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'''Kouroussa'''
==History==
Kouroussa represented the southern end of the ''[[Mandé peoples|Manden]]'': the Mandé heartland of the [[Mali Empire]]. Kouroussa's position as a river port has made it
===Colonialism===
The first known European visitor to the town was the French explorer [[René Caillié]], who passed through the area in June 1827 on his journey to [[Djenné]] and [[Timbuktu]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Quella-Villéger | first=Alain | year=2012 | title=René Caillié, l'Africain : une vie d'explorateur, 1799-1838 | publisher=Aubéron | place=Anglet, France | isbn=978-2-84498-137-0 | language=French | pages=70–71}}</ref> In his book ''Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctoo'' published in 1830, he wrote:
<blockquote>Courouassa [Kouroussa] is a neat village, surrounded by a mud wall, from ten to twelve feet high and from eight to ten inches thick. It contains between four and five hundred inhabitants. ... the inhabitants are called Dhialonkés <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Yalunka people|Dialonké]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>, and are chiefly idolaters. They do not travel, but occupy themselves peaceably in the cultivation of their little fields, which are fertilised by the inundations of the river.<ref>{{cite book | last=Caillié | first=René | title=Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctoo; and across the Great Desert, to Morocco, performed in the years 1824-1828 (Volume 1) | publisher=Colburn & Bentley |location=London | year=1830 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/travelsthroughc00cailgoog/page/n288 248]–249 | url= https://archive.org/details/travelsthroughc00cailgoog }}</ref></blockquote>
In the late 19th century French forces appeared in the region just to the north, establishing bases at [[Kayes]], [[Kita, Mali]], [[Bafoulabé]] and eventually at [[Bamako]]. Countering the French expansion was the [[Fula jihads|Fula Jihad state]] of which exploded out of neighboring [[Dinguiray]] to conquer both the Mandé states surrounding Kouroussa to the northwest and the Bambara to the northeast. To the south, the [[Wassoulou Empire|Wassoulou]] conquest state of [[Samori Ture]] appeared, sending his well armed forces against Kouroussa, its neighbors, and the French alike, while the Futa Jallon state raided the area periodically. The French officer [[Aimé Olivier]], attempting to convince the [[Imamate of Futa Jallon]] to sign a protectorate, passed through Kouroussa in the 1880s, and at the beginning of the 1890s, French military under [[Louis Archinard]] established garrison posts at Kankan and Kouroussa, commanded from a larger post just downstream at [[Siguiri]].<ref>Auguste-Louis-Charles Gatelet. [
The French, after annexing the Futa Jallon in the 1890s, added the region to the colony of [[French Upper Guinea]], later a part of [[French West Africa]], until Guinea's independence in 1959. During the colonial period the town was made a main trans-shipment point for commodities coming from [[French Sudan]] (today's Mali) due to the construction of the Guinea-Niger railway, which met the river at Kouroussa in 1910, and from which rainy season ship transport could reach [[Bamako]].<ref>William Basil Morgan, John Charles Pugh. West Africa. Methuen, 1969. pp. 271, 587, 593.</ref> As well as a collection center for wild rubber, the French encouraged the collection gold sifted from streams and dug by local small scale mines. The French also attempted to promote local farming of [[Macrotyloma geocarpum|groundnuts]] and [[cotton]]. There remains a monument to René-Auguste Caillié in Kouroussa, erected by the French.
