Goundiourou, sometimes spelled Gunjur, also known as Dougouba, is a village in

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

just south of the city of

Kayes Kayes ( Bambara: ߞߊߦߌ tr. ''Kayi'', Soninké: ''Xaayi'') is a city in western Mali on the Sénégal River with a population of 127,368 at the 2009 census. Kayes is the capital of the administrative region of the same name. The city is loc ...

. It was historically an important center of trade and

islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

thought, and may be the same town mentioned in the chronicle of Al Bakri under the name Ghiyaru.

Toponymy

The name 'Goundiourou' comes from the Soninke term 'gunjeere' meaning a virgin forest.

History

There have been multiple villages with the name Goundiourou, making historical reconstruction difficult. The first settlement presumably pre-dated the arrival of

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

in the region, and was mentioned by Al Bakri in his 11th century travelogue as a major center of trade in the orbit of the

Ghana Empire The Ghana Empire (), also known as simply Ghana, Ghanata, or Wagadu, was an ancient western-Sahelian empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali. It is uncertain among historians when Ghana's ruling dynasty began. T ...

. Specifically Ghiyaru, as he called it, was a densely populated area which was the source of the best gold, 12 miles from the

Senegal river The Senegal River ( or "Senegal" - compound of the Serer term "Seen" or "Sene" or "Sen" (from Roog Seen, Supreme Deity in Serer religion) and "O Gal" (meaning "body of water")); , , , ) is a river in West Africa; much of its length mark ...

on the north bank. Other historians dispute this identification, placing Ghiyaru to the east on the

Niger river The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through Mali, Nige ...

.Hunwick J. O., Meillassoux Claude, Triaud Jean-Louis. La géographie du Soudan d’après al-Bakri. Trois lectures. In: 2000 ans d’histoire africaine. Le sol, la parole et l’écrit. Mélanges en hommage à Raymond Mauny. Tome I. Paris : Société française d'histoire d'outre-mer, 1981. pp. 401-428. (Bibliothèque d'histoire d'outre-mer. Études, 5-6-1) www.persee.fr/doc/sfhom_1768-7144_1981_mel_5_1_949 According to oral traditions, a second Goundiourou on the south bank was founded by Mamadu Khumba Drame in the 12th or 13th century. While nominally a part of the

Kingdom of Diarra Diarra, also referred to as Kingui, Diafunu, or Kaniaga, was a Soninke state in what is now northwestern Mali, centered around the town of Diarra. Founded in the 11th century, it was occasionally independent but frequently under the domination o ...

, Goundiourou maintained a degree of legal independence as the center of a small theocracy under the rule of Qaids and Islamic judges. The king of Diarra would come to the city every year during Ramadan to pray and honor the scholars.Charles Monteil ‘Le Site de Goundiourou’, Bulletin du Comité d'études historiques et scientifiques de l'Afrique occidentale française, Larose (Paris), 1928, http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb34381764h Goundiourou was sacked by the king of Kaarta in the early 1790s, after which it was abandoned for 20 years. A new Goundiourou, sometimes known as 'Dougouba', meaning 'big village', was eventually built on the ruins. Mahmadu Lamine Drame, a prominent

marabout In the Muslim world, the marabout () is a Sayyid, descendant of Muhammad (Arabic: سـيّد, Romanization of Arabic, romanized: ''sayyid'' and ''sidi'' in the Maghreb) and a Islam, Muslim religious leader and teacher who historically had the f ...

and resistance fighter against

French colonialism The French colonial empire () comprised the overseas colonies, protectorates, and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the "First French colonial empire", that ex ...

, was born in Goundiourou. The French destroyed the town as punishment, although it was eventually rebuilt.

References

Sources

* {{cite book , last1=Bathily , first1=Abdoulaye , title=Les portes de l'or: le royaume de Galam, Sénégal, de l'ère musulmane au temps des négriers, VIIIe-XVIIIe siècle , date=1989 , publisher=Harmattan , url=https://ereader.perlego.com/1/book/3146221/35 , access-date=27 October 2024 History of Mali Successor states to the Ghana Empire Jakhanke trade towns Populated places in Kayes Region Kayes