Kaabu

Kaabu developed within the western Manding world, linking communities of southern Senegambia with routes towards the Atlantic. Its political history grew from the western connections of Mali, but authority rested on changing alliances among local rulers and provinces. Mandinka influence spread through settlement and relationships with other communities, producing a political society whose ties were more complex than a single uniform state.

From the fifteenth century, contact with Portuguese traders strengthened the western provinces' commercial role. Atlantic trade, including the sale of enslaved people, helped warrior elites consolidate power. By the eighteenth century Kaabu society included military aristocrats, Mandinka and Soninke merchants, intermediaries linked to European trade, and rural communities. These groups connected agriculture, warfare and exchange across a broad region. Political strength depended on their relationships and on access to trade, while the same commercial networks could intensify competition and violence.

The later city of Gabú lies here.