Mahmadu Lamine

Mahmadu Lamine Drame
Born	c. 1835 Goundiourou, Mali
Died	December 12, 1887 near Ngogo-Soukouta, Gambia
Occupation	marabout
Known for	Resistance to French colonialism in western Senegal

al-Hajj Mahmadu Lamine Drame,also known as Ma Lamine Demba Dibassi, (died 9 December 1887) was a nineteenth-century Tijani marabout who led a series of rebellions against the French colonial government in what is now Senegal.

Early life, education, and hajj

Mahmadu Lamine Drame was born between 1835 and 1840 at Goundiorou, near Kayes in what is now Mali.^[1]^[2] Educated in the Qur'an first by his father, a cleric, Lamine also studied at Tabajang in Casamance and Bunumbu in Kantora before later studying under Fodé-Mohammed-Saloum at Bakel.^[1]^: 53,56 As a youth he participated in a jihad against the Tenda, but was captured, held for several years, and whipped.^[3]

Upon his release sometime after 1850 he traveled to Ségou, where he met Umar Tall and may have served him.^[1]^: 56 Some time between 1864 and 1874, Lamine went on a hajj, likely leaving Ségou a while after the death of Umar Tall and returning between 1878 and 1880.^[1]^: 57,62 Upon his return, he was imprisoned by Tall's son Ahmadu Tall.^[4] In 1885 Tall's son Madani freed him.^[3]

Uprising

Lamine returned to the Upper Senegal and began gathering followers, his claims of friendship with the French notwithstanding. He soon proclaimed a jihad against Tenda. When Omar Penda, the new French-aligned almamy of Bundu, refused him passage Lamine and captured the capital of Boulibani in February 1886.^[3]^[5] In response, the French seized his wives, children, and belongings in Goundiourou.^[3]

The political situation during Mahmadu Lamine's three rebellions
1886
1886-1887
1887

Between April 1st and 4th 1886, the marabout's forces besieged the French in their fort at Bakel, but the siege was broken by reinforcements coming from Kayes and he retreated south. The French, supported by Toucouleur and Moorish auxiliaries, burned a hundred villages in the area in revenge.^[3]^[6] Mahmadu Lamine's son Souaiybou, left behind to continue the fight in the Senegal river valley, was besieged for five months in the tata of Gori until April 1887. Upon his capture, he was court-martialed and shot at age 18.^[3]

Lamine re-established himself at Diana, in what is now the Tambacounda region. Quickly reorganizing his state, he re-invaded Bundu, killing Omar Penda on July 16th 1886. In December 1886, two French columns led by Lt. Col. Joseph Galliéni and battalion chief Vallière marched on the town. Although it was fortified by two tatas, Lamine and his troops abandonned it without a fight. On December 26th the French troops burned the town to the ground to punish the inhabitants.^[3]

Following this defeat, Lamine regrouped at Toubakouta in Niani, launching his next attack against the Kingdom of Wuli in July 1887. The capital was sacked and the king, another puppet of the French, was executed. Galliéni seized Toubakouta on 8 December 1887. Lamine again escaped, but was tracked down and captured by the forces of Musa Mollo, king of Fuladu, a key French ally. Wounded in the fight, he died on the way back to Toubakouta.^[3] His head was brought to the French, and his skull currently resides in the Musée de l’Homme.^[7]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Fisher, Humphrey (1970). "The Early Life and Pilgrimage of Al-Hajj Muhammad Al-Amin the Soninke (d. 1887)". The Journal of African History. 11 (1): 51–69. doi:10.1017/s0021853700037439. JSTOR 180216. S2CID 162684356.
^ Daniel Nyambarza. “Le Marabout El Hadj Mamadou Lamine d’après Les Archives Françaises.” Cahiers d’Études Africaines, vol. 9, no. 33, 1969, pp. 124–45. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4391033. Accessed 4 July 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Institut Fondamental de l'Afrique Noire. Musée Historique de Gorée Exhibit (August 2024).
^ Isichei, Elizabeth (1977). History of West Africa since 1800. New York: Africana Publishing Company. p. 52. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
^ Isichei, 53.
^ Drame, B. "Histoire: Qui Est Mamadou Lamine DRAME ?". Mali Info. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
^ Méheut, Constant (2022-11-28). "A Paris Museum Has 18,000 Skulls. It's Reluctant to Say Whose". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-11-29.