The army of the askia, commanded by his brother Amar, marched
against Tengella and pursued him as far as Diara, where it defied
and killed him in 1512. The bands of the Fulani chief were rehabil-
itated under the command of his son Koli, who, it is said,
descended on his mother’s side from the Mandinka emperors; they
took refuge in the Badiar, to the northwest of the Futa-Jallon.
It is from here that Koli, at the head of his Fulani and numerous
Mandinka partisans, must have departed a little later to wrest the
Futa-Toro from the last Sarakolle governors dependent on Diara,
there founding a kingdom which he enlarged at the expense of the
Kaniaga and of the eastern part of the Jolof, and installing a Fulani
or pagan dynasty, called the Denianke, who maintained the
power from 1559 to 1776. The princes of this dynasty, like their
ancestor Tengella, bore the title of silatigui or siratigui, becoming
siratique in the accounts of French travellers and sitigui in the
language of the country. The mansa who then reigned in
Manding, Mamudu II, had implored the aid of King John III of
Portugal against the encroachments of Koli-Tengella on what he still
considered a part of his States; but John III contented himself with
sending, in 1534, a simple ambassador, Peros Fernandez, to
Mamudu II instead of an army.
TThhee LLaas st t AAs skki iaas s
Having despoiled Manding of most of its northern dependencies,
the askia Mohammed wanted to pursue his conquests towards the
east and penetrated the country of the Hausa, but there he was
less fortunate. First, with the aid of the kanta or king of the Kebbi,
he took Katsena (1513) and imposed his suzerainty on the king of
Agades (1515), but he was then defeated by his ally the kanta,
who, having become his enemy (1517), seized the larger portion
of the Hausa provinces. About a century afterwards, the latter
were to recover their independence and the Aïr Mountains and the
province of Agades was to become again what it formerly had
been: vassal to the Tuareg.
Mask (Lele).
Wood, height: 35 cm.
Private collection.
The encrusted finish of the almond-shaped eyes give this typical example of Lele
artists give this oblate mask an enigmatic and distinguished expression.
Bochio statue (Fon).
Benin.
Wood, textile, aluminium, various materials, patina, height: 78 cm.
Hugues Dubois Collection.The Fon are protected by the entity of the Bochio, “spirit in the hood”.