Kingdom of Kombo | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c. 1271–1875 | |||||||||
 Territory of the Kingdom of Kombo | |||||||||
| Mansa | |||||||||
• c. 1271 | Karapha Yalli Jatta (the hunter) son of Mansa Ali Jatta Keita | ||||||||
• 1855–1875 | Tomani Bojang | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | c. 1271 | ||||||||
| 1850–1856 | |||||||||
• Disestablished | 1875 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | The Gambia | ||||||||
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Kombo (Sometimes transliterated as Combo[1]) was a kingdom and later a chieftaincy in Gambia during the colonial period. Kombo was part of the Mali Empire and gained independence after its fall, and was then ruled by the Sambou Bainunka clan. Mansa Karapha Yalli Jatta became the first King of Kombo, after seeking help from the then independent Kaabu Empire to establish the Kingdom of Kombo, he married the daughter of the Bainuk Queen Wullending Jasseh of Sanyang who sits at Gunjur and took her to Busumbala. Mansa Karapha Yalli Jatta was from the Jatta (Lion) clan who claim ancestry from Sundiata Keita the first Emperor of the Mali Empire. Kombo was ruled by two families, the Jatta (Djatta) and Bojang (Bodian) clans, when one clan becomes Mansa, the other clan gets to choose the crown prince from their own clan and vice versa. From 1840-1855 Mansa Suling Jatta was the King of Kombo, he was killed in the Soninke-Marabout war, and most of the Jatta clan moved to other regions.[2]