula were long distance traders. They were skilled craftsmen, weavers and blacksmiths. They moved freely throughout Mandinka country and beyond, trading among the Mossi, with French merchants on the Senegal and on the coast at Monrovia and Freetown. They were Muslims.

The Diula towns were Muslim is^nds In a sea of Animism. Since their pagan neighbours were also Mandinka, they intermarried with them and practiced pagan rites along with their Muslim faith.

By mid 19th century, some of the Diuta towns were expanding into sizeable state.

Kong expanded because she wanted to control the horse trade from the North and the kola nut trade from the south. Two other Diula towns, Odtenne and Sikaswe, had also expanded into sizeable states by 1850. Samori was a trader. He was trading in gold from Wassulu, and cattle from Futa Jalon and had visited Freetown and the Tokoiar empire during his travels.

He was converted to Islam under a scholar - chief of Wassulu.

By 1870, he had brought the small states of the Wassulu area under this authority. His capital was at Bisandugu.

By 1886, his empire was the third largest political unit off the Western Sudan following the Sokoto, caliphate and Tokolar empire.

The Mandinka possessed a kind of national spirit through their common pride on the empire of Mali. To the Mandinka, Samori feared to do what Mansa Musa had done for their ancestors.

Samouri advocated for political unification, and revival of Mandinka greatness. He used Islam to unite to the people.

The Tijaniyya brand is Islam with emphasis on equality made a special appeal to the

Mandinka whose traditional culture emphasized the dignity and equality of men.

He stressed education and conquered villages he established a school, mosque and a teacher.

The army was an instrument of conversion and education on which the faith and basic literacy were taught.

The commercial towns of Kankan and Odieno supported him.

By destroying the great number of customs charges among the small status, his empire removed many obstacles to trade. The merchants also benefited from his export drive designed to pay for the importation of war materials.

The long distance traders acted as spies for him among the French in the Futa-Jalon, the British in Freetown and the Tokolar on the Niger that helped to make his international diplomacy the success that it was.

SAMOURI'S POLITICAL ORGANISATION

The empire was divided into 162 cantons. These were grouped together to form the ten large provinces.

The Empire was governed by the traditional, the military and the religious authority leading up to the Almani and state council.

Village heads and canton chiefs were chosen by traditional methods.

Real authority lay with the Seta (professional military officer) administrator and the Qadi.

The Almani was the supreme political, judicial and religious head of the empire as well as the military commander. He was assisted by a state council, composed of the provincial heads of the three lines of authority - political, religious and military.

The provinces were headed by relatives or close friends of Samouri assisted by a war chief who had 200 to 300 sofas under his command and a scholar.

It was the most effectively governed of the larger West African empires of the 19th century. It was much more united and centralised than the Tokolar.

The sofas were so important that Samouri could reward merit and call the best talent to the service of the state. Sofas had no traditional claim, so they could be promoted transferred or dismissed by the Almani. This means that they worked very hard for the empire in order to be rewarded.

Since education, discipline and National rather than tribal loyalty were stressed in the army, it was a fine training ground for political officers.

The major aim of Samouri's administration was to destroy tribalism and promote national loyalty among the Mandinka. He put less emphasis on the village groups and more on the canton which brought villages together.

Men of different families and tribes worked together.

He gave everyone the chance to rise through the army to the highest places in the state.

Religious leaders took their place at every level alongside the political and military leaders.

 Taxation and law were according to Islamic practice. Judicial matters were settled in the Alkali's courts at the village, canton or Samouri and his state council.

Samouri created a modern state, a complex administration with an appointed a political service and an efficient and rural army to carryout the will of the central government.

He fostered a recognizable national spirit which was necessary for the existence of the state.

SAMOURI'S DIPLOMACY

Between 1885 ahd.1889, Samouri followed a policy of paying the British off against the French hoping to preserve his independence.

 He realized that the French wanted to conquer the whole of Western Sudan so he began to become friendly to the British. He intact offered his country to the British and begged them to send in their troops.

The British let him down and instead used the Mandinka empire to bargain for French concessions dsewhere in Africa. The Sierra Leonians could not change the British attitude so En 1891, Samori faced the French alone when war broke out.

