28 Facts About Samori Ture

Samori Ture resisted French colonial rule in West Africa from 1882 until his capture in 1898.

Samori Ture was the great-grandfather of Guinea's first president, Ahmed Sekou Toure.

Samori Ture was born c in Manyambaladugu, the son of Kemo Lanfia Ture, a Dyula weaver and merchant, and Sokhona Camara.

Samori Ture grew up as West Africa was being transformed through growing contacts and trade with the Europeans in commodities, artisan goods and products.

Samori Ture was a troublesome youth, leading a group of local boys who would steal fruit from fields.

Samori Ture went to Madina to exchange himself for his mother, and served seven years as a warrior for the Cisse.

Samori Ture was beaten in their first battle and fell back into the heart of his lands.

Samori Ture won over Gberedou-Baranama and Jadaba Conde of Baro.

Samori Ture continued on to the capital of Joma, Dielibakoro; one of Ture's griots was from there, managed to negotiate their peaceful submission.

Samori Ture sent the remains of the son of El Hadj Oumarou Tall, Seydou, who had died at Norasoba, to Dinguiraye for burial.

Samori Ture opened regular contacts with the colonial administration there.

Samori Ture captured Morlaye at Sirinkoro, and then defeated the army sent to rescue him.

Samori Ture's family was removed from power in Kankan, whose inhabitants were spared a sack but forced to pay a large indemnity in gold.

The commander Gustave Borgnis-Desbordes sent an envoy to Samori Ture to announce that Kinieran, where Kaba was sheltering, was now a French protectorate.

Kebe Brema, Samori Ture's brother, led a force to Bamako to lure the French out of their defenses.

In January 1885 Samori Ture sent an embassy to Freetown, offering to put his kingdom under British protection.

Samori Ture's starving, desperate troops again brutally sacked Wassoulou, massacring any rebels they found.

Samori Ture expected to subdue Samory in a few weeks with a lightning campaign.

Samori Ture moved his base out of Kabadougou toward the Bandama and Comoe River to Dabakala in February 1895.

Samori Ture would enjoy nearly two years to consolidate his new empire without significant French intervention.

Samori Ture tried to build an anti-European alliance with the Ashanti Empire, but this attempt failed when they were defeated by the British.

Samori Ture accorded the city of Kong numerous privileges, but the local Dyula merchants' commerce with the coast, dominated by the French, had slowed since their absorption into the Wassoulou empire.

Paul Braulot came south from the Niger bend to attempt to negotiate another protectorate but was rebuffed, as Samori Ture wanted only to live apart from the French.

Samori Ture soon was forced to migrate , this time towards Liberia.

Samori Ture was brought to Kayes, and on December 22,1898, was condemned to exile, despite his wish to return to southern Guinea.

The prison camp where Samori Ture spent his last years, the small island of Missanga in the middle of the Ogooue River near Ndjole, was known as the 'dry guillotine' due to the death rate among prisoners.

Samori Ture became a hero and rallying cry for anti-colonial parties in Guinea and Mali, but was used by their opponents.

Since independence, Samori Ture has been generally remembered as a hero and martyr of African resistance to European colonialism.