Banamba was founded by
Marka people from
Sokolo in the 1840s, but remained a small, unimportant village in the insecure frontier region between the
Bamana Empire and
Kaarta up until the 1860s. The
Toucouleur Empire's conquest of the middle
Niger River valley both destabilized the traditional riverine trade routes and opened up a new east-west axis linking
Segou with
Nioro du Sahel. Banamba was a key center on this new route, and became one of the most important trade towns in the region by the late 1870s. By the 1890s, it was the primary entrepot for the slave trade towards the upper
Senegal River valley, as well as an important agricultural center. In July 1904 the
Dakar-Niger railway reached
Bamako. Improved access to foreign markets pushed Marka plantation owners around Banamba to intensify grain production by overworking their slaves. In March 1905 slaves began to leave their masters in droves, often returning to homes in the
Sikasso and
Bougouni cercles. Masters responded by holding slave women and children hostage in Banamba itself. The French governor Fawtier negotiated a compromise, but it only held until the next year. By that time, the colonial government had formally outlawed slavery, and defended the slaves' right to leave. The exodus begun in Banamba spread throughout the region, with hundreds of thousands of slaves leaving their masters. ==Administrative structure==