Samouri however succeeded in preventing the British from agreeing with the French to ban the import of arms from Free orange town. The British delayed the ban until 1893.

In 1886, the French approached Samouri for a boundary csttlement which resulted in the Treaty of Bisandugu.

Samouri gave up to France all his territory north of the river on return for French friendship. He hoped to gain the French friendship and delay conflict long enough to strengthen his own position by importing arms from Sierra Leone.

He also wanted to secure and control the trade route supplying horses from the north, which was controlled by Tieba, the king of Sikasso.

The French also wanted to gain time in order to destroy Tokolar Empire before challenging Samouri.

The French also checked a possible Anglo- Mandinka alliance by declaring that in his treaty, Samon ceded his empire to the French.

1887- 88 Samouri attacked Sikasso the best-fortified city in Western Sudan. Tieba the king of Sikasso decided to sign a treaty of protection with the French instead of allying with Samouri. Samouri hoped that the British would help him but they didn't.

Samouri hoped to ally with Ahmad of Tokolar but it was made impossible when France captured Soga in 1890 which divided the two empires.

Meanwhile, the French encouraged Tieba to attack Samouri on retaliation returned the treaty of friendship (Bisandugu) to the French and war broke out.

The British refused to help Samouri and he was left alone to face the French.

Samouri had a standing army of 2,000 to 3,000 men. Plus 200 to 300 sofas on each province making 100,000. Samouri did not have enough guns for all of them, secondly production of food would be disrupted If all were removed from land.

10,000 men would be fighting; others were carrying-supplies and attending to horses.

Since he lacked artillery, Samouri avoided being bottled up in fortified cities and also any large scale massing of his troops.

The State completely took over direction of all markets and agriculture in order to regulate prices and ensure a steady supply.

There were state controlled workshops where guns were repaired and gun powder was manufactured. Samouri relied on these workshops for five years after Freetown market was closed.

Due to lack of artillery, Samouri avoided pitched battles, preferring small engagements, followed by slow retreat to the East.

He divided the army into 3 divisions: The first engaged the French and retreating.

The second - organizing the population, evacuating them leading and protecting their exodus.

The third - conquering and organizing the new area in preparation to receive the people.

As they retreated, they carried out a scorched earth policy.

The French took over dead and deserted country. Food was brought on from the coast and this delayed the French advance and the actual fighting.

By 1896, the Mandinka Empire had abandoned its first-area and was located far to the east.

THE SECOND MANDINKA EMPIRE 1894-1898.

Dabakal was Samouri's new capital.

Samouri by now had lost the gold fields and the wealth they provided. To compensate, he had to increase the export of slaves.

He was out of Free orange town and he had to depend on his workshop for military supplies.

He was now open to attacks from French forts on the Ivory Coast.

He now faced, to the north-West, Kong which was suspicious and jealous of Asante was ready for alliance.

Kong had already signed a treaty of protection with French. As relationship with Samori deteriorated, Kong invited French troops to help. Samori defeated the French and destroyed Kong. Asante wanted Samouri's alliance against the British.

Samouri refused since he couldn't get guns nor horses from Asante. Secondly, Samouri didn't want to get a second enemy i.e. the British.

The French capture Sikasso and Gobo Dioulesso in 1898 which cut off the Northern trade route.

Samouri was now in shortage of food, guns and horses.

The French were advancing from the north, West and south and the British in Asante blocking further retreat to the east. Samori evacuated Dabakala and gave himself up later. He was deported to Gabon where he died in 1900.

REASONS WHY FRANCE WAS ABLE TO CONQUER WEST AFRICA EASILY

Jealousy and suspicion among the African leaders of Futa Jalon and Sikasso prevented them to combine on a formal alliance or coordinate their attack upon the French.

The French also prevented an all - African alliance by playing upon those jealousies and antipathies.

In 1888, the French had signed a treaty of friendship and protection with Futa Jalon. A similar treaty was signed with Samouri. The following year, they promised Ahmad never to attack the Tokolar Empire. Sikasso was promised the same thing. Not one African State broke the terms of its treaty except Samouri, who sent the treaty back.

Once the French had pushed Samouri to the East and isolated Futa Jalon and Sikasso, they dealt with each in turn.

