Lat Soukabé

Lat Sukaabe Ngone Jey Fall, sometimes spelled Lat Sukabe or Lat Soucabe (or Lat Sukabe Ngoneh Jaye Faal), 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 a younger son of the Teigne of Baol, Thié Yasin Demba Noudj Fall, and Ngoné Dièye of the Gej or Guedj matrilineal clan. Keur Thie Yasin was a minor branch of the Fall dynasty that 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 1670s the Tubenan movement, a multi-national uprising of Muslim marabouts, had severely destabilized the traditionalist kingdoms of present-day Senegal 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.

Rule Upon Thie Yasin's death, Lat Sukaabe fought for his older half-brothers Lat Kodou and Biram Kodou when they claimed the throne. They were wounded in the conflict, however, leaving Lat Sukaabe as regent during the convalescence. He plied the nobles of the kingdom with gifts, securing their support, such that when his brothers came to reassert their right to rule, he dismissed them, later killing them when they began to gather forces to resist. He was officially elected Teigne shortly afterwards. 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.

Legacy At his death, Lat Sukaabe left Cayor to his eldest son, Maissa Teindé Wedj, whose mother was waajor, and Baol to a son by a Baol-Baol wife.