Ahmadu Tall

Ahmadu was born during his father El Hadj Umar Tall's stay in the Sokoto Caliphate. His mother was a Hausa slave.[2]

Ahmadu Sekou's father conquered Ségou (then the heart of the Bambara Empire) on March 10, 1861. Not long afterwards, he began his conquest of the Fula empire of Massina, leaving Ahmadu as the Almami of Ségou.[1]

Umar Tall died in 1864 attempting to suppress a rebellion in Massina. Ahmadu, the ruling Faama of Ségou and the eastern regions of the Toucouleur Empire, attempted to assert his control over the entire unit. He was opposed in this by his cousin Tidiani Tall, based in Massina, and his half-brothers Moktar and Aguibu Tall in Kaarta.[3] His rule consisted largely of suppressing rebellions in neighboring cities, quarrelling with his brothers, and fighting to centralize the empire against the resistance of the Fula aristocracy. To that end he cultivated a base of support among the Bambara natives of Segou.[4]

The government was highly structured, with centrally appointed governors of the various provinces seconded by cadis, military commanders and tax collectors. Ministers based in Segou managed various portfolios such as justice, the Niger river fleet, the public treasury, relations with Europeans and other foreign powers, commerce, etc. For much of Ahmadu's reign his cousin Sydou Djelia served as prime minister.[5]

Facing the advance of the French colonial army in the 1880s and 1890s, he accepted a short-lived alliance with the French through the Treaty of Gouri on 12 May 1887.[1] Ségou fell to the colonizers in 1890, by which time Ahmadu had fallen back to Nioro du Sahel. There his army, led by his Wolof ally Alboury Ndiaye, was defeated in January 1891. With Ndiaye, Ahmadu fell back eastwards to Djenne until its fall in 1893, then to modern-day Niger, from whence the French drove them in May 1897. Ahmadu reached Sokoto, now in present-day Nigeria, where he died in 1897.[6]

Ahmadu Tall was an enlightened and wise ruler, who treated French diplomats courteously. Although he was a Toucouleur, he has been remembered fondly by the Bambara of Segou over whom he ruled for nearly 30 years.[3]