Niani

Niani lies on the west bank of the Sankarani River in the Manding heartland, among rocky hills at the edge of the forest. The river runs all year, the valley is good farming country, its smiths were known for their ironwork, and gold, kola nuts and ivory came up from the forest to the south. The griots, hereditary singers of the Manding, chant the epic of Sundiata, and in one telling Niani was his father's town and the seat Sundiata chose after defeating Sumanguru, king of Sosso; other tellings give that honour to nearby Kangaba.

Mali stood at its height in the fourteenth century, when Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 left Cairo talking of his gold. Whether Niani was the capital in those years, the accounts do not agree. Its royal age is certain only in the empire's last days. Mansa Mahmud IV, remembered as the mansa of Niani, was beaten outside Djenné in 1599, and when Bambara and Fula raiders destroyed the town he withdrew to a mountain stronghold.