Kingdom of Wuli

Before the Mandinka arrived, the area that became Wuli was inhabited by Konyajis, Bainuks and a few Wolofs.[1] The earliest Mandinka immigrants, presumably jula traders, came before the founding of the Mali Empire.[2] The area was at the time dominated by the Jolof Empire.

According to oral tradition, the first large scale Mandinka migration came from Mali in the 14th century, led by Tiramakhan Traore, one of Sundiata's top generals. The first Wulimansa was Mbari Kajo Wali, who came with Traore, learned magic from the Jolas of the lower Gambia, and used his power to establish lordship over the land as a vassal of the mansa of Mali.[3] He and other early mansas are quasi-legendary figures, and were possibly based east of Wuli itself and controlled little territory.[4]

As Mali declined, Wuli fell under the hegemony of the Jolof Empire and paid tribute to the Buurba, as did their neighboring states on the north bank of the Gambia - Niumi, Badibou, and Nyani.[5][6]

Jalali Wali (early 16th century) was the first Mansa for whom history has recorded details. He founded his capital of Jalalikunda in the north of Wuli, after exterminating the local Konyajis.[7] During the 1520s, under his leadership Wuli became independent of the Jolof empire and fought off an invasion from Futa Toro, perhaps led by Koli Tenguella.[8][9] He recruited new inhabitants, including the Jatta family from Gajaaga who settled in Tambacounda, the Baro family who founded Barrow Kunda, and the Jabais (among others) in Sutukoba.[10] Mansa Jalali was eventually killed in battle fighting against the Kingdom of Niani, but left behind a kingdom that was the most powerful state on the north bank of the Gambia.[11]

Jalali's death was followed by a period of confusion. His youngest son Kope had tricked his dying father into giving him the secrets of rulership and the royal amulets, but his elder brothers drove him into exile and struggled to establish control over Wuli. Kope eventually returned with a marabout from Kaabu who helped him take control of the country from his base at Madina Ouli.[12] His branch of the Wali family ruled until the fall of the state in the late 19th century and claimed the kingship well into the 20th century.

Mansa Jatta Wali ruled Wuli in the second half of the 18th century, and fought several wars against Niani as well as an armed dispute with a wealthy Jula trader.[13] He was succeeded by Mansa Faring, who jealously guarded Wuli's trading interests against the British in the early years of the 19th century.[14]

Around the turn of the 19th century, the Scottish explorer Mungo Park passed through Wuli on both of his voyages to the Niger River.

In March 1823 a British expedition led by Major Alexander Grant came upriver to Wuli from Bathurst seeking closer commercial relations and possibly to establish a trading post. Mansa Faring refused to grant the British any trading concessions.[15]^: 620–21 Mansa Nkoi (also known as Koyo) came to power in 1827, however, and was much friendlier to European trade.[16] In 1829 he ceded Fattatenda to the British administrator William Hutton for $2000 up front and an annual payment of $200.[15]^: 627 The agreement was later repudiated by the British government and Hutton was dismissed.[17] Still, Mansa Nkoi protected Wuli's position as the easternmost center of trade on the Gambia by restricting their access to Tenda and Bundu to the east.[16]

By the 1830s Wuli, like much of the region, was divided between the Muslim (marabout) population and a larger animist (Soninke) group. The kingdom was regularly being raided by nearby marabout states.[18]

The Wulimansa in the second half of the 19th century, Nyanamadi, was a gentle but ineffective ruler, overshadowed by his brother Fenda Mamadi.[19] In 1863, 64, and 65 almamy Bokar Saada of Bundu led an alliance of Futa Toro, Khasso and other powers to repeatedly attack the important Wuli trading center of Tambacounda. In 1865 a 12,000-man Bundu army burned the British trading post of Fattatenda as the almamy looked to destroy any entrepots that he could not control.[20] By 1867 Nyanamadi had surrendered and paid tribute to Saada, although Bundu slave raids continued.[21] During the 1860s and 70s Alpha Molloh, king of Fuladu, in turn tried to conquer Wuli but was repulsed.[22] This period of upheaval saw the Walis abandon Madina Ouli and move south to the town of Sine, close to the Senegal-Gambia border today.[23]

As a satellite of Bundu, which was allied with the French, Wuli became a target for the Sarakholle marabout Mahmadu Lamine Drame in 1887 when he sacked Netteboulou and executed the wulimansa. Drame set up a base at Toubakouta in Niani, where he was killed by French forces.[24]

When the colonial empires of France and Great Britain set the boundary between The Gambia and Senegal in the 1890s, Wuli was divided in two. This division, coupled with the rise of rail transport at the expense of river trade, economically marginalized much of the area.[25]