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Decline & Fall of Futa Toro |
Empires
Part 1
Introduction:
The Fulani who
conquered and settled in Futa Toro were
people ready to abandon their nomadic
way of life and create their own state.
This may have been caused by their
extended contact with the more settled
Mandinka.
What prevented Futa
Toro from expanding its territory was
due to a number of mitigating factors.
The first is that Ghana's former
supremacy in the area had diverted the
majority of the gold trade along routes
east of Senegal and this went to benefit
the successor state of Manding which
emerged in the area between Niger and
northern Senegal. The second reason is
that new Wollof arrivals to Futa Toro
began carving out their own
mini-kingdoms thus reducing the kingdom
to smaller, weaker states.
The
Fula and Mandinka founders of Futa Toro
had steadfastly held onto their
animist
beliefs which was at odds with the
Muslim commercial class who began to
leave the towns thus depriving the state
of important tax revenue and reduced its
commercial significance.
In the mid 19th century Futa was
endangered much more seriously by
two external forces. The French began to
transform the relations of
mutual inter-dependence into
relations of colonial domination, particularly
under the leadership of Governor Louis Faidherbe (1854-61, 1863-5). The second
threat came from a native son, Omar
Taal. Omar came from Toro province,
whose grievances against the domination
of the central region he expressed
during his entire career. He left home
early in the century, made the
pilgrimage to Mecca, and returned with
considerable prestige, ambition and
following. In the 1850s he launched a
holy war against the predominantly
non-Muslim Mandinka and Bambara to the
east. To achieve his goals he recruited
heavily in
Senegambia, especially in his
native land. The recruitment process, in
which Umar evoked the founders of the
Islamic regime, reached its culmination
in a massive drive in 1858-9. It had the
effect of undermining the charter and
position of the Almamy even more. The
French and Umarian intrusions constitute
the fourth portion of the anthology.
The authority of the regional chiefs,
and particularly that of the electors,
was compromised much less than that of
the Almamy. One of these leaders,
Abdul
Bocar Kan, emerged as the dominant
force in the middle valley between 1860
and 1890. He was able to fend off the
challenges of Islamic reformers, who now
evoked the example of Umar Taal as well
as Abdul Kaader. He effectively
challenged the authority of the Klan
lineage, who in turn came increasingly
to rely upon French support.
By the late 1880s it was obvious that
the French would conquer all of the land
of Futa as
part of their subordination of Senegal
and conquest of the Western and Central
Sudan. The middle and upper valley
became essential staging areas for the
expansion into the regions today known
as Mali, Niger and Upper Volta. Abdul
Bocar resisted the conquest, as long
and effectively as possible, but
succumbed in 1891, the year which
effectively marks the end of Futa independence.
Part 1
States & Empires
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