The formerly dominant Ghana Empire, following internal…

The formerly dominant Ghana Empire, following internal strife and political intervention of the Almoravids in the eleventh century, had collapsed by the late twelfth century.

A number of smaller neighboring states had rushed to fill the power void, including the Sosso, or Susu, people of the Kaniaga kingdom, and the Mandinka people of the Upper Niger.

The modern Susu, or Sosso people, trace their history to a twelfth- and thirteenth-century Kaniaga kingdom known as the "Sosso."

With the fall of the Ghana Empire, the Sosso Kingdom had expanded into a number of its former holdings.

Under the leadership of Soumaro Kanté, the Sosso had seized Koumbi Saleh, former capital of the Ghana Empire, and expanded outward, conquering the Mandinka among others.

The exiled Mandinka prince Sundiata Keita has organized a coalition of smaller kingdoms to oppose the growing power of the Sosso.

The opposing armies meet in the Koulikoro Region of what is now Mali in about 1235.

Sundiata Keita's forces are victorious, and march on to raze Sosso.

The date is often cited as the beginning of the Mali Empire, which will control most of West Africa for the next two centuries.

The story of the battle is retold in the Epic of Sundiata, widely considered Mali's national epic.

In it, Sumanguru Kanté is an evil sorcerer-king who oppresses the Mandinka people; however, when Sundiata discovers that his sacred animal is the rooster, he is able to wound Sumanguru Kanté with an arrow tipped by a cock's spur.

The Sosso king then flees the field, disappearing into the Koulikoro mountains.