The Bambara Kingdom of Segu (Mali)

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Description

The history of the Bambara can be traced at least as far back as the seventh century. In this program, we learn something of their past, and we can imagine more from the extraordinary architecture of their ancient villages, which form a fluid continuum with life in the same region today. A large and flourishing culture, the Bambara lived by collecting enslaved Africans and reselling them to North Africa and the Western Hemisphere; when the slave trade was abolished in Europe, the economic decline of the Bambara followed. As new economic bases were created, a new Bambara civilization emerged, which has retained the artistic vigor of its forebears.