Kabadougou

The Kabadougou Kingdom was a Malinké warrior kingdom situated in north-west Côte d'Ivoire centered on the town of Odienné and bordered the Kingdom of Worodougou. It was ruled by the Touré dynasty, whose founder centered the society around slavery. The dynasty in an alliance with Samori Ture fought French colonization until 1898. Independence Foundation of a slave society The kingdom was founded by , a former dyula (trader), in 1848. Touré switched to being a marfatigi (gun-wielding warrior) and was in the service of Mori Wali Cisse and Karamogoba Diabi. In 1845, he with his cousin Vasanissi went to defend maternal relatives in Kulukoro against Cisse, Vanassi killed Cisse in an ambush and the cousins convinced his army to support them in an attack against the Diarrasouba Kingdom of Nafana. This force drove out the Diarrasouba and Vakaba established Odienné, his hometown, as the capital. The local kafu (a Malinké polity) Massala served as an early ally but Folon and Bodougou were forcefully annexed. Samatiguila retained independence and was closely associated, and whose Diabi religious and business class was among other leaders as well as warriors a recipient slaves. Touré altered the social structure and divided horonyi (freemen) into the elite warrior class and trader allies, with remnants diminishing in status. Atop the military hierarchy was the faama, whose commading force consisted of the sofakuntigiyi (slave generals), who were owned by the faama. The sofayi (soldiers) alternated between service and agricultural production. He had almost every village within his military's reach subjugated to the level of jonya (slavery), which was already present but less widespread. The kafus of Bodougou, Foulodougou, Nafana, and Nohoulou were attacked, with villages being destroyed, and prime targets for slave raiding. In the jonya system, it was theorized that slaves' children were to be free upon birth, but the need for bodies to support constant war efforts, exacerbated by French colonization in the kingdom's later history, caused this concept to be entirely dismissed. Similar to practices of the Ségou Empire, the warrior elite would designate conquered and captured peoples to agricultural production, conscription, or have them sold for resources incapable of being produced.