Kaabu Empire Kaabu | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1537–1867 | |||||||||||||
![]() Kaabu Empire circa 1625 (in purple) | |||||||||||||
Capital | Kansala | ||||||||||||
Common languages | Mandinka | ||||||||||||
Religion | Traditional African Religion | ||||||||||||
Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||||
Kaabu Mansaba | |||||||||||||
• 13th century | Sama Koli (first) | ||||||||||||
• 1867 | Janke Waali (last) | ||||||||||||
History | |||||||||||||
• Kaabu Tinkuru Founded | 1230s | ||||||||||||
• Independence from theMali Empire | 1537 | ||||||||||||
1867 | |||||||||||||
Currency | iron bars, cloth | ||||||||||||
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Kaabu (1537–1867), also writtenGabu,Ngabou, andN'Gabu, was a federation ofMandinka kingdoms in theSenegambia region centered within modern northeasternGuinea-Bissau, large parts of today'sGambia, and extending intoKoussanar,Koumpentoum, and theCasamance in Senegal.
It rose to prominence as an imperial military province of theMali Empire. After the decline of the Mali Empire, Kaabu became independent. Kansala, the imperial capital, was captured byFula forces from theFuta Jallon during the 19th centuryFula jihads. However, Kaabu's successor states across Senegambia continued to thrive even after the fall of Kansala; this lasted until total incorporation of the remaining kingdoms into theBritish,Portuguese andFrench spheres of influence during theScramble for Africa.
Scholars and oral historians have proposed various etymologies for the nameKaabu. These include it being derived from Kaba orKangaba, Mali, the capital of theMali Empire; from theMandinka phrasekaa bung folo, meaning 'let's keep fighting'; or fromKambutchi, meaning 'the circumcised people' in theBainuk language, the name of the pre-existingBainuk kingdom.[1]
The region that would become Kaabu, stretching from the banks of theGambia river south and east towards theFuta Djallon massif and the coast of present-dayGuinea-Bissau, was thinly inhabited.[2]: 75 Nevertheless, aBainuk kingdom did exist, founded in the 7th century CE, that ruled from the Gambia to theCacheu river.[3] The earliest dynasty was called the Jenung, but almost nothing is known of this period.[4] There were Mande traders and immigrants in the area, but they were politically and demographically dominated by their local hosts.[5]
Bainuk legends describe a cruel king named Gana Sira Bana or Masopti Biaye, whose tyranny caused a general rebellion, and the kingdom split apart.[6] These decentralized societies were ultimately unable to resist Mande expansion.[7]
According to Senegambian oral histories, theMandinka arrived in the region around the year 1230CE. One of the generals ofSundiata Keita,Tiramakhan Traore, conquered the area, founding many new towns and making Kaabu one of Mali's westerntinkuru, or provinces. He, or perhaps his sons by his Bainuk wife, defeated Kikikor, the king of the Bainuks and captured Mampatim.[8][9] His son or grandson Sama Coli became the first mansa of Kaabu.[10]
The savannah areas were mostly conquered and ruled by Mandinka vassals to the Mali Empire. Meanwhile the swampy areas near the coast were still dominated by the natives.[11] As in many places that saw Mandinka migrations, much of the native population was dominated or assimilated, with slaves either eventually being integrated into Mandinka society or sold via the trans-Sahara trade routes to Arab buyers. Although the rulers of Kaabu were Mandinka, many of their subjects were from ethnic groups who had resided in the region before the Mandinka invasion. Mandinka became alingua franca used for trade.
Mansa Sala Sane founded the city ofKansala to replace the old capital of Mampatim. It was more centrally located, and the location of the sacred wood where the new mansaba was crowned.[12]
After the middle of the 14th century, Mali saw a steep decline due to raids by theMossi to their south, the growth of the newSonghai Empire in the north, and succession disputes. Even its historically secure possessions in what is now Senegal, the Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau were cut off by the expanding power ofKoli Tenguella in the early 16th century.[13]
As Mali's authority collapsed, the Mandinka states of the region formed a federation.[11] The number of provinces grew from three to seven, and these encompassed dozens of royal trading towns.[14] These included among others,Firdu,Pata,Kamako,Jimara,Patim Kibo,Patim Kanjaye,Kantora,Sedhiou,Pakane Mambura,Kiang,Kudura,Nampaio,Koumpentoum,Koussanar,Barra,Niumi,Pacana etc.[clarification needed] The kingdoms ofSine andSaloum were established at this time, ruled bySerer kings and Mandinka queens (theGuelowar dynasty), although these became independent by 1600.[14]
Kaabu's many wars of expansion produced up to half of the African people sold into slavery during the 17th and 18th centuries.[14]
According to Mandinka tradition, Kaabu remained unconquered for eight hundred and seven years. There were 47 Mansas in successions.[citation needed]
The power of Kaabu began to wane during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1776, militant IslamicTorodbe clerics established atheocratic state in theFuta Djallon. With some support from Soninke and Mandinka chiefs, they launched ajihad against non-Muslim states in the region, particularly Kaabu.[11] Some non-Muslim Fula, pushed out of the Futa Djallon by the Torodbe, settled in Kaabu and often herded the cattle of the ruling Nyancho aristocracy. Over the course of the conflict with the Imamate, however, these immigrants were seen as a potential 'fifth column', and were oppressed and extorted, creating civil conflict in the empire.[11] The decline of the slave trade, a pillar of the economy for centuries, also pushed Mandinka elites to squeeze the peasants for taxes to replace their lost trade revenues.[15] Therefore the war against thenyancho elites of Kaabu had ethnic, religious, and class components.
