Tenda

The Tenda, or Tanda, are an ethnolinguistic group of the upper Gambia basin, made up of the Bassari, Konyagui, Bedik and Badiaranke peoples. They speak Tenda languages of the Senegambian branch. Their name is a Mandinka word for a landing place or wharf, for the Gambia River between the Nieriko and Niokolo Koba, though unnavigable, offered many fords.

Caravans linking Kaabu, the Futa Jallon, the states of Senegambia, the goldfields of Bambouk and Bure and the Niger city of Djenné crossed there, and the Tenda grew up serving that traffic. Between the 1670s and 1730s their country became a major source of slaves for the Atlantic trade, raided by stronger neighboring powers.