1896, they attacked Futa Jalon and deposed the king.

Bebema of Sikasso was attacked and defeated in 1898. The French violated every treaty of friendship they overthrew every friendly monarch.

The French Mandinka war was the first modern war in Africa Samori waged total war, mobilizing the whole population. The results of this war were, thousands died, land devastated, the population was reduced to one third of the original size.

While some people looked back on Samouri with bitterness, to others his name is magic, the great West African of the African personality in its struggle to retain independence.

40% of the people accepted Islam as a result of his rule.

WARS OF INDEPENDENCE IN THE IVORY COAST.

The coastal - forest people of the Ivory Coast fought the French for 27 years (1891 - 1918) to preserve its independence. There were no centralised kingdoms but just small chieftancies.

This was the fiercest struggle against subjugation anywhere in West Africa. While the French engaged one group, the other harassed the French.

There were no large armies against which the French could use their artillery and the forecasts proved ideal for guerilla tactics.

The Africans insisted that the French honour the protectorate treaties and did not interfere in African internal affairs especially in election of chiefs.

To the French, the treaties were used to secure allies who could be transformed into subjects,

Afro - French relations were governed by treaties on which French merchants were given trading rights on return for an annual tribute to the coastal chiefs.

Between 1887 and 1889, the French negotiated similar tributary treaties with the forest chieftancies and as far north as Kong in the Savannah.

The French bound themselves not to interfere with African customs, land tenure or government.

Almost immediately, the French violated the treaties by demanding slave porters, meddling in the election of chiefs and attacking Samouri.

In 1900, the French sought to levy a head tax and three years later began the construction of a railway which required land and labour.

Ths result was an effort to throw the French out of the Ivory Coast. The French were forced to- abandon the interior. By 1908, they were clinging to the coastal strip.

Africans who had not been military defeated but had negotiated treaties with European, continued many years after partition to think of their status as equal to the French.

1908, the French sent Governor of Angoulvant to the Ivory Coast. He had one purpose. Military preparation with the purpose of disarming the population.

Hundreds of villages were destroyed and peoples were put into large settlements which the French army could guard.

By 1915, the country was under military rule. 220 African leaders were deported.

In 1916, the Baoule led another uprising, to expel the French but were defeated.

1917, the Agri migrated as a body to the less harsh colonial rule of the British in Ghana.

By 1918, Africans of the forest zone of the Ivory Coast were exhausted.

Although the Ivory Coast resistance to French rule was unique in its length and integrity, in the end it was a decisive and triumphant factor. It was the maximum which compelled respect, obedience, humiliation and -subjection.

THE CAREER AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF JAJA OF OPOBO.

Jaja was born in 1821 in Ibo land Eastern Nigeria, was enslaved during his childhood and later sold to the Anna pepple in Bony such that he grew up a humiliated person with determination to prove his worth as an able man.

Like Samouri-Toure, Jaja was a gifted person who eventually rose to a position of leadership in the Anna pepple house in Bony becoming the most dynamic leader in the Delta states.

Following the decline of the house of Anna-pepple, Jaja found himself in clashes with king Oko Jumbo of the Manilla pepple house. And when civil war broke out in Bonny, Jaja left the city with a large number of followers and founded his own settlement on the River Imo which he later named Opobo.

He-therefore declared himself as king Jaja of Opobo which became an independent entity of its own.

The creation of a new state began the political career of Jaja for it later became the most important state in the Delta region whose significance was later seen in the attempt by the British agents especially the Christian missionaries to take over the independence of Opobo.

Something that Jaja wasn't wilting to allow for he usually regarded religion as a dangerous philosophy because he was certain it would undermine the authority of the state just as it had done in the state of Bony where the people were divided between those who followed traditionalist and those who followed the new Christian principles which in the long run made people lose their confidence in William Pepple who was now to be regarded as a mere puppet in the hands of the missionaries and British.

It's therefore from this lesson that Jaja refused to welcome missionaries to his kingdom while at the same time missionaries wanted to expand there which later created enmity between the British missionaries and Jaja of Opobo.

