Segu

In the Bambara kingdom of Ségou on the Niger, at the turn of the nineteenth century, the noble family of Dousika Traoré is scattered and transformed as Islam, the Atlantic slave trade and European ambition converge on West Africa. Condé's sweeping historical epic is rooted in a real geography: the animist royal city on the great river, the Niger itself, the Muslim learning of the north at Timbuktu, and the slave coast to which one son is carried away.

Dousika

Ségou (the royal city)

The Traoré compound

In the earthen-walled city of Ségou, the nobleman Dousika Traoré serves at the Bambara king's court and presides over a great animist household of wives, children and slaves. Condé opens in the confident heart of a pagan African kingdom at its height, unaware of the forces, Islam, the slavers, the Europeans, already gathering to tear it apart.

The opening chapters

explicit Ségou, the real capital of the Bambara kingdom on the Niger, is the seat of the court and the home of the noble Traoré family; sited at the historic city.

Google Maps ↗ Street View ↗