With the collapse of the Songhai empire in 1591 at the battle of Tondibi, the Western Sudan region was thrown into near-constant turmoil and clashing fiefdoms. The former empire was now a patchwork of minor states. The last of the Moroccan conquerors were finally abandoned by their Saadi lords in the Maghreb after 20 years of Songhai counterattacks from Gao and uprisings by the people in cities such as Timbuktu and Jenne, forming a new Maghrebi aristocracy along the Middle Niger known as the "Arma" who reigned as petty princes unable to exert much power beyond their individual cities.
This change in West Africa occurred for a few reasons. The exhaustion of the West Sudanese goldfields caused a shift in influence from the Western Sudan to the Central Sudan, affirming the renewed prominence of entities like the Hausa city-states and Kanem-Bornu empire among others. Another factor was the Age of Exploration bringing European merchants to the coasts of Western Africa, reorienting the trade routes of forest societies from the Sahel towards the sea. Gradually slaves replaced gold as the dominant commodity in the region.
Enter the Bambara. Stalwart adherents of traditional Manding religion known as "Bamanaya", the Bambara distinguished themselves in this way from the increasingly Islamized Mandinka. Starting in the mid-17th century the Bambara would grow into the most influential political and military force in the Western Sudan, establishing the much-feared Bambara empire in 1712 under king Biton Coulibaly. The pagan Bambara of Segou were a bellicose people and mighty drinkers of alcohol, in stark opposition to the historically Muslim or pseudo-Muslim aristocrats of the medieval Sahelian empires. The leaders of Segou frequently came from outside of the traditional Mande social hierarchy: namely hunters of the Dozo fraternity and slaves. Charismatic hunters deriving renown from their occult powers would gather followings of disenfranchised slaves who fought for them in return for higher social status and material benefits such as plunder. Jonba or "Big Slaves" could not be sold at market and formed the bedrock of the slave army, forming a political entity reminiscent of the Mamluks or Janissaries. In contrast, Jonfin or "Black Slaves" could be freely bought and sold at market.
From this era of constant warfare and uncertainly, a new corpus of legend was born. The four greatest of the nineteen kings of Segou became the central components of this cycle: Biton Coulibaly, Ngolo Diarra, Monzon Diarra, and Da Monzon. Numerous heroes and villains are associated with the reigns of these monarchs.
The Segou Cycle includes examples of:
- Darker and Edgier: The Segou Cycle is much less idealized than the medieval legends of heroic Sundiata Keita and his noble court, or the Dausi of ancient Ghana. Segou and its immediate neighborhood are acknowledged as a dangerous place to be: from its Deadly Decadent Court to roving slavers to human sacrifices to man-eating demons walking the earth. The legitimacy of the Mansas had given way to the Faamas who are more like military strongmen than rightful monarchs.
- Pals with Jesus: Biton Coulibaly caught one of Faro’s daughters stealing Ngoyo tomatoes from his family’s garden. Biton spared the spirit and was led back to Faro in her underwater palace, who offered him many gifts like cattle and gold. Biton asked for grain which he gave to the birds who scattered it across the lands. Where the birds dropped the grain became the boundary of his new kingdom.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Biton Coulibaly overhears a conversation between a vulture and hyena about where to found the city of Segou.
- Super-Hearing: Faro squirted a drop of milk in each of Biton Coulibaly’s ears. This allowed him to hear all conspiracies and plots relating to him in the world.
