Baol
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The Kingdom of Baol or Bawol in central Senegal was one of the kingdoms that arose from the split-up of the Empire of Jolof (Diolof) in 1555. The ruler (Teigne or Teen) reigned from a capital in Diourbel.
The Kingdom encompassed a strip of land extending east from the ocean to the capital city and included the cities of Touba and MBacke. It was directly south of the Kingdom of Cayor and north of the Kingdom of Sine. The first King of Baol is Ji the Great.
Baol was famous for its horses. It has special breeds, which were faster and stronger than most of the horses on the plain. Baol citizens are good riders.
Baol was ethnically a Wolof kingdom, but it included communities of Serer-Safen and other Serer groups. The social and political systems were basically the same as those of Cayor. In fact, the kingdoms merged from time to time for mutual defense.
The French conquest of Baol began in 1859. Most of Baol was conquered by the French in 1874, however complete control of the former kingdom was not gained by France until 1895. It was one of many campaigns of Governor Louis Faidherbe who oversaw the conquest of Cayor in 1886.
[edit] Sources
- http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Senegal_native.html
- Clark, Andrew F. and Lucie Colvin Phillips, Historical Dictionary of Senegal, Second Edition Published as No. 65 of African Historical Dictionaries, (Metuchen, New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press, 1994) p. 74-75
