Méma

---

title: "Méma" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["landforms-of-mali", "plains-of-africa", "ghana-empire", "countries-in-medieval-africa", "sahelian-kingdoms", "successor-states-to-the-ghana-empire", "states-and-territories-disestablished-in-1450"] description: "Region and former country in present-day Mali" topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Méma" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Region and former country in present-day Mali ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox Former Country"]

Field	Value
common_name	Méma
status	Kingdom
government_type	Monarchy
year_start	8th century CE
year_end	c. 1450
event_end	Conquest by the Songhai
event1	Independence from Mali
date_event1	1433
event_post
date_post
flag_p1
image_p1
s1	Songhai Empire
image_s1
image_flag
flag
flag_type
image_coat
symbol
symbol_type
common_languages	Soninke language
religion	African traditional religions, Islam
::

| native_name = | conventional_long_name = | common_name = Méma | status = Kingdom | government_type = Monarchy | year_start = 8th century CE | year_end = c. 1450 | event_start = | date_start = | event_end = Conquest by the Songhai | date_end = | event1 = Independence from Mali | date_event1 = 1433 | event2 = | date_event2 = | event3 = | date_event3 = | event4 = | date_event4 = | event_pre = | date_pre = | event_post = | date_post = || | p1 = | flag_p1 = | image_p1 = | s1 = Songhai Empire | flag_s1 = | s2 = | flag_s2 = | image_s1 = | | image_flag = | flag = | flag_type = | | image_coat = | symbol = | symbol_type = | | image_map = | image_map_caption = | capital = | national_motto = | national_anthem = | common_languages = Soninke language | religion = African traditional religions, Islam | currency =

Méma is a region and former state in Mali, Africa, a key constituent kingdom in the Wagadou, Mali and Songhai Empires.

Description

A plain of alluvial deposits, Méma is situated north of Massina, west of Lake Debo and the Inner Niger Delta, and southwest of the Lakes Region. The now-senescent basin may have been the first settlement area for communities who migrated from distressed homelands of the Sahara during the last two millennia BC.

History

Méma was inhabited by 3800 BCE at the earliest by migrants from Azawad fleeing the drying Sahara. It was host to a large number of Stone Age villages, succeeded by hundreds of Iron Age cities, far pre-dating the settlement of Djenne-Jeno.

Historically, Méma was one of the smaller Soninke states, an important vassal or province of the Wagadou Empire. According to local legends it was founded by Biranin Tounkara, a slave or companion of Dinga, the legendary founder of Wagadou. Historian Dierk Lange has argued that Ghana, rather than being situated to the northwest of the Niger Delta, was in fact centered in the Méma area.

After Wagadou's collapse around the end of the 12th century, Méma was one of the most important Soninke successor states. It appears several times in the Epic of Sundiata. The Tunkara (king) of Mema shelters Sundiata when he flees the Manding region, then provides cavalry to help him overthrow Soumaoro Kante and establish the Mali Empire, within which Mema held a special, more autonomous status. In 1433 the kingdom regained its independence before falling to the Songhai Empire by the middle of the century.

Archaeology

Toladié

Toladié, which dates between at least 430 CE and 670 CE, is the largest occupation site (76 hectares) in Mema. As a primary center in the region, Toladié utilized smelted iron tools produced by the communities of Akumbu, Boubou, Boundou, Boulel, Kobadie, Kolima, and Nampala for purposes of tribute and trade with the Ghana Empire.

Akumbu

At the Akumbu mound complex, in Mema, its archaeological findings date between 400 CE and 1400 CE; at the cultural deposit of AK3, which contained three human remains, the dates range between 400 CE and 600 CE. While two out of three human remains were in a fully decomposed state, one of the human remains were able to be determined to be a young adult (17–25 years old) female, who was buried with two copper bracelets - one on each wrist, 13 cowrie shells, 11 stone beads, and a fully intact pot.

References

Sources

References

1. (2000). "Africa's Urban Past". James Currey Publishers.
2. (2018). "African dominion : a new history of empire in early and medieval West Africa". Princeton University Press.
3. Levtzion, Nehemia. (1973). "Ancient Ghana and Mali". Taylor & Francis.
4. (1996b). "La Chute De La Dynastie Des Sisse: Considerations Sur La Dislocation De L'Empire Du Ghana A Partir De L'Histoire De Gao". History in Africa.
5. (1977). "The Cambridge History of Africa Volume 3: From c.1050 to c.1600". Cambridge University Press.
6. (Jul 4, 2013). "Complex Societies, Urbanism, And Trade In The Western Sahel". OUP Oxford.
7. (Aug 16, 2000). "Metals and Precolonial African Society". AltaMira Press.
8. (May 1993). "Archaeological investigations of Iron Age sites in the Mema region, Mali (West Africa)". University Microfilms International.

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