Tiramakhan Traoré
Mandinka / Maninka · mortal · Mandinka / Maninka traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Tiramakhan Traoré is remembered as the foremost general of Sunjata Keita and the architect of Manding expansion into the west. In the oral traditions of Senegambia he leads the armies that carry Sunjata's authority beyond the heartland, defeats the Bainuk king of the coastlands, and founds the kingdom of Kaabu, from which the western Mandinka of Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Casamance trace their political order. The Traoré clan honours him as its ancestor, and his campaigns anchor the epic's account of how the Manding empire reached the Atlantic. As with other figures of the epic, a warrior of the thirteenth century stands behind the tradition, which magnifies him into the culture-hero of the western diaspora.
Domains
- warfare
- conquest
Powers
- carries Manding arms west into Senegambia
Epithets
- Tiramakan Tarawele — Tiramakhan of the TraoréNiane, D. T. (1989). Histoire des Mandingues de l'Ouest: le royaume du Gabou. Paris: Karthala. (secondary)
Relations
- ally: Sunjata KeitaChief general of the newly founded empire.Conrad, David C. (2004). Sunjata: A West African Epic of the Mande Peoples. Indianapolis: Hackett. (primary)
Sources
- Tiramakhan Traoré is Sunjata's chief general, credited in oral tradition with the conquest of Senegambia and the founding of Kaabu.: Conrad, David C. (2004). Sunjata: A West African Epic of the Mande Peoples. Indianapolis: Hackett. (primary); Niane, D. T. (1989). Histoire des Mandingues de l'Ouest: le royaume du Gabou. Paris: Karthala. (secondary)