The Baynunk, the Kasa and the origin of the name Casamance

Avant le 15th century · Ziguinchor

The Baynunk are among the first inhabitants of Casamance. Portuguese sources of the 15th and 16th centuries name a Baynunk sub-group, the Izguichos, as founders of the place that would become Ziguinchor: Izguichor means “the land of the Izguichos”. They also name another sub-group, the Kassanga, who founded the Kasa in the middle valley of the river, the first kingdom of the region, long before the Portuguese arrived in the 15th century. Its ruler bore the title mansa, “king” in Mandinka: the name Casamance comes from Kasa-mansa. The Diola live mainly in Lower Casamance, on both sides of the river; the Mandinka came from Gaabu, to the south-east, onto the right bank of Middle Casamance; the Balante occupy the border areas of present-day Guinea-Bissau. In 1645 the Portuguese set up their first trading post in the region, a date often cited as the origin of the town of Ziguinchor.

Sources

• Cairn — D. T. Niane, Histoire des Mandingues de l’Ouest, ch. II « Les Blancs arrivent par la mer »
• Persée — « Portraits de chefs casamançais du XIXe siècle » (1971)
• Ch. Roche, Histoire de la Casamance : conquête et résistance, 1850-1920 (Karthala)

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