Lat Sukaabe Fall

Names
	Lat Sukaabe Ngone Jey Fall

Lat Sukaabe
Lat Sukaabe
Damel-Teigne
Reign	c. 1693 (in Baol) 1695 (in Cayor) -1719
Born	Baol
Names
Names
	Lat Sukaabe Ngone Jey Fall
House	Geej
Father	Thié Yasin Demba Noudj Fall
Mother	Lingeer Ngoné Dièye
Religion	Serer religion

Lat Sukaabe Ngone Jey Fall, sometimes spelled Lat Sukabe or Lat Soucabe, was Damel-Teigne of the pre-colonial kingdoms of Cayor and Baol in what is now Senegal in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

Background

Lat Sukaabe was born the scion of two obscure royal lineages: the Gej or Guedj matrilineal clan, and the Fall family of Keur Thie Yasin.[1] The Fall dynasty had dominated Cayor since Amary Ngone Fall had won the kingdom's independence from the Jolof Empire at the Battle of Danki in 1550.

Beginning in the 1670's the Tubenan movement, a multi-national uprising of Muslim marabouts, had severely destabilized the traditional animist kingdoms of Senegambia ruled by the ceddo kings and their slave warriors. Cayor in particular had seen a series of civil conflicts and assassinations, as well as the armed intervention of the Bour Saloum, that had weakened the aristocracy.[2]^: 52

Rule

Lat Sukaabe took power in Baol by overthrowing his older half-brothers.[3] Invited to Cayor by the nobility in an attempt to balance out the Buur Saloum's power, he soon usurped the throne there as well.[2]^: 82

Lat Sukaabe powerfully centralized royal power through a variety of means. He was an early large-scale adopter of firearms purchased through trade with Europeans.[2]^: 82 Rather than fight the Muslims, he gave marabouts prominent government positions and responsibility for the defense of the frontiers, as well as contracting marriage alliances, aligning a potential threat to ceddo power with the throne and driving a wedge between those who accepted to be bought and those who refused to compromise with the animist king.[2]^: 82[1] Nevertheless, Lat Sukaabe did confront a Muslim rebellion in the Ndiambour province, aided by the Emir of Trarza and Muslims from Waalo. He crushed them at the battle of Ngangaram.[2]^: 83

Arrest of the French Director-General Andre Brue.

Lat Sukaabe had an often turbulent relationship with the French, who were important trading partners based on the island of Goree. As the ruler of nearly the entire coast between Saint-Louis and the Saloum Delta, he believed that he could impose his terms on the Europeans. The French, meanwhile, were attempting to enforce a trading monopoly against the Damel-Teigne's wishes and reduce customs payments. His mother Lingeer Ngoné Dièye sometimes served as an intermediary between them.[4][5] In 1699, after the French captured a British ship attempting to trade in Cayor, Lat Sukaabe ordered a commercial blockade. In 1701 he captured and imprisoned the Director-General of the Compagnie du Senegal, Andre Brue, and even sacked Goree.[2]^: 83–4

He tried and failed to bring under his control the Lebu people of the Cap-Vert peninsula, who profited handsomely from both trade and rent the French paid for Goree.[6]

Legacy

At his death, Lat Sukaabe left Cayor to a son by an Ayor wife and Baol to a son by a Baol-Baol wife. Without his leadership, conflict between the two sister kingdoms immediately resumed.[1] The French, having learned how inconvenient it could be to have Cayor and Baol united, continually interfered to keep them apart. The constant wars between them provided both a consistent supply of slaves and a ready market for European weaponry.[2]^: 85

Lat Sukaabe ensured the dominance of the Gej matrilineage for much of the next two centuries, supplanting the Dorobe and Gelwaar.[1] His paternal lineage would continue in power until 1763.[3][2]^: 82

References

Clark, Andrew Francis; Philips, Lucie Colvin (1994). Historical Dictionary of Senegal (2nd. ed.). London: Scarecrow Press. p. 132.
Barry, Boubacar (1998). Senegambia and the Atlantic slave trade. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Page, Willie F. (2005). Davis, R. Hunt (ed.). Encyclopedia of African History and Culture. Vol. III (Illustrated, revised ed.). Facts On File. p. 130.
Labat, Jean-Baptiste, Nouvele Relation de l’Afrique Occidentale, (Paris: Guilliame Cavelier, 1728), p. 146.
Fall, R., (1997), Les souverains sénégambiens et la traite négrièrè: Lat Sukaabe Ngoné Dièye et André Brue, p. 11
Thomas, Douglas H. (April 2012). Sufism, Mahdism, and Nationalism: Limamou Laye and the Layennes of Senegal. Bloomsbury. p. 60. ISBN 9781472528025. Retrieved 3 September 2023.

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[dictionary-1] Clark, Andrew Francis; Philips, Lucie Colvin (1994). Historical Dictionary of Senegal (2nd. ed.). London: Scarecrow Press. p. 132.

[Barry-2] Barry, Boubacar (1998). Senegambia and the Atlantic slave trade. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

[EAHC-3] Page, Willie F. (2005). Davis, R. Hunt (ed.). Encyclopedia of African History and Culture. Vol. III (Illustrated, revised ed.). Facts On File. p. 130.

[4] Labat, Jean-Baptiste, Nouvele Relation de l’Afrique Occidentale, (Paris: Guilliame Cavelier, 1728), p. 146.

[5] Fall, R., (1997), Les souverains sénégambiens et la traite négrièrè: Lat Sukaabe Ngoné Dièye et André Brue, p. 11

[6] Thomas, Douglas H. (April 2012). Sufism, Mahdism, and Nationalism: Limamou Laye and the Layennes of Senegal. Bloomsbury. p. 60. ISBN 9781472528025. Retrieved 3 September 2023.