Samori Toure resisted French colonisation in:

Answer Details

Samori Toure (c. 1830-1900) was a Mandinka Muslim leader who built the Wassoulou Empire in West Africa and mounted one of the most sustained and effective resistances to French colonial expansion in the late 19th century. His empire was centred in what is today Guinea, with its capital at Bisandugu in the Guinea highlands.

Samori Toure resisted the French from the 1880s until his capture in 1898. His resistance was remarkable for several reasons: he organised a professional standing army equipped with modern firearms (some locally manufactured), employed a scorched-earth strategy when retreating, and relocated his entire empire eastward to avoid French encirclement. These tactics allowed him to resist for nearly two decades, far longer than most other African leaders.

While Samori Toure's campaigns and retreats took him through parts of modern-day Mali, Sierra Leone, and other neighbouring territories, the heartland of his empire and the base from which he launched his resistance was Guinea. He was eventually captured by the French at Guelemou in September 1898 and exiled to Gabon, where he died in 1900.

Exam tip: Associate Samori Toure with Guinea and the Wassoulou Empire when answering questions about African resistance to European colonisation.