Kayes Region
Kayes is a region in
Mali. It is the first administrative area of Mali and covers an area of
km². Its capital is the town of
Kayes.
The region of Kayes is bordered to the north by
Mauritania, to the west by
Senegal, to the south by
Guinea and to the east by the region of
Koulikoro.
The region has a population of 1,506,299 inhabitants. Ethnic groups of the area include
Soninkés,
Khassonkés,
Malinkés, and
Peuls.
Several rivers cross the region: the
Baoulé, the
Bafing, and the
Bakoy which join at the town of
Bafoulabé to form the
Sénégal River. The Falls of Félou (4 km of Kayes), the Falls of Gouina (100 km to the south-east of Kayes on the Sénégal River),
Lake Magui and
Lake Doro are located in the region.
At the Guinean border, the climate is rather wet, but becomes
Sudanian and later
Sahelian to the north.
The large cities in the region are
Kayes,
Nioro du Sahel,
Dièma,
Yélimané,
Sadiola,
Bafoulabé,
Kénébia and
Kita.
The
National park of Bafing and the
Boucle du Baoulé National Park are located in the region.
The region of Kayes is the cradle of the
Kingdom of Khasso founded at the beginning of the 19th century.
In 1855,
Louis Faidherbe, Governor of Senegal, built a fort at
Medina which would be besieged by
El Hadj Omar Tall, in an 1857 war against the sovereign of Khasso. In 1892, the town of
Kayes became the capital of
French Sudan.
The construction of the
railway line of Dakar-Niger, inaugurated in 1904, made of Kayes a city-crossroads. Essential at the time, the railroad had an important place in the lives of the inhabitants, as described in
Ousmane Sembène's novel
God's Bits of Wood.
