Ahmadu Seku

Tukulor ruler
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

Print
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Quick Facts
Died:
1898, Sokoto, Northern Nigeria

Ahmadu Seku (died 1898, Sokoto, Northern Nigeria) was the second and last ruler of the Tukulor empire in West Africa, celebrated for his resistance to the French occupation.

Succeeding his father, al-Ḥājj ʿUmar, in 1864, Ahmadu ruled over a great empire centred on the ancient Bambara kingdom of Segu, in present Mali. By the Treaty of Nango (1881) he granted France most-favoured-nation status. After the advance of the French to Kita and Bamako, he abandoned Segu as his capital and accepted a French protectorate (Treaty of Gouri, May 12, 1887). But Col. Louis Archinard took the offensive against him in 1888 and by 1891 had seized most of his strongholds.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.