Carabane, the first French trading post in Casamance

1836 · Carabane

On 9 January 1836, Lieutenant Médéric Malavois, commander of Gorée, left for Casamance looking for a site for a trading post. On 22 January 1836 the island of Carabane was ceded to France by the chief of the village of Kagnout, in return for an annual payment of 39 bars, or 196 francs. A former slave-trading site, Carabane became the first French commercial trading post in Casamance, then the region’s first administrative capital, until 1904. The island still bears traces of this past: a Breton-style church built in the late 19th century, the ruins of trading houses and a former school-prison.

Sources

• OpenEdition — « L’île de Carabane » (Méditerranée)
• 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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