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The writer and intellectual [[Camara Laye]] (1928–80) grew up in Kouroussa, and his memoir, ''L'Enfant noir'' (''The Black Child''), is in part about his youth in the town.<ref>G. D. Killam, Ruth Rowe. The Companion to African Literatures. Dover (2000). p. 57</ref>
Kouroussa and surrounding towns maintain the pre-colonial Mande ceremonial kingship of Hamana, with the most recent holder of the office King of Kouroussa King Sayon Keita I.<ref>[http://www.sanimuso.com/history.php The Sanimuso Foundation, "Artisanal Mining Association"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716003502/http://www.sanimuso.com/history.php |date=2011-07-16 }}, 2006.</ref>
Kouroussa is about 50 km SW of the [[Mandinka people|Mandingo]] cultural site [[Gberedou/
===Traditional music===
Hamana-Malinke are especially known for their unique musical traditions, especially their [[polyphonic]] [[Djembé]] drumming traditions, with a number of well known drum masters—including [[Famoudou Konate]], Daouda Kourouma, and Sékou Konaté—coming from the town.<ref>[http://users.skynet.be/sb288188/mamady/FrameMogobalu.html Mögöbalu: Les Sages, les Maîtres] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080311000826/http://users.skynet.be/sb288188/mamady/FrameMogobalu.html |date=2008-03-11 }}, Website retrieved 2008-09-03</ref><ref>[http://worldmusiccentral.org/artists/artist_page.php?id=1036 World Music Central:Famoudou Konaté], 2008.</ref> Djembé groups in Kouroussa are known for the inclusion of the bass [[dununba]] drum and the long [[kenken (bell)|kenken]] bell.<ref>Serge Blanc. [http://www.tambourdjembe.com/djembee2.htm The Djembe: The Dunun]{{dead link|date=May 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, 1997, retrieve 2008-09-03.</ref>
==Economy==
===Transport===
With its position near the upstream limit of navigation on the Niger River, Kouroussa is an important center of transport and trade. The Guinea Railway crosses the [[Niger River]] at this town, where there is also a river port.<ref>[http://webworld.unesco.org/water/ihp/db/shiklomanov/part'4/AFRICA/Guinea/1gn%60ni~1.htm UNESCO: readings of Niger at Kouroussa, 1945-1979] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060106125128/http://webworld.unesco.org/water/ihp/db/shiklomanov/part%274/AFRICA/Guinea/1gn%60ni~1.htm |date=2006-01-06 }}.</ref> The town also lies at a junction in Guinea's [[N1 road (Guinea)|N1 highway]], which is a major transport route between [[Conakry]], [[Kankan]], and (via the N7 and N32) neighboring [[Mali]].<ref>[http://www.geonames.org/2418437/kouroussa.html geonames.org: Kouroussa].</ref> The [[metre gauge]] Niger – Conakry rail line runs 588 km to the capital of Guinea, with a branch of 74 kilometers running from Kouroussa to Kankan. It was built by the French, using African labor, in the first two decades of the 20th century.<ref>[
===Agriculture===
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===Mining===
Major mining companies are engaged in ongoing exploration drilling in a series<ref>[http://www.afdevinfo.com/htmlreports/lor/lor_21205.html afdevinfo: Kouroussa Exploration Area] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707092924/http://www.afdevinfo.com/htmlreports/lor/lor_21205.html |date=2011-07-07 }}</ref> of government granted [[Gold mining]] concessions<ref>[http://www.cassidygold.com/s/KouroussaProject.asp?ReportID=105159 The Kouroussa Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070909000551/http://www.cassidygold.com/s/KouroussaProject.asp?ReportID=105159 |date=2007-09-09 }}: [[Cassidy Gold]] corporation.</ref> near the town.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2005_Jan_18/ai_n8697455 Cassidy Gold Set to Resume Drilling at Kouroussa] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113034415/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2005_Jan_18/ai_n8697455 |date=2016-01-13 }} Business Wire, Jan 18, 2005</ref> The Kouroussa area also has a long history as a center of small scale gold mining, which continues in so called "Artisanal Mining"<ref>[http://www.sanimuso.com/history.php The Sanimuso Foundation, "Artisanal Mining Association"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716003502/http://www.sanimuso.com/history.php |date=2011-07-16 }}, 2006.</ref> Recent criticism has surfaced around the working conditions, pay, and the widespread use of child labour in these small gold mines, and the method which middlemen, many based in Kouroussa, purchase and transport gold. Gold collected in Kouroussa is sold on—with almost no regulation or oversight—to larger merchant houses in [[Bamako]], [[Conakry]], and eventually to smelters in Europe.<ref>[http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iiGYXu97hSZjgaq26AGOknlnIuegD92FK3180 Kids working in African gold mines]{{dead link|date=May 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. AP/RUKMINI CALLIMACHI AND BRADLEY S. KLAPPER – Aug 10, 2008. {{dead link|date=
==Notable people==
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==References==
{{
* [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/322985/Kouroussa Britannica Online: Kouroussa].
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{{Niger River}}
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{{Authority control}}
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