Soumaoro Kanté
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Soumaoro Kanté (sometimes Sumanguru) was a thirteenth century king of the Sosso people of the Takrur region. Seizing Koumbi Saleh, the capital of the recently-defunct Ghana Empire, Soumaoro Kanté proceeded to conquer several neighboring states, including the Mandinka people in what is now Mali. However, the Mandinka prince Sundiata Keita built a coalition of smaller kingdoms to oppose him at the Battle of Kirina (c. 1240), defeating the Sosso and leaving Sundiata's new Mali Empire dominant in the region.
Soumaoro Kanté is portrayed as a villainous sorcerer-king in the national epic of Mali, the Epic of Sundiata. After his defeat at Kirina, he flees into the mountains of Koulikoro, where he disappears after being shot with his total weakness, an arrow with a white rooster crest on it.
Reference
- Davidson, Basil. Africa in History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
External links
- [PDF: Guide to Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali] from the Boston University's African Studies Center
- [Sundiata and Mansa Musa on the Web] web directory
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