Musa Molloh

Who is Musa Molloh?

Musa Molloh, also written Mussa Moloh Baldeh, was the last king of Fuladu, a Fulbe-led kingdom in the Senegambia region founded by his father Alfa Molo after the 1867 Battle of Kansala. Following his father's death in 1881 the kingdom was initially divided between Musa Molloh and his uncle Bakari Dembel, but in 1892 Musa moved against his rival and proclaimed himself sole king. He ruled through a centralized system of appointed provincial chiefs and built an army said to number in the tens of thousands, expanding Fuladu's territory across land now split between the Gambia, Senegal, and Guinea-Bissau. For decades he skillfully played British and French colonial powers against one another to preserve his authority, but in 1903 French forces moved to subdue him and he crossed with several thousand followers into British-controlled Gambian territory, where he was made a chief under indirect colonial rule. He spent his remaining years negotiating and clashing with the British administration until his death at Keserekunda in 1931.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Mussa Moloh" · Alice Bellagamba, "Mussa Molo Baldeh of Fuladu: Memories of a Senegambian Slave Descendant and Slaver" (SSRN) · Cambridge University Press, "A Nineteenth Century Fulbe State", Journal of African History