Following a major military victory in the early 13th century, the founder of the Mandingo Empire and his wise men proclaimed the new Manden Charter in Kurukan Fuga. The territory was located in the upper Niger River basin, between present-day Guinea and Mali, and the territory was referred to as the Manden. There are seven chapters in the Charter, one of the oldest constitutions in the world despite being mainly oral, advocating social peace in diversity, the inviolability of the human individual, education, the integrity of the motherland, food security, freeing slaves from the razzia, and freedom of speech and trade.
As outlined in the Epic of Sundiata, Kouroukan Fouga or Kurukan Fuga was a constitution for the newly established imperial state created by a council of nobles after the Battle of Krina (1235). Historically, the Kouroukan Fouga established the federation of Mandinka clans under one state, established how it would function, and set the laws through which the country would live, according to the oral tradition of the griot poets of Mali and Guinea. Kurukan Fuga is a toponym meaning "clearing on granite or lateritic rock", referring to a plain near Ka-ba where the narrative emphasizes that Sundiata Keita presents the charter.
As an instance of oral history, the Epic of Sundiata does not exist in a fixed form, having been collected in the 1890s. The first close transcription dates to 1967. Kouroukan Fouga was reconstructed from oral tradition in 1998 during a regional workshop held in Kankan, Guinea, with the goal of publishing and preserving oral history relating to the djeli or griots of the area. A workshop led by Siriman Kouyaté, assisted by modern communicators and Guinea linguists, transcribed and translated the laws and edicts preserved in different regions from the core of the Mali Empire.
Despite the disappearance of the Empire, the words of the Charter and the rituals associated with it are still handed down orally from father to son within the Malinke clans. To this day, annual ceremonies commemorating the historic assembly are held in the village of Kangaba, which is adjacent to the vast clearing of Kurukan Fuga, which is now located in Mali. The ceremonies are supported by the local, national, and traditional authorities, who see it as a source of law and a way to spread a message of peace, love, and harmony that has endured through time. However, it is still underlying the values and identities of the population concerned continues to be the Manden Charter.
References
(https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/manden-charter-proclaimed-in-kurukan-fuga-00290) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kouroukan_Fouga#Reconstruction)