Timbo

Timbo stands in the Futa Jalon highlands, a country of elevated plateaus and river valleys in the interior of West Africa. It became the seat of the almami, the ruler of an Islamic state whose authority extended over a federation of provinces. The highlands supported both cultivation and cattle keeping, and their political centre brought together religious scholars and powerful pastoral families.

In the eighteenth century Muslim Fulbe leaders defeated their opponents and established the imamate of Futa Jalon. Timbo served as its capital, although authority was shared among provincial leaders and rival lineages. The office of almami came to alternate between the descendants of two leading families, the Alfaya and the Soriya. The state drew on agriculture, cattle and commerce, as well as the labour of enslaved people, to support its rulers and their households.

The later city of Mamou lies here.