The Representation of Status in Mande: Did the Mali Empire Still Exist in the Nineteenth Century?

For the reconstruction of the history of the aftermath of the Mali empire, that is, the period 1500-1800, oral traditions are the only source of information. The history of this period has been reconstructed by Person and Niane. Their work has gained widespread acceptance. In this paper I will argue that these scholars made significant methodological errors—in particular, in interpreting chronology in genealogies, and their reading of stories about invasions and the seizure of power by younger brothers. My reading of the oral tradition raises questions about the nature of both sixteenth- and nineteenth-century Mande (that is the triangle Bamako-Kita-Kankan (see map), the region where the ‘Malinke’ live), and the medieval Mali empire, because I think that Mande royal genealogies have wrongly been considered to represent claims to the imperial throne of the Mali empire. In contrast, my reading of oral tradition suggests in retrospect that the organizational structure of the Mali empire may have been segmentary, and not centralized, ranking between segments under discussion, each group thereby creating a hierarchical image. The conventional wisdom seems to be that the Mali empire collapsed/disintegrated in the period from 1500 and 1800. As Person put it: Dans le triangle malinke, on ne trouvera plus au XIX siecle que des kafu , ces petites unites etatiques qui forment les cellules politiques fondamentales du monde mandingue. Certains d'entre eux savaient faire reconnaitre leur hegemonie a leurs voisins, mais aucune structure politique permante n'existait a un niveau superieur. Beaucoup d'entre eux, dont les plus puissants et les plus peuples, seront alors commandees par des lignees Keeta qui se reclament avec quelque vraisemblance des empereurs du Mali medieval.