Baol

Baol, or Bawol, was the Wolof kingdom of central Senegal, independent from the mid-sixteenth century until 1895. Founded in the eleventh century, it spent its youth as a vassal of the Jolof Empire to the north, paying tribute while its Teigne kings built their power at Lambaye. When Jolof broke apart in the mid-1500s, Baol walked free with Cayor, Sine and the rest, a strip of groundnut fields running east from the ocean through Touba, Diourbel and Mbacke. The little kingdom lived between greater powers: raided by Moors, pressed by Cayor, trading with French posts on the coast, its horsemen famous and its marabouts influential. The French took Cayor first and Baol knew its turn was coming; in 1895, the year after Sine's neighbour Dahomey fell far to the south, Paris folded Baol into its Senegal colony. The Teignes' five-century kingship ended at a colonial desk, and Lambaye's royal grove fell silent.