ABSTRACT
Samori arouses the highest passions because more than any other leader in pre-colonial Africa he symbolises heroic and determined resistance to the European conqueror. Samori came from the Milo valley on the northern border of Konyan, a land of lofty mountains and high plateaus which serves as counter-fort to the north flank of the famous Guinea Highlands. Samori’s army grew out of the Mori-Ule Sise’s and for a long time he copied their methods exactly. Around a nucleus of friends and supporters, including a fair proportion of men from artisan castes and Dyula, he built up a force of warriors captured during his wars, giving them their freedom in return for service. The great confrontation with the French took place before it was able to show what it was really capable of doing and although it showed itself to be reasonably effective, it was too limited in its powers to shift the balance in Samori’s favour.