The British councils and traders in the delta region were suspicious and afraid of Jaja and thereby tried their level best to reduce his authority and influence but meanwhile he was steadily increasing his wealth by monopolizing the palm oil trade in the area. His trading activities brought him closer to the British tracers who were also determined to carry out trade along the delta states and this brought a lot of conflicts between Jaja and the British.

Jaja's determination to make his kingdom remain independent greatly worried the British because a powerful state like that of Opobo could stand in their way towards the control of the Niger Delta region and therefore the British were determined to do away with Jaja's authority it's in this light that the two parties clashed.

The British offered Jaja protection through the British consul at Lagos something Jaja refused for he demanded for a proper explanation from the British consul on the meaning of the word "protection" something that worsened the relationship between Jaja of Opobo and the British.

The British consul therefore regarded this as an abuse from an African ruler and the climax of which was when Jaja of Opobo went ahead and expelled some British firms from his territory like the Miller Brothers factory which initially controlled the oil river and this to the British made Jaja an enemy and indeed in 1887, the British declared war on Jaja after all attempts including intimidation failed to make him heed to British imperialism.

After all attempts to intimidate him failed, they attacked him in 1887, and exiled him West Indies and indeed the defeat of Jaja withdrew the thorn from the flesh of British Imperialism for the British didn't face any other powerful leader like Jaja of Opobo and

indeed it was from the i that the British were able to control the whole of the delta region.

AGYEMAN PREMPEH OFASANTE EMPIRE

Agyeman Prempeh assumed power when Asante had already been weakened by wars with the Fante and the British.

Agyeman Prempeh assumed power when he was a young boy at the age of 16. He had an enormous task ahead of him. Had the duty of reorganizing Asante so that it becomes a powerful empire once again.

Agyeman Prempeh also assumed power at a period when" Europeans were busy penetrating into the interior of West Africa. He faced the-challenge with a lot of courage and achieved a lot inspite of the number of problems.

After he had assumed power, Asante empire experienced a rebellion. The British who were afraid of Asante s military and political strength, encouraged many states to break away from the control of Asante.

Agyeman Prempeh sent a strongly worded letter to the British and he demanded the immediate return of his territories. When the British gave a negative response, they simply wanted Asante destroyed.

The British could not be able appreciate the demand of Agyeman Prempeh for the establishment of a powerful empire once again. Agyeman Prempeh was very serious with his quest for the establishment of a strong Asante.

The British wanted to control Asante effectively. This was a period when many European counties were competing for the colonization of Africa. The French already operating in Ivory Coast had an interest in Asante; while the German operated in Togo also had a political interest in Asante. Hence the British wanted to defeat Agyeman Prempeh and impose British control before other European countries could take over Asante so it can be said that Agyeman Prempeh-assumed power a difficult time in the history of Asante kingdom.

The army was a very important institution for the political survival of Asante. The first concern of Agyeman Prempeh was to recognise the army. He insisted that the states that had rebelled must be brought back under the control of Asante by force.

Organised the army and attacked Nkoroma. As a result of fear, many other states such as Nswa came back under Asante control without any resistance. The British were threatened  by the quick recovery in the political strength of Asante empire, yet they knew that a strong Asante would undermine their interests in the region. Therefore they had to destroy Agyeman Prempeh before he could accomplish the re-unification of Asante empire. Under Agyeman Prempeh, Asante was steadily recovering its political and military strength. Therefore a clash between the Agyeman Prempeh and the British was unavoidable. The British could not accept the political recovery of Asante empire under the leadership of Agyeman Prempeh.

As a leader it was a duty of Agyeman Prempeh to maintain the independence of the Asante that was basically the reason why he could not accept having a British resident at Kumasi.

Agyeman Prempeh knew very well that British residents would interfere the internal affairs of the Asante Empire. The British were extremely bitter because Agyeman Prempeh rejects a British resident.

In 1806, a British army attacked Kumasi the capital of Asante. As expected of any sensible leader, Agyeman Prempeh put up a very strong resistance against the invaders. The invaders eventually defeated him.

The war brought about image destruction in Kumasi more especially around the palace of Agyeman Prempeh, he was tried and found guilty on all counts. He was fully exiled to Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean.

Agyeman Prempeh tried to defend his territory. He was only betrayed by lack of weapons and the bad neighbours.