Sutuko

Sutuko was a trading and religious center of the upper Gambia, where routes toward Bundu, the Niger and Futa Djallon met the river country. Jula merchants settled here, and caravans carried gold and enslaved people from Bambouk and the Mande lands toward the west, returning with salt. The nearby river port of Fattatenda connected the town with navigation on the Gambia.

By the fifteenth century Sutuko was already a place of regional importance. Writing in 1506, the Portuguese Duarte Pacheco Pereira described a fortified town and a great fair where merchants exchanged goods for gold. Later travelers included André Álvares de Almada and Richard Jobson. Under the kingdom of Wuli, Sutuko was also a center of Islamic learning, home to religious families whose influence extended across the surrounding country.

The later city of Tambacounda lies here.