Kissi Kaba Keita

When the French arrived in 1892, he had to let the relatively autonomous chiefs of the respective areas defend themselves. Due to the French's technological superiority, Kissi Kaba resorted mainly to guerilla tactics: His warriors would wait for French troops while hidden close to rivers or in forests and would attack the French by surprise with the main goal of kidnapping or killing the French officers. Furthermore, they would cut down all liana bridges to slow down the French advance. However, by 1893, Kissi Kaba realized that his resistance would fail and subjected himself to them. As such, they recognized him as chief of the northern Kissi territory. However, he his relationship with the French gradually worsened, which first led to the French appointing his rivals in a number of his chiefdoms, until he was finally executed in Siguiri.

In 1978, the ashes of Kissi Kaba were finally brought back to Kissidougou from Siguiri where had been shot by the French colonial power. While known as a kissi (son of Suleimani Leno, son of Fadaka), Kissi Kaba had claimed kinship to Sundiata Keita, the emperor of Mali.^[1] During the ceremony of his ashes' return, this relationship was retold by some griots: According to those reports, Kissi Kaba was descended from Mansa Dankaran Touman, the first son of faama Naré Maghann Konaté. Dankaran Touman was the older brother of Sundiata Keita.