Upstream of Jenne, along the Bani and on the plateau towards Koutiala, live farming peoples who never formed kingdoms in this period: the Bobo, the Marka-Dafing (Soninke-related traders and farmers) and the Minianka, each village under the head of its founding lineage and the priest of the earth, with masks and initiation societies.
They grow millet and sorghum, smelt iron and sell grain and cotton down the Bani to Jenne.
Who holds it
- Name
- No ruler
- Title
- Village and lineage heads; earth priests
- Since
- Not pinned
- Confidence
- low
Overlord
None known; Jenne's reach upstream on the Bani is not pinned.
How things stand that morning
Self-governing villages.
Customs
Village government by lineage heads and earth priests; mask societies; iron-smelting.
Assemblies
Village elders.
Overlord claims
None recorded.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: No written source for 1200; drawn from the later ethnography so the ground is not left blank.
On the map: Approximate.
Sources and studies
- General ethnography of the inland delta and the Sahel (Bozo masters of the water, Nono and Marka, Bamana village government), from the researcher's knowledge; used only to describe customs, not to date them
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.