The emir of Liptako was its ruler until the French colonial occupation began in 1897, but retained political power until the position was dissolved by the post-colonial Upper Volta government in 1963.
The area is believed to have changed hands between various ethnic groups, including the Dogon, the Kurumba, and possibly also the Bambara, Bissa, and Mossi.
[4] Balibagini, a member of a cadet branch of the royal family of Nungu,[5][6] established the first kingdom of Koala,[3] taking the title bedo (pl.
[8] Paamba, the fifth bedo,[9] lifted Balibagini's edict prohibiting a Fula presence in Koala, setting the stage for the kingdom's eventual fall.
[10] During the reign of the eighth king, Yencaari, a dispute over inheritance and taxation in the Fula village of Selbo escalated a rebellion that ultimately forced the Gurma to flee to the south.
[10] Yencaari was killed during the conflict,[5] with one local account suggesting that he was injured in battle, succumbing to his wounds in Bani after the Gurma exodus.
[24] In the early 19th century, escalating tensions between the Islamized Fula and the ruling Gurma led to a jihad, inspired by Usman dan Fodio and the Fulani War.
[27] The French occupied the Liptako capital of Dori on 30 April 1897,[28] during the reign of Bokari Sori, but did not remove the emir, and largely permitted the precolonial political system to continue.
In 1895, colonial administrator Georges Destenave traveled to Liptako as part of an effort to confirm the status of French treaties with various local authorities and was informed that Buhaari was dead, having never become emir.