The History of the Empire from Ghana to the Sultanate of Massina
The Timbuktu manuscripts contain accounts of local West African history
B-reel animationSAVAMA-DCI
The historical chronicles were the first of the Timbuktu manuscripts to be published and translated into French and English in modern times. They were studied for their accounts of West African history by authors such as Maurice Delafosse, an ethnographer and colonial official who worked on African languages and the Timbuktu manuscripts.
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‘The History of the Empire from Ghana to the Sultanate of Massina’
The original manuscript of ‘The History of the Empire from Ghana to the Sultanate of Massina’ was written in the 18th century, then copied in the 19th century. It reads:
“This is a treatise on the origins of the people of the Malakawi of Murqiwan who left the Western lands, a place inhabited by a Mandé tribe.
They traveled in seven groups, all in different directions, and each group lived in a particular region. The first group settled in the Sahel, the second in Bagunu country, the third in Kingui, the fourth in Kunu country;
MS 05381 P002 MHSAVAMA-DCI
these last two were descendants of the Malinke. The Dyula people, the fifth group, settled in Ségou Sikoro, including locals and non-locals;
the sixth settled in Futa Tooro, in Guidimagan and Gazaza, and the seventh settled in Macina in the village of Furku as far as the Gao region, which marks the edge of the lands of the Takrur."
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