Hello and a warm welcome to yet another edition of your weekly history corner, ‘know your towns and villages’.

Before we proceed, we wish our esteemed readers a happy and prosperous New Year; we hope that you have enjoyed the festive occasions that characterized the Christmas and New Year. In your today’s edition, we bring to the spotlight one of the ancient and historically wealthy community. This community is no other than the famous Soninke kingdom of Busumbala. Being a seat of kings of Kombo , the community of Busumbala today finds itself in the western region and its within the Kombo South electoral district.

The foundation
During our encounter with the current custodian of the land of Busumbala, alkalo Bolong Bakery Jatta, we uncovered that the name Busumbala originated from two Mandinka phrases notably ‘Busi’ to take from and ‘Abala’ the mother. Our sources unveiled that the name developed after one of the Kings of Busumbala had a daughter married in Brikama; when that daughter gave birth to a baby, the people of Busumbal decided to take that baby from the people of Brikama, hence came the phrase Busumbala meaning taking from the mother.  

Historical facts gathered by this column has it that the land of Busumbala was founded by the Jatta kingship group; the original name of these Jatta family was believed to be Jarra and the family includes the Bojang’s that dominate much of Kombo; the kingship group however had their name changed to Jatta during the course of history. Our sources unveiled that it all stated from a mass migration from the land of Manding in the Far East in search of greener pastured. When the Jatta kingship group made their route into The Gambia, they first converged at Kafuta where they laundered their clothes, the migrants name this settlement Kafuta Jaarsuu, a Mandinka phrase meaning a place where we met and dried our clothes. From Kafuta, some of the members of the kingship decided to make the settlement their permanent home and others moved upwards to Brikama.

At that time Brikama was a virgin forest shadowed by Bambo sticks; because of this, the migrants referred to Brikama as Bombada. From Brikama, others move further inland to settle at Manduar where the community was referred to as kankanan banko; the name owes its origin to the high influx of ‘Kankanans’ on the land. According to our sources, the fraction of the Jatta kingship group that went to form the community of Busumbala first settled at Tanji, along the river bank. Been Soninke, they were occupied with palm wine tapping and drinking; when the palm trees at Tanji became dysfunctional and cannot support the alcohol needs of the Soninke, the family moved to find a new home; this movement brought the Jatta’s to settle at a place near Banjul called Kamalo, this place is presently found in old Jeshwang.

 From Kamalo, they moved upwards to settle at a place they called SereKolong, present day Serrekunda. At Serrekunda, the Jatta’s decided to sell the land to the colonialists for a few liters of palm wine before moving to the land that presently hosts the community of Busumbala. It was from this trade that the land of Kombo came to be known as ‘Tubab banko’, a Mandinka word meaning land of the white man. When the Jatta’s moved to the new land that will later become their permanent destination and a kingdom, they settled at a distance from where the community presently is so as to perfectly practice their Soninke rituals and tradition. In the final analysis, the kingdom embraced Islam en masses after marabou leader Foday Sillah of Gunjur launched a major military offensive against the Soninke kingdom.  

Aborigines and expansion
As we earlier revealed, the community of Busumbala was founded by the Jatta kingship group. After settlement, the jatta’s gradually transformed the community into a kingdom that stretches between upper and lower Kombo. However, this kingdom was not only limited to the Jatta’s, there was migration of people from left, right and center in the quest to seek the treasures of life. And today, the community of Busumbala is among the largest within the Kombos.

The alkaloship
Until today, the community of Busumbala is still in firm grip with the old good traditional authority. Been the founders, the seat of both the alkalo and kings unquestionably remain in the house of the Jatta’s; there has not been any point in history when the kingship or alkaloship of Busumbala was contested for or acquired by another family. This tradition even of recent stands unshakable.

African tradition
As a Soninke kingdom, it is therefore an undisputable fact that the kingdom was a center of African traditional religious and philosophical practice. According to our sources, the culture of alcohol drinking, the ordaining and killing of kings on a traditional platform blend with idol worshiping was a dominant feature that characterized the Soninke actions.  Two prominent ritual sites stand central to all these activities-Kunjunko and Yinbefaling. There was also another ritual site called ‘Bulundatoo’. Oral tradition has it that when the term of a king elapses, the people of Busumbal often take the king to this Bulundato, kill him and elect their new king.

However, this Soninke process became frustrated during the regime of mansa  Jeling Bansa See when he uncovered through the tricks of his wife that his people are plotting to do onto him what they have done to his predicessors; sources say upon uncovering the plot, the Mansa wake up at night and took the gold seat and silver starf of the kings to Makasutu forest where he hide the items with the devils in the forest on the agreement that the devils should not return the kings iternaries to the people of Busumbala if they did not kill him in the Makasutu forest. The people of Busumbala still believe that in certain times in the night, the sky goes shinning as the devils show the village those gold materials.

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