Samorian state

The state founded by Samory Toure did not have an official name. Scholars often refer to it as 'Samory's state/empire' or a version thereof. At the time the inhabitants commonly called the state Samoridugu, roughly translating to 'Samori's home', for lack of a better name. This name, however, originated from 's memoirs of his time as a French colonial officer and was derived from his conflation of Samory Toure's larger empire and Wassoulou, a historical region conquered by Toure and his army. ==History==

Early years The death of Omar Saidou Tall, founder of the Toucouleur Empire, in 1864 functionally split his empire between his sons and opened political space for local rulers to re-assert their independence. The Baté Empire, a regional rival of the Toucouleur Empire, took the opportunity to exert its influence over the now independent post-Toucouleur states, which so happened to include Samory Toure, who led a small state centered around the city of Byala. After taking control of a small warband, he managed to extend his influence over all of the Toron region either by force or diplomacy, building alliances with the powerful Konate family of Gbodou and the leaders of Bissandougou. This first expansionist phase, lasting from 1866 to 1873, saw Samory's army and influence grow dramatically as members of his mother's Camara clan and numerous other volunteers were attracted by his success. With his Kaba allies, Toure conquered Kouroussa, Norassoba, Baro and other important towns. He also established diplomatic relations with Aguibou Tall (son of Umar Tall) of Dinguiraye in 1878, then an alliance with the almamy of the Imamate of Futa Jallon Ibrahima Sory Dara in 1879. The army captured the Bure gold mining district on the border of Mali and Guinea to become more financially stable and continue trade, and by 1878 Toure had declared himself Faama (Emperor), with Bissandugu as his capital. He took up the Islamic title of Almamy in 1884. In the aftermath of Samaya, some of the leaders of Bamako began making overtures to Toure. The French, eager to possess this key strategic town on the Niger, rushed a force to establish a fort there on February 1, 1883. Kebe Brema, Samori's brother, led a force to Bamako to lure the French out of their defenses. They fought two battles at Woyo Wayanko creek in early April, with Kebe Brema winning the first but eventually being forced to retreat. In 1885, Toure sent men to Freetown in Sierra Leone to propose that the empire become a British protectorate. The British rejected the offer in order to avoid conflict with France, but allowed increased trade in the form of selling more rifles to Samory's army. When an 1885 French expedition attempted to seize the Buré gold fields by capturing Niagassola, Toure counter-attacked. Dividing his army into three columns, he quickly forced them to withdraw. The French were compelled to negotiate the Treaty of Kenieba Koura, signed on March 28, 1886. This pact recognized the Niger as far upstream as Siguiri as the border between the French and Samoridugu. War with Kenedougou At roughly the same time, the frontier on the Bagoe river between Samoridugu and the Kenedougou Kingdom was descending into violence as forces from both sides raided into the other, and Tieba Traore's army sought to spark a rebellion in the Wassoulou region. With famine and instability widespread, when Samory's forces started forcing conversion to Islam and destroying local sacred sites in 1885, the populace rebelled. Rebels massacred sofa garrisons at Siondougou and Fulala. By the end of the 1887 dry season, the last holdouts had been starved into submission. In March 10, 1891, a French force under Colonel Louis Archinard set out from Nyamina for a surprise attack on Kankan. He expected to subdue Samory in a few weeks with a lightning campaign. Knowing his fortifications could not stop French artillery, Toure began a war of manoeuvre and scorched earth. Archinard had little trouble capturing Kankan on April 11 and then a deserted Bissandougou, but Toure had left little worth taking. Archinard's replacement, Colonel Humbert arrived in Kankan in January 1892 and led a small, well-supplied force of picked men on another attack on Bissandougou. The French installed garrisons at Bissandougou and Kerouane. Samory convened another council at Frankonedou on May 9, 1892 where they decided to move east and rebase the empire in Kabadougou, devastating each area before evacuating it to delay French pursuit. During the first months of 1893, the French, although unable to corner Toure's armies in Guinea, did manage to capture Faranah and block resupply routes to Liberia and Sierra Leone, the army's primary source of modern weaponry. This left Samory reliant on a longer route through the Gold Coast. His vassals in Kissidougou and the rest of the western- and southernmost parts of the empire surrendered. Samory Toure's empire in the Manding region was now gone. Kong and Bouna Samory moved his base out of Kabadougou toward the Bandama and Comoe River to Dabakala in February 1895. His objective, and the key to the whole region, was the ancient Dyula trading city of Kong. The French sought to secure the city by putting together a column led by Col. Monteil in August 1894, but it did not leave Grand Bassam, however, until February 1895. Its passage sparked a popular resistance movement. Monteil stumbled onto the sofas on March 2; in a battle on the 14th, the French were forced to retreat and abandon Kong, which pledged fealty to Samory in April. The new empire in the east would enjoy nearly two years without significant French intervention. The fall of the Kenedougou capital of Sikasso on May 1, 1898 permitted French colonial forces to launch a concentrated assault against Toure. He was forced to migrate once again, this time towards Liberia. Hoping to live off the land while marching, a combination of the unfamiliar mountainous territory of western Ivory Coast, hostile locals, and colonial attacks turned the campaign into a disaster. Thousands died of starvation. Using information from sofa deserters, the French captain Henri Gouraud surprised Toure's forces at Guelemou on September 29, 1898, and captured the Almamy without a fight. With his capture, Samoridugu ceased to exist. ==Government==

