Sikasso
Sikasso is a city in the south of Mali and the capital of the Sikasso Cercle and the Sikasso Region. It is Mali's second largest city with 225,753 residents in the 2009 census. The city is a large centre and trading port, and was the capital of the Kénédougou Kingdom between 1877 and 1898.
History
Sikasso was a small village until 1870, when Tieba Traoré, whose mother came from Sikasso, became Faama of the Kénédougou Kingdom and moved the capital there. He established his palace on the sacred Mamelon hill and constructed a massive tata to defend against the attacks of both the Malinke conqueror Samori Ture and the French colonial army. This made Sikasso the largest fortified city ever built in west Africa.Sikasso withstood a 15-month siege by Ture from 1887 to 1888 before the French, allies of Kenedougou against Ture, relieved the city. Despite this, the French contrived a diplomatic crisis to attack in 1898. They began a major artillery barrage against the tata on April 15th 1898, and the city fell on May 1st amid furious house-to-house fighting. Babemba Traore, Tieba's brother who had succeeded him as faama, ordered his bodyguards to kill him rather than let him fall into French hands. He is still remembered for honoring the Bamanankan saying "Saya ka fisa ni maloya ye". 4000 captives were taken from the sack and parcelled out as slaves among the French and their African auxiliaries. They were marched back west to the Niger, with many too weak or starved to continue dying or being killed along the way.
In modern-day Sikasso, attractions include the large market, Mamelon hill, the remains of Tieba Traoré's tata, and the nearby Missirikoro Grotto. The festival takes place every June, celebrating the traditional Malian instrument.
Geography
Located southeast of Bamako, north of Côte d'Ivoire, and west of Burkina Faso, Sikasso acts as a crossroads between the coastal countries and the landlocked Mali and Burkina Faso. Sikasso's ethnic groups include the Senufo Bamana,, the Bobo, and the Minianka.Sikasso has abundant agriculture. Sikasso's fruit and vegetable production guarantees the city's self-sufficiency, sparing it from reliance on international food aid.