| Empire of Great Fulo | ||||
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| Capital | Anyam-Godo | |||
| Language(s) | Fula | |||
| Government | Monarchy | |||
| King | ||||
| - 1490-1512 | Tengella | |||
| Historical era | Early Modern Period | |||
| - Established | 1490 | |||
| - Disestablished | 1776 | |||
The Empire of Great Fulo, also known as the Denanke Kingdom or Denianke Kingdom was a pre-Islamic Pulaar kingdom of Senegal, which dominated the Futa Tooro region. Its population dominated its neighbors through use of cavalry and fought wars against the Mali and Songhai empires.
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The state began as a violent migration of Fula nomads from Futa Djallon into the Gambia led by Tengella, their first king or manga, in 1490. His attack was directed against the remaining Atlantic provinces of the Mali Empire. Though without a fixed headquarters, Tengella's following grew so large that he was referred to as the "Great king of the Fulos" or the "Great Fulo" in Portuguese documents of the same period. From the Gambia he led his forces northeast against the growing Songhai Empire where he was defeated and killed in 1512. Afterwards, power was passed to his son, Koli Tengella.
Koli Tengella redirected the fledgling state's military away from Songhai towards the Jolof Empire with great success. The growth of the empire of Great Fulo would hasten the breakup of the Jolof state into several warring kingdoms. This was followed by attacks on Mali's bambuk goldfields, which resulted in another serious defeat for the Fula. Koli died in 1537. By then, a fixed capital had been settled in Anyam-Godo in what is today Senegal's Futa Toro region.
The mangas that followed Koli Tengella were all descended from him and given the name Denyanke or Deny Kobe. They continued to be a major power in the region ruling as animist monarchs over an increasingly Islamic populace. Their dynasty was overthrown by the kingdom of Fouta Tooro under leader Abd-el-Kadr Toorodi in 1776 ushering in a near continuous era of Muslim Fula rule over the region.
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