By Yunus S Saliu
In a move to further expose the culture and history of the Nyancho descendants beyond Africa, the Nyancho Family Sanneh Manneh of The Gambia has established a relationship with the Nyancho descendants of Kabou in Guinea Bissau to reunite all Nyanchos family in The Gambia; Senegal; Guinea Bissau and their other places of settlement.
The Nyacho Family Sanneh Manneh, The Gambia is an association which comprises the Sanneh and Manneh’s families with main objective of bringing all Nyanchos wherever they are together under one umbrella.
Nyacho Family Sanneh Manneh, according to Modou MC Sanneh who is social secretary of the association, currently has about five hundred members which are all from Nyancho’s families of Sannehs and Mannehs in The Gambia.
He noted that all Sannehs and Mannehs are descendants of Nyancho whose great grandfathers fought many battles in the Kabou Empire and “we have great histories. This is one among the reasons we want to bring together all the Nyanchos in Senegal, Kabou in Guinea Bissau and The Gambia under one umbrella in search of our heritages, and write our histories and culture.”
He said Kabou is a region in Guinea Bissau “and it is where Mandigoes like Mama Jankeh Wally and many great Nyanchos fought different battles. The most remarkable one was the last fight by Mama Jankeh with the Fulas.”
Despite this remarkable battle, he said they still have best joking relationship that existing between the Nyanchos and Fulas.
He therefore appealed to government, descendants of Nyanchos and other philanthropists to assist them in their mission of reuniting the Nyanchos descendants who had scattered and moved to settled in different places after the war.
Thanking the National Centre for Arts and Culture for its support to the association, he reiterated that the Nyachos have lots of histories and heritages which need to be preserved for the sake of posterity and generations to come.
In brief, Hassoum Ceesay, a historian explained that Kabou is a pre-colonial West African State that replaced the Manding Empire, adding that after the fall of the empire there were lots of movement of the defeated warriors that went to sought for refuge somewhere, while others established Kabou which the capital is now Gabu in present Guinea Bissau and covers part of Guinea Bissau, Eastern Senegal and of The Gambia.
“These three countries as we speak are part of Kabou which consists of predominantly Mandingoes speaking and Fulas. And it was a revolt by the Fulas against the Kabou authorities that led to the destruction of Kabou Empire in 1867 and 1868 and defeated armies led by Jankey Walley in Kabou while the war ended in Kansala.”
Kabou, according to him, was a multi-territorial state which covered what it is today independent Guinea Bissau, The Gambia and Senegal.
However, as Ceesays were associated with clergies then, so were Sannehs, Mannehs others were associated with Nyancho and “Nyacho is a Mandinka word for the warriors who had fought to defend Kabou before the advancing of Fula armies and they have a law or war ethic that says ‘don’t be captured, don’t be humiliated, die,’ historian Ceesay explained.