Tenguella

Tenguella (also known as Temelá or Tenguella Ba) was a Fula silatigi or chief who founded a short-lived state called Futa Kingui in the upper Senegal River valley, a precursor of the Empire of Great Fulo. He was referred to as the Great Fulo or Great king of the Fulos in Portuguese documents of the time.

Background and early life The Fula are a West African nomadic people. They had been moving south within the Mali Empire since the thirteenth century. They had generally submitted to the laws of the settled farmers in the region and so had avoided large confrontations. By the end of the 15th Century, they had a strong presence in Futa Tooro, Macina, Fouta Djallon and Bondu.

Tenguella was originally from the western part of Futa Tooro outside the immediate Senegal River valley, an area that was part of the Jolof Empire at the time. He was silatigi of the Yaalalbe clan, both a political and religious leader.

Reign Futa Kingui Tenguella became chief of the Fula around 1464. Pushed by an expansionist Jolof Empire, he led his clan along with several others on a long emigration across the Senegal towards the land of Guidimakha, establishing a state known as Futa Kingui. From this base, Tenguella exerted a powerful attraction to oppressed Fula people in the rest of the region, militarily intervening in a number of areas and disrupting trade. His son Koli went to Futa Jallon to organize the Fula there against Mande domination.

The roots of Tenguella's appeal may have lain partially in religion. Contemporary Muslim sources call him a false prophet, likely referring his syncreticization of Islam with the traditional Fula religion, as represented by his use of the title 'silatigi'. He himself, however, may have seen himself as fully Muslim and even a sort of Mahdi figure, fighting against both paganism and the traditional hierarchies of the region.

Conflict with Mali and Songhai Conflict with the Mali Empire started around 1480. At his death, Tenguella was succeeded by his son Koli Tenguella who founded the Denianke Dynasty in Futa Toro.

Historians such as Sirre Abbas Soh have confused some of the accomplishments of Tenguella with those of his son, making the chronology of events difficult to suss out. There was another migration from Futa Tooro at around the same time that went south, crossing the Gambia River, which further exacerbates the confusion.