Sofa ( warrior ) Sofa is a Mandinka term for slave soldiers who served in the army of the Mali Empire . Sofas would also fight , in varying capacities , in the armies of later Mandé states such as the Bamana and Wassoulou empires . Etymology . The word sofa translates into English as " father of the horse " ( " so " means horse , and " fa " means " father " ) or " guardian of the horse " . This term stems from the original function of the sofa as a caretaker for the horse or horses of Mandinka cavalry commanders called " farari " . Sofa in the Mandinka empire of Mali . Sofas make their first appearance in oral and written records during the formation of the Mali Empire . Sofas were recruited from " jonow " ( slaves ) captured in battle or bought from afar . They could be depended on in most instances for obedience , since their livelihood depended entirely on their master . The institution of slavery in the Mali Empire heavily rewarded loyalty , and jonow could rise to civil or military positions of prominence . Jonow became part of their master ' s clan , and were often freed after a certain amount of years . As part of the clan , jonow were expected to accompany their master ' s into battle and handle his horse and weapons . Initially forbidden from engaging in direct warfare , sofa eventually made up the majority of Mali ' s infantry army . As infantry , they were armed with bows and arrows by the state or , more accurately , royal clans devoted to the state . In the forest and swampy areas of the Mali Empire , cavalry was minimized or altogether abandoned making sofas the exclusive instrument of war . Sofas were equipped with two quivers , and their bow was small by European standards . It could not fire very far or even powerfully , so sofas utilized deadly poisons and fired in arcs to give the arrows strength . Sofas also used flaming arrows , especially against fortifications that were often little more than thatch or wooden palisades . Some sofas fought as cavalry , at least after being freed , such as Mansa Sakura whom started out his military career as a jonow of the Keita clan . He was freed by Sundjata Keita , became a cavalry commander of some renown and eventually usurped the throne of Mali . Sofa in the Mané empire of Kquoja . During the 16th century , warriors from the crumbling Mali Empire invaded what is now Sierra Leone and Liberia . This resulted in the establishment of a loose federation of Mané states all paying homage to a single leader in a type of empire called Kquoja by visiting Europeans . The Mané came equipped with the tactics and equipment of the Mali Empire , but were forced to rely almost exclusively on infantry strategies in the jungle terrain . One of the many institutions they brought with them was that of the sofa . Conquered people were conscripted into Mané armies as " sumbas " to strengthen a force that was forever on the move . The sumbas were forced to engage in ritual cannibalism , which permanently alienated them the Mané ruling class . By the end of the 17th century , the Mané had conquered nearly all the indigenous cultures . This resulted in the spread of Mandé language and the end of a single Kquoja authority as the Mané were absorbed into the native landscape . Sofa in the Bamana empire of Segou . The Bamana people inherited much from their close relations , the Mandinka , in civic and military culture . They formed their own empire 1640 , which filled the vacuum left by the Mali and Songhai empires . By 1712 , the state had crystallized into a formidable state that borrowed much in military structure from the Mali Empire . Sofas were used heavily in its armies as infantry and support troops , which allowed the Bamana to dominate much of modern - day Mali . Sofa in the Dyula empire of Wassoulou . The institution of the sofa survived into the late 19th century among Dyula in the Wassoulou region between the modern states of Mali , Guinea and Ivory Coast . Under the leadership of Samori Ture , the Dyula formed the Wassoulou Empire and successfully challenged French ambitions in West Africa until 1898 . The sofa under Samori were organized into standing armies of slaves , much like those in Mali six centuries earlier and armed by the state . However , instead of bows and arrows , Wassoulou sofas went to war armed with modern rifles , which they put to good use against African and European enemies .