Editing Samori Ture (section)

==Early life and career==
Samori Ture was born {{circa|1830}} in Manyambaladugu, the son of Kemo Lanfia Ture, a [[Dyula people|Dyula]] weaver and merchant, and Sokhona Camara. The family moved to [[Sanankoro]] soon after his birth.<ref name = Fofana>{{cite book |last1=Fofana |first1=Khalil |title=L' Almami Samori Touré Empereur |date=1998 |publisher=Présence Africaine |location=Paris |isbn=9782708706781 |url=https://archive.org/details/lalmamisamoritou00fofa/page/16/mode/2up |access-date=30 September 2023}}</ref>{{rp|12}}

Ture grew up as [[West Africa]] was being transformed through growing contacts and trade with the [[Europeans]] in commodities, [[artisan]] goods and products. European trade made some African trading states rich. The trade in [[firearms]] changed traditional West African patterns of warfare and heightened the severity of conflicts, increasing the number of fatalities.<ref name="Vandervort">{{Cite book |last=Vandervort |first=Bruce |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/70750153 |title=Wars of imperial conquest in Africa, 1830–1914 |date=1998 |publisher=UCL Press |isbn=0-253-33383-0 |location=London |language=en |oclc=70750153}}</ref>{{RP|128}}

Ture was a troublesome youth, leading a group of local boys who would steal fruit from fields. To put him on a better path, his father bought him some merchandise and sent him off to become a merchant trading [[kola nuts]] from the coast for cloth.<ref name = Fofana/>{{rp|16}}

In 1853 Sanankoro was raided by the [[Cissé]] clan and Samory's mother was captured by the prince Sere Brahima, whose older brother Sere Bourlaye was king in [[Madina, Guinea|Madina]]. He went to Madina to exchange himself for his mother, and served seven years as a warrior for the Cissé. In their service he learned to handle firearms, the arts of war, and discipline, and converted to Islam. Brave and intelligent, he moved quickly up the ranks.<ref name = Fofana/>{{rp|19}} Sere Bourlaye died in 1859. Soon afterwards Sere Brahima, who succeeded him, freed Samory and his mother, and they returned to Sanankoro.<ref name = Fofana/>{{rp|21}} According to tradition, he remained "seven years, seven months, seven days" before leaving with his mother.