Bafatá

Bafatá lies beside the Geba River in the inland country of Upper Guinea. The river descends towards the Atlantic through a network of creeks and estuaries, connecting the interior with the coast. Nearby Geba was an important trading settlement from the sixteenth century, where Mandé-speaking merchants arriving from inland met traders travelling upriver. The wider region formed part of Kaabu, a Mandinka power whose lands extended between the Gambia and the Casamance.