The Kangaba Cercle is an administrative subdivision of the Koulikoro Region of

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 ...

. Its seat is the town and commune of Benkadi Habaladougou (Kenieba), also known as Kangaba. It lies at the southwest corner of the region, along the Guinean border, with 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 ...

forming its southern edge. The Kangaba Cercle is the smallest cercle in the Koulikoro Region, both in surface area and population. It is divided into nine communes. * Balan Bakama * Benkadi * Kaniogo * Karan * Maramandougou * Minidian * Naréna * Nouga * Séléfougou

History

The Kangaba Cercle is home to primarily Malinké farmers, and formed part of the precolonial

Mali Empire The Mali Empire (Manding languages, Manding: ''Mandé''Ki-Zerbo, Joseph: ''UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, Abridged Edition: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century'', p. 57. University of California Press, 1997. or ''Manden ...

as well as (first) the

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

and

s back to the 8th century. It was the center of Kangaba Province of the Mali Empire, and for a period after 1559, was the capital of the empire. In 1599 it became the last center for Mansa Mahmud IV after his defeat at Djenné, and a Kangaba city state survived after the empire's fall in 1610. Prior to the Mali Empire, the Manden city-state of Ka-ba (present-day Kangaba) served as the capital and name of this province. From at least the beginning of the 11th century, Mandinka kings known as faamas ruled Manden from Ka-ba in the name of the Ghanas. Sundiata Keita began his revolt against the remnants of the Ghana Empire there, and it remained the heartland of the Mali state. The town of Habaladougou Kenieba remains an important Malinké cultural center and home to their sacred Kamablo house, traditionally rebuilt every seven years.

Economy

The Cercle falls in the more fertile

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

climate region, and forms some of the best farmland in the nation, much devoted to

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

farming for export. Artisanal mining has become more common in recent years due to growing demand for metals and rising prices. {{coord, 11, 55, N, 8, 35, W, dim:110000_region:ML-2_type:adm2nd_source:dewiki, display=title Cercles of Mali Koulikoro Region