Name Ahmadu Tall | ||
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Died December 15, 1897, Sokoto, Nigeria | ||
Ahmadou Sekou Tall ( June 21, 1836 – December 15, 1897) (also Ahmadu Sekou, Ahmad al-Madani al-Kabir at-Tijani) was a Toucouleur ruler (Laamdo Dioulbé) of the Toucouleur Empire (1864–92) and (Faama) of Ségou (now Mali) from 1864 to 1884. Ahmadu Seku's father, El Hadj Umar Tall, conquered Ségou (then the heart of the Bambara Empire) on March 10, 1861. Not long afterwards, he began his conquest of the Fula empire of Massina, leaving Ahmadu as the Almami of Ségou.
After Umar Tall's 1864 death, his nephew Tidiani Tall succeeded him as head of the Toucouleur Empire. Ahmadu Seku continued to act as Faama of the eastern regions from Segou, suppressing the rebellions of several neighboring cities but quarrelling increasingly with his brothers. The French colonial army invaded the empire in the 1880s and 1890s, taking Ségou in 1892 and forcing Ahmadu Seku to flee to Sokoto in present-day Nigeria.