Labé

Labé became one of the principal centres of the eighteenth-century Islamic state of Futa Jalon. Earlier Dyalonké inhabitants shared the highland country with Fulani pastoral migrants. Warfare and religious mobilisation transformed these relationships as Muslim leaders established authority over the region. Labé's founding tradition is associated with Alfa Mamadou Cellou Diallo, known as Karamoko Alfa mo Labé, a religious leader distinct from the similarly titled leader of Timbo.

The new political order organised Futa Jalon into provinces called diwal, each with its own leadership under the wider confederation. Labé was one of these provincial centres. Religious scholarship gave it influence extending beyond its immediate settlements, while the town developed commercial connections between the interior and the Atlantic-facing country. Its rise belonged to a political landscape created through conquest as well as teaching and exchange. By the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, provincial leadership and Islamic learning had made Labé an important focus of authority within the highlands.