Sosso

Sosso was the centre of a kingdom that rose in the western Sudan after the decline of Ghana. Its rulers extended their power over neighbouring lands before the emergence of Mali. The best remembered of them, Sumanguru Kante, appears in Manding oral traditions as the formidable opponent of Sundiata Keita. Sundiata’s victory in the thirteenth century became a defining episode in the story of Mali. The old name of Sosso survives in the country between the Sahel and the upper Niger.