Hello and a warm welcome to another edition of ‘know your towns and villages’.

Before we proceed, as this is our first edition in this holy month of Ramadan, we wish our esteem readers and the entire Muslim Umma Ramadan Mubarak; we pray that Allah the almighty continues to shower his blessing on humanity and may we continue to earn his mercy, forgiveness and guidance.

In your today’s edition of this thrilling history corner, we bring to the limelight tales of a community that is fairly known in history, but the virgin forest that became metamorphosed to this now advanced settlement was a perfect haven to relax and drink palm wine by the Soninke king of Yundum. Awarded based on the dictates of the king to a renowned marabou, who earned the kings trust after spiritual exigencies worked towards his favor and the community is still premised on the pillars of growth and progress.

The community in question is no other than the village of Mandinary, situated in the Kombo North political district, Western region. Please read on to uncover the thrilling historical rite of passage of this community, whose  aborigines are the present state of the community.

The foundation
During our chat with the current custodian of the land of Mandinary, alkalo Alhagie Fah Ceesay, we uncovered that the name of this community simply means Madina Ding. The community is said to have been named after Madina, a city in the Muslim land of Arabia and the suffix ‘Ding” is a Mandinka word meaning small.

Our sources noted that the community got this name because of the demand from the parents of the founders that, wherever they may erect a settlement of their own, they should name it after Madina. The community is also said to be in it’s sixth settlement, this shifting is primarily due to spiritual advice from marabous and the community also had to shift to protect their lives and properties during the times of war.

According to our sources, the founding of the community of Mandinary all started in the Niani district, Central River Region of the country from a village called Jarummeh Koto. At this Jarummeh Koto, one Modou Baa Ceesay, the man who would later be associated with the founding of the community of Mandinary and his brother Janneh Ceesay demanded the pardon of their parents to travel far and wide to spread the teachings of Islam and if possible established their own settlement; but they promised to return to their parents any time they deemed fit.

The parents granted this request of the two brothers because as marabous, they were eager to see their sons upholding their footsteps to fulfilling the divine mission. The two brothers in those early days of history left their parental home to accomplish this objective, a journey that took them to temporarily settle in Kachaw Ceesay Kunda in Niani before making their way to settle at Baddibou Salikenne. Acting under the demands of their parents to name their settlement after Madina, the portion occupied by the Ceesay brothers was named Madina Tabandinto.  At this new settlement, Modou baa Ceesay told his brother Janneh Ceesay that he is dreaming that his settlement is in the east and as such he wants to leave in search of that settlement.

Upon receiving the conscience of his brother, Modou Baa Ceesay and family set out towards the east to establish their own settlement. Our sources noted that when they arrived in Nuimi, due to crossing difficulties, the migrants settled at a village called Tabakoro for a year beforethey could secure the service of a fisherman named Nkohere who hailed from a settlement called Jualla to ferry them to the other bank of the river. This fisherman often sailed to an island that would later become Banjul, and this island was said to be known by the local people as kunubaa Joyeh. The fisherman in ferrying the Modou Baa Ceeasy and family told him that, apart from the island, there is a shore called Ladula Baa but nobody lives there because in all his fishing trips, he has never come across people in the area.

The Ceesay were then taken to this place called ladula Baa where upon arrival, they struggled to put together logs to erect temporarily shelters. It happened that during that period in history, that area in question was a reserved place for the king of Yundum, who often go there to relax and drink his palm wine. The place was known among the king’s people as Jifatar Dhaka and was also used by the king’s soldiers to monitor potential invaders particularly from the kingdom of Nuimi. When the king’s palm wine tapers went to their site to get some wine for the king, they realized that some strange people were occupying the place, they then rushed to inform the king, who sent his brother Koli Bojang and soldiers to find out what the strange people were up to.

Surrounded by the king’s warriors for two days and no subversive activity was detected in their movements, the kings brother Kolli Bojang came out of the forest and asked Ceesay what their mission was. The migrants responded that they want a piece of land to make a settlement and that they were not there for the purpose of war. Koli Bojang then returned to the king and explained to him the demands of the strange people and the king accepted to allow them to stay where they were but he Koli Bojang should continue monitoring them in case they want to go against the king and his authority.

Monitoring them for years, Koli Bojang realized that the leader of the migrants has spiritual means to cure his sick people and heal the wounded During that period it happened that, one of the daughters of the king, Madiba Bojang was suffering from a big wound and the royal family tried all ways to heal her but to no avail. Koli then went back to his brother the king and told him about the potentials of their guests and suggested that Madiba be given to them for healing.

The king accepted but insisted that,Modou Baa Ceesay should rather be coming to his palace to heal her daughter and not otherwise because a royal daughter cannot go in the mid of non-royals. A compromise was reached and the kings daughter was heeled by Modou Baa Ceesay. During the treatment process, Ceesay fell in love with the kings daughter and through spiritual means made the daughter to love him as well, when she was fully recovered from the pains of the wound, Madiba Bojang, the daughter insisted that she no longer wants to stay in the royal palace but  wants to go and settle with the family of the marabou and if she is denied this chance, she would commit suicide.

The king fearing that his daughter might commit suicide asked Ceesay his opinion and he stated that if the girl can be given to him in marriage she would accept it. The two were then made couple and when Madiba gave birth to a baby boy, the king noted that the child belonged to the royal family and not that of the marabou. As a gift, he gave the child who is his grand daughter  the land that was temporally given to Ceesay to become a permanent land of the grand daughter.

Since then, the king noted that none of his people should neither claim authority over the land nor rule it because it entirely belongs to his grand daughter. This was how the settlement of Mandinary became an autonomous entity within the kingdom of Yundum and since from that period,Ceesay neither pay tax to the king nor submit to his authority.

Aborigines and expansion
Modou Baa Ceesay was said to have migrated with his family to form the settlement of Mandinary, the means that the settlement had a reasonable number of people since its foundation. As time passed by, the Ceesay who were Muslims were able to convert some of the Soninkes in Yundum who later came to settle with them and among such converts was the kings brother Koli Bojang.

As the settlement began to take more progressive shape, people began migrating from left, right and center to join the founders in the company of the new home. Our sources unveiled that from the beginning, the community had only two ‘Kabilos’ notably Ceesay Kunda and Jifatar. Jifatar was the ‘kabilo’ of the king’s people, but migration into the community has expanded the ‘kabilos’ to fourteen, with each ‘kabilo hosting its own guest.

The alkaloship
The community of Mandinary is still upholding the teachings of the traditional lineage line of authority. Been the founders, the seat of alkaloship from foundation to date remains in the house of the Ceesay. Even though the Ceesay secured the land from the Bojang who were rulers of Yundum, the Bojang has no authority because their brother who was at the time the King, gave the land to the son of Ceesay who was his grandson. This made the Ceesay to gain full control of the land and that philosophy still reigns.

African tradition
Mandinary was founded based on the teachings of the Islamic religion, as such; practices of traditional African philosophies and religions were hardly evident. We could not ascertain any ritual site in the community and even if there was, the practices performed therej were in accordance with the dictates of Islam. Our sources only pointed to one huge tree, which was believed to be a graveyard for a renowned Islamic leader where people go to perform rituals but the Islamic scholars in the community quickly discouraged the practice.