The Sosso kingdom (12th to 13th centuries) briefly flourished in the void but the Islamic Mandinka Mali Empire came to prominence when Soundiata Kéïta defeated the Sosso ruler, Soumangourou Kanté at the semi-historical Battle of Kirina in c.
The town is the home of the world's oldest balafon and an important object for the Maninka people, the 13th century Sosso-Bala, which has been labeled as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
Joseph Stalin (1878 - 1953), one pseudonym Sosso, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee