Segou

Segou was founded in 1620 by the Bozo people and is the capital of Balazan and located along the Niger. The city nowadays is about 10 km away from it's original foundation (Segou-Koro). About 100.000 people are living in this third largest city of Mali. The city really started to flourish in 1712 when Biton Mamary Coulibaly founded the Bambara Empire (also known as Bamana Empire or Ségou Empire). The city became an important trading center, also slave trading. The empire stretched out as far as Timbuktu. From 1818 the empire started to weaken and places like Djenné and Mopti were conquered by Peul imam and social reformer Seku Amadu. They founded the Massina Empire around Mopti. At march 10 1861 Segou was also conquered by Umar Tall and ended the Bambara Empire and introduced the Islamic order. In 1892 the French army took over the control and established an trading center.

In the region of Segou there are about 29 rural communities. The number of people living in the region is about 480.000, of different kind of tribes.

In the Niger there are a lot of small islands which mostly will be flooded during the rainy season. During the dry season (October till June) de Bozo live on these islands. They build simple houses and live on cattle, which will be sold and some agriculture. But mainly they are known as fisherman. During the rainy season they leave the islands. Some Bozo live as nomads and travel from place to place. They are mainly Muslim and speak their own language but about four dialects can be discovered. The name Bozo seems to be distinct from Bo-so which means bamboo or straw house. The Bozo are already a long time present. Some 6000 years rock paintings that are found are related to the Bozo, which means the Bozo were already present far before other people. They also founded cities as Djenné and Mopti.

One of the local arts is Bogalan.

First published: 31 December 2009
Last update: 31 December 2009
© A. Heeroma

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