Operation The Samorian state at its height was divided into 62 cantons and 10 provinces, with a population of 300,000 people representing many different ethnicities (Malinke, Senufo, Fula, Mossi, etc.). The head officials, known as keletigi (meaning war chief), were in charge of both the army and the administration of justice in their province. Taxes were generally light. An important element of Samorian governance were regular grand councils of state that brought together all the most important dignitaries of the empire. On these occasions, they decided major questions and organized conquered territory. Some examples include the 1875 council in Bissandougou to inaugurate the capital and proclaim Samory Toure as faama, the 1884 council that formalized Islam as the state religion, and the 1893 council of Frankonedou where the decision was made to move the center of government east, away from the invading French. Foreign relations Samory Toure maintained a diplomatic mission in Freetown to ensure the protection of caravans and the continued flow of trade, especially in arms, between the British colony and his empire. The French also exchanged regular diplomatic delegations with him. After the 1886 treaty of Kenieba Koura, Samory's son Djaoulen Karamo was sent to Paris on a diplomatic/fact-finding mission. He became a francophile and leaned towards a negotiated settlement rather than war in later years. When he opened a diplomatic back channel for this purpose in April 1894, however, Djaoulen Karamo was starved to death. The Samorian state boasted a highly efficient intelligence network that the French referred to as the 'African telegraph.' Novice soldiers were sent to French posts to gather information, sometimes taking jobs as servants in officers' households where they would overhear sensitive conversations. Dioula merchants also gathered information and passed it along to military leaders. Areas along Samoridugu's borders were often chaotic and unstable, with villages being subject to raids from all sides. ==Military==

The Samorian army was the preeminent government institution, omnipresent in all administrative and political questions. It was well equipped with modern firearms and boasted a complex structure of permanent units divided into an infantry wing of sofa and a cavalry wing. The bilakoro, uncircumcised novices, served as pages for the soldiers. In 1887 Samori could field 30,000 to 35,000 infantry and about 3,000 cavalry, in regular squadrons of 50 each. There was also a reserve, 1 out of every 10 men from every village, such that each of the empire's 10 provinces could furnish 10,000 men. Even during the move east out of the Manding region, the Samorian army consisted of some 12,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry, and an overall retinue of some 120,000 people. While the best-armed troops resisted the French using repeater rifles (either purchased, captured, or manufactured locally), those armed with the bolt-action chassepot conquered new territory to the east to use as a strategic reserve, and men with flintlocks served as the home guard or internal security. This system enabled Samory to fall back into territory already conquered and organized, leaving no food for the French, for 7 years. The discipline and organization of the Samorian army was comparable to and modeled after that of contemporary European armies. Communication and regulations were similar, and runaway tirailleurs were employed as trainers. The strict discipline, as well as threats of punishment and promises of reward or promotion, kept order in the ranks. ==Economy==

The majority of people living in the empire were subsistence farmers. The state engaged in large-scale commerce to coastal trading cities selling ivory, wax, hides, rubber, and gold, all carried by slaves who were also sold. The proceeds purchased the arms and ammunition necessary to maintain the army. Regular caravans also went north to Bamako and Bobo-Dioulasso to purchase horses. As Samoridugu came under more and more pressure from the French, they were forced to turn increasingly to the slave trade to fund the war. By the 1880s economic stability was very reliant on the influx of plunder and the internal slave trade fueled by war captives or refugees selling themselves into slavery. While this was a groundbreaking and potentially revolutionary solution to one of Samory's key challenges, namely access to modern weaponry without having to draw down the human or capital reserves of the empire, the domestic arms industry did not fully resolve the problem. Despite the large-scale organization, the blacksmiths were never able to provide the quantity of guns necessary to supply the entire army. Samoridugu also did not have the technology to build blast furnaces, and without this the casting of artillery was impossible, and making quality gun barrels was also very difficult. Importation from British Sierra Leone remained a critical source of weaponry for Samory Toure. ==Society and religion==

Particularly after the 1884 codification of Islam as the state religion, it was an important structure and model for building the empire and uniting its diverse inhabitants. Mosques were built in many conquered areas, a judicial system based on Islam principles was put in place, and animist practices were suppressed. The state sponsored Quranic schools throughout the empire, and Samory Toure would often inspect schools in areas he passed through, interviewing students, rewarding good teachers and publicly reprimanding bad ones. In strongly animist areas, the population found this Islamization to be a threat to their cultural traditions and after 1885 revolts became more common; these had to be put down on top of fighting a war against the French. Overall, Samory Toure's heavy-handed methods of proselytization largely failed, and these animist communities converted to Islam only after the fall of the Samorian Empire. == Notes ==