Between the Gambia and the Geba lie the lands of the Bainuk, rice and millet farmers and traders who are remembered as the first people of the middle Casamance, with Mande-speaking settlers among them whom the Serer call the Soos.
Their trade and weaving later made them the brokers of the coast. The Mandinka kingdom of Kaabu, founded by Tiramakhan Traore, a general of Sundiata's Mali, belongs to the thirteenth century; on 1 January 1200 there is no Kaabu and no Mali. Whether a Bainuk king already ruled here (the Kasa or Kasa mansa of the later Portuguese) is not known. No Mandinka chiefdom of the Gambia (Niumi, Badibu, Wuli, Kantora and the rest) is attested before the Kaabu era: the Mandinka of the Gambia in 1200 are at most these old Mande settlers among the Bainuk.
Who holds it
- Title
- Bainuk chiefs and lineage heads; perhaps a king (the later Kasa of the Portuguese)
- Since
- Not known
- Confidence
- low
The Bainuk are taken to be the oldest people of the middle Casamance and the Kaabu country. Wikipedia (Kaabu) speaks of a pre-Mandinka Bainuk kingdom and of a kingdom of Kasa set up by the old Mande (Soos) 'long before' the thirteenth century, and of a Jenung dynasty, without dates we can trust. Tiramakhan Traore's Mandinka conquest that made Kaabu is placed in the thirteenth century: later.
How things stand that morning
Self-governing, under chiefs not known by name.
Customs
Farming villages; trade and weaving; their own religion.
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
- Thirteenth century (later; Wikipedia's infobox gives the 1230s, unsourced)Tiramakhan Traore's Mandinka conquest; the Bainuk lands become the core of Kaabu.Depends on: The rise of Mali under Sundiata, born about 1217. Stopped by: Not applicable to 1200.
Where the sources disagree
- Wikipedia (Kaabu) dates a Bainuk entity 'as early as the 7th century CE' (citing Niane 1984) without evidence we could see; treat as tradition.
Evidence: Later tradition and the Portuguese sources of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
On the map: Back-projected from the later Bainuk and Kaabu lands.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.