Keita

The Keita dynasty ruled the Mandinka kingdom and later the Mali Empire from Niani on the upper Niger, from the eleventh century into the early seventeenth.

The first documented ruler was Sundiata Keita, who united the Mandinka, defeated Soumaoro Kante of Sosso at Kirina around 1235 and gave the federation the Kouroukan Fouga constitution; from his reign Keita became the ruling clan's name. His great-nephew Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 to 1326 made Mali famous, his gold spending upsetting prices in Egypt.

In 1337 the throne passed to Maghan I and then his uncle Suleyman, whose court Ibn Battuta visited in 1352. Defeat outside Djenne in 1599 broke Mali's power, and after the empire's collapse around 1610 the Keitas withdrew to Kangaba as provincial chiefs.