San

Sister cities

• Chaumont

History

The area of San was for centuries a fishing camp for Bozo people. Around 1400CE, a trade city dependent on the kingdom of Daa began to develop at a crucial ford over the Bani linking the Inner Niger Delta to the goldfields to the south, although oral traditions conflict on whether Marka from Dia or Dyula from Djenne were responsible. The town was attacked by Askia Ishaq I of the Songhai Empire in 1542. At the time it may have been known under the name 'Sama', although the name could also refer to Sama Foulala. In 1690 San, a prosperous market town, was conquered by Biton Coulibaly and integrated into the growing Bamana Empire. In 1739, Famaghan Ouattara of the Kong Empire intervened in a Bamana civil war and destroyed the town. It was later rebuilt somewhat further north. San was incorporated into the Massina Empire by Cheikhou Amadou in the 1830s, and became a theocratic state. For this reason, when El-Hajj Omar Tall destroyed Massina in the 1860s he spared the city.