Up until the 1860s Kaabu had successfully repulsed on numerous occasions various Fula armies at the fort of Berekolong. In 1867, however, the Kaabu capital at Kansala came under siege from an army led byAlfa OMar of Labe and Alpha molo Balde [fr]. At the climax of the eleven-dayBattle of Kansala, Mansaba Janke Waali Sanneh (also called Mansaba Dianke Walli) ordered the city's gunpowder stores to be set afire. The resulting explosion killed the Mandinka defenders and 75% of the attackers. With Kansala obliterated, Mandinka hegemony in the region came to an end. The attackers could persue their aim of conquering the entire kaabu empire due to shortage of manpower after the battle of kansala. As such the area called Fuladu, present day kolda and part of tamba Counda in southern Senegal gained it's independence and Alpha Molo Balde become the first king including kansala located present day Northeast of Guinée Bissau were under Fula control until the Portuguese suppression of the kingdom around the turn of the 20th century.[citation needed].
However, the remains of some Kaabu's constituent kingdoms, continued to thrive each installing their former mansa-rings answerable to the Mansa-ba in kansala kaabu's capital city to full-time Mansa [king]. Among these were Nyambai,Kantora, Berekolong,Kiang, Faraba, Niani, Badibu, wulli, Jarra and Berefet, mainly in Gambia and parts of southern Senegal. Other Nyancho-controlled areas were Sayjo (Sedhiou), Kampentum (Koumpentoum), Kossamar (Koussanar) and others in today'sSenegal, until the arrival of the British and French colonialist at the turn of 20th Century. To date, the influence of the Korings and Nyanchos are embedded within the sociocultural fabrics of post-independence Senegal, Gambia and Guinea Bissau.[citation needed]
Scholars disagree on whether Kaabu was a kingdom, an empire, a federation, or some mix of these. Although there was an emperor, known as themansaba, power was decentralized and people generally were more responsive to local leaders than the distant, almost mythical,mansaba. The component kingdoms of the empire expanded, contracted, merged, split, appeared and disappeared over time.[16]
The Mansa of Kaabu was selected from among the leaders of the provinces of Jimara, Sama, and Pachana.[11][10] In contrast to prevailing patrilineal traditions among the Mande, royal inheritance passed through the mother's line, respecting pre-conquest Bainuk inheritance customs.[12][2]: 76 [10] Three other provinces -Kantora,Tumana and Mana - were direct vassals of the three core areas.[17]
The ruling class was composed of warrior-elites made rich by slaves captured in war. These ruling nobles were from two distinctive sets of clansKoring andNyancho (or Nyantio). The Korings were from the Sanyang and Sonko clans, whilst the Nyanchos were Manneh and Sanneh. The Korings ruled the non-royal provinces, while only those descended from Nyancho bloodlines on both sides could be electedmansa.[18] They claimed patrilineal descent from Tiramakhan Traore, founder of Kaabu, and matrilineal descent from a powerful pre-Mandinka indigenous sorceress. Thus the Nyancho claimed legitimacy through conquest, traditional Mandinka patrilineal inheritance, and local matrilineal traditions.[19]: 2
The principal tax, collected in cloth orpagnes, was known as thekabunko.[20] Slaves worked large-scale cotton plantations to produce this form of currency. The nyancho warrior aristocracy used increasing tax revenue to fund more wars, thereby capturing more slaves, who produced more cloth, which financed still more wars.[2]: 321
Kaabu was a multicultural state hosting several languages, namely:Balanta,Jola-Fonyi,Mandinka,Mandjak,Mankanya,Noon (Serer-Noon),Pulaar,Serer,Sarakhule, andWolof. Mandinka, however, was the language of the ruling class and of trade.
Mandinka oral tradition holds that Kaabu was the actual birthplace of the Mande musical instrument, known as theKora. A kora is built from a large calabash cut in half and covered with cow skin to make a resonator, and has a notched bridge like a lute or guitar. The sound of a Kora resembles that of a harp, yet with its gourd resonator it has been classified by ethnomusicologists such as Roderick Knight as a harp-lute.[21] The Kora was traditionally used by thegriots as a tool for preserving history, ancient tradition, to memorize the genealogies of patron families and sing their praises, to act as conflict intermediaries between families, and to entertain. Its origins can be traced to the time of theMali empire and linked with Jali Mady Fouling Diabate, son of Bamba Diabate. According to the griots, Mady visited a local lake in which he was informed that a genie who granted wishes had resided. Upon meeting him, Mady requested that the genie make him a brand new instrument that no griot had ever owned. The genie accepted, but only under the condition that Mady release his sister into his custody. After being informed, the sister agreed to the sacrifice, the genie complied, and hence, the birth of the legendary Kora. Aside from oral testimony, historians propose that the Kora appeared with the apogee of war chiefs from Kaabu, allowing the tradition to spread throughout theMande area until it was made popular by Koryang Moussa Diabate in the 19th century.
Kaabu was explicitly a non-Islamic state. The most important shrine was that of the snake Tamba Dibi, set in a sacred forest oftabo trees whose fruit could supposedly protect warriors from harm.[2]: 319
Abraham Barry SeneGambia and slavetrade book published 2012