Ségou

• Location: Mali

A region and a town meaning 'Fortified Enclosure' from the Mande segu. It was the first capital of the Bambara Kingdom of Ségu which was at its most powerful during the 17th and 18th centuries. Bambara means 'unbeliever' or 'infidel', a name acquired when the people resisted forced conversion to Islam after Ségou had fallen in a Tukulor jihād 'holy war' in 1861.

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