The tidal flats and mangroves of the lower Casamance, the Foni and Kombo country south of the lower Gambia, and the Felupe coast across the later Guinea-Bissau border are worked by wet-rice farmers in walled paddies, who by about the eleventh century had built dyked fields to hold rain and stream water against a drying climate (Wikipedia: Jola people).
They live in villages without lords, under elders and the priests of the spirit shrines that guard the fields. Whether the people of 1200 are the Jola's ancestors or the Bainuk whom the Jola later absorbed is debated. No king, market town or outside overlord is known.
Who holds it
- Title
- Village and neighbourhood elders; shrine priests; in some places a priest-king
- Since
- Not known
- Confidence
- low
The Jola are 'widely considered the first inhabitants' of the lower Casamance and Gambia, yet Wikipedia (Jola people) also says they 'probably reached the Lower Casamance region in the 14th century' and absorbed the earlier Bainuk. The kingship of Oussouye, more priest than ruler, is not dated.
How things stand that morning
Self-governing villages.
Customs
Wet-rice farming with dykes and ridges; spirit shrines (bakin) that protect village and fields; little social ranking.
Assemblies
Village and ward councils of elders; shrine meetings (later evidence).
Where the sources disagree
- The arrival date of the Jola (before or after 1200) is unsettled; the shell middens of the lower Casamance excavated by O. Linares de Sapir record rice-growing communities through the first and early second millennium AD (from the researcher's knowledge), whatever their language.
Evidence: Archaeology of the shell middens and later ethnography; no written source before the Portuguese.
On the map: Back-projected; the language of the villagers of 1200 is disputed.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.