The Bamana Empire (also Bambara Empire or Sgou Empire, Bambara: , romanized: Banbaran Fmala) was a large West African state based at Sgou, now in Mali. This state was established after the fall of the Mali Empire and the Keita dynasty, as a smaller Bambara Empire founded by other Bambara families related to the Keita clan. It was ruled by the Kulubali or Coulibaly dynasty established c. 1640 by Kaladian Coulibaly also known as Fa Sine or Biton-si-u. The empire existed as a centralized state from 1712 until the 1861 invasion of Toucouleur conqueror, El Hadj Umar Tall.

Hadji Oumarûl Foutiyou TALL (Umar ibn Sa'id al-Futi Tal, Arabic: حاج عمر بن سعيد طعل), (c. 1794 – 1864 CE), born in Futa Tooro, Senegambia, was a West African political leader, Islamic scholar, Tijani Sufi and Toucouleur military commander who founded the short-lived Toucouleur Empire encompassing much of what is now Guinea, Senegal, and Mali.