Dô Explained

Native Name:
Conventional Long Name:Do Dugubani
Common Name:Dougouba
Era:11th-18th century
Event Start:Fall of Wagadu
Event End:Capture by the Segou Empire
Year End:18th century
P1:Wagadu
S1:Segou Empire
Capital:Dugubani
Common Languages:Mandinka
Religion:African traditional religion
Government Type:Kafu
Leader1:Moriba Koné
Today:Mali

, also spelled Daw, sometimes called Dodougou or Do Dugubani, was a kafu (a coalition of villages headed by a paramount chief) in the Niger river valley around the modern village of Tamani, west of Segou. It existed as early as the 11th century, and played a prominent role in the establishment of the Mali Empire: the founder Sundiata Keita's mother, Sogolon Condé, was from Dô.

Andalusian writer Al-Bakri records two countries, "Daw" and "Malal", located near the Niger and close to gold-fields.[1] In al-Idrisi's account of 1154, he noted that the two towns of Daw and Malal were four days' travel apart, located in a river valley that joins the Nile (meaning the Niger River).[2]

Oral sources also mention two kingdoms, Do and Kiri (also called Mande or Malel). Do was inhabited by the Conde clan, and had twelve towns under its control. After Malel brings unity, mention of Do ceases.[3]

Some sources place the Do of the Sundiata story in the Sankaran region, west of Niani, rather than near Segou.[4] [5]

Notes and References

  1. al-Bakri in Nehemiah Levtzion and J. F. P. Hopkins, eds and trans, Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History (New York and London: Cambridge University Press, 1981, reprint ed. Princeton, NJ,: Marcus Wiener, 2000), p. 82-83.
  2. al-Idrisi in Levtzion and Hopkins, eds. and transl, Corpus, p. 108.
  3. Book: Niane, Djibril . General History of Africa: Volume 4 . 1984 . Mali and the second Mandingo expansion .
  4. Bühnen, Stephan. “In Quest of Susu.” History in Africa 21 (1994): 1–47. https://doi.org/10.2307/3171880.
  5. Book: Kone, Kassim . https://books.google.com/books?id=DYbwEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22kingdom+of+Sankaran%22&pg=PA175 . The Epic World . 2024-01-30 . Taylor & Francis . 978-1-000-91216-6 . en . Sunjata Fasa and the oral epic tradition of Mali.