View source for Guinala

{{Infobox Former Country
|native_name = 
|conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Guinala
|common_name =
|status    = [[monarchy|Kingdom]]
|government_type   = Monarchy
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|date_start  = 
|event_end   = Portuguese colonization
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|p1          = Mali Empire
|flag_p1     = <!--- Default: "Flag of {{{p1}}}.svg" (size 30) --->
|image_p1    = <!--- Use if image size needs to be reduced --->
|s1          = Portuguese Guinea
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|capital          = Bruco 
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|common_languages = [[Biafada language|Biafada]]
|religion         = [[African traditional religions]]
|currency         = [[cloth]], [[iron]], [[gold]]
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|title_leader = Farim
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'''Guinala''' or '''Quinara''' was an important [[Biafada people|Biafada]] kingdom in pre-colonial [[Guinea-Bissau]] situated between the [[Geba river|Geba]] and [[Rio Grande de Buba]] rivers. The main port town, also called Guinala, was located on a tributary of the Buba, with the capital Bruco (or Buduco) a short distance inland.<ref name=Dict>{{cite book |first1=Richard Andrew Jr. |last1=Lobban |first2=Peter Karibe |last2=Mendy |title=Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau |edition=4th |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2013 |place=Lanham |isbn=978-0-8108-5310-2|page=211-212}}</ref>

==History==
The kingdom was a regional power and important center of trade well before the arrival of Europeans. In the middle of the 15th century the kingdom defeated a large [[Fula people|Fula]] armed migration from [[Futa Toro]] led by [[Dulo Demmba]] that had cut its way through several [[Wolof people|Wolof]] and [[Mandinka people|Mandinka]] states.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kane |first1=Oumar |title=La première hégémonie peule. Le Fuuta Tooro de Koli Teηella à Almaami Abdul |date=2004 |publisher=Karthala |location=Paris |url=https://www.cairn.info/la-premiere-hegemonie-peule--9782845865211-page-114.htm |access-date=12 July 2023|lang=French}}</ref>

The port of Guinala was the primary center of Euro-African trade in the region throughout the 16th century, exporting on average 3000 slaves a year to the Americas.<ref name=Rodney/>{{rp|189}} The kingdom also boasted the region's largest weekly market at Bijorei.<ref name=Dict/> In the 1580s the ''[[lançados]]'' built a fort nearby, called Porto da Cruz, in order to defend against [[France|French]] pirates as well as potential conflict with their Biafada hosts.<ref name=Rodney/>{{rp|175}} With this rejection of the pre-existing host-guest relationship, the Afro-Portuguese faced higher prices and rude, sometimes violent, treatment.<ref name=Rodney/>{{rp|179}}

Guinala's economic importance waned in the early decades of the 17th century. In 1610 raiders from the [[Bijagos islands]] attacked Porto da Cruz and disrupted trade there. As the market of Bijorei waned, the ''lançados'' abandoned the fort and moved upstream to [[Bolola]], near modern-day [[Buba]]. The slow decline of the [[Atlantic slave trade]] in the 18th and 19th centuries reinforced the trend.<ref name=Dict/>

==Government==
The king was a subject of the [[Mansa (title)|mansa]] of [[Kaabu]], and at times the overlord of the [[Papel people|Papel]] state of [[Bissau]].<ref name=Dict/> He had seven chiefs under him, and so exerted absolute authority only in the town of Guinala itself.<ref name=Rodney>{{cite thesis |last=Rodney |first=Walter |date=May 1966 |title=A History of the Upper Guinea Coast, 1545-1800 |url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/31255/1/Rodney_History_Upper_Guinea_Coast.pdf |type= |chapter= |docket= |oclc= |access-date=}}</ref>{{rp|64}} The king ruled with the help of a [[Privy Council]] which, according to [[John Ogilby]]'s late 17th century atlas, was composed of the vassal chiefs as well as a "main governor."<ref name=Ogilby>{{Cite book |last=Ogilby |first=John |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A70735.0001.001/1:8?rgn=div1;view=toc |title=Africa: being an accurate description of the regions of Aegypt, Barbary, Lybia, and Billedulgerid, the land of Negroes, Guinee, Aethiopia, and the Abyssines, with all the adjacent islands, either in the Mediterranean, Atlantick, Southern, or Oriental Sea, belonging thereunto: with the several denominations of their coasts, harbors, creeks, rivers, lakes, cities, towns, castles, and villages: their customs, modes, and manners, languages, religions, and inexhaustible treasure: with their governments and policy, variety of trade and barter, and also of their wonderful plants, beasts, birds, and serpents |date=1670 |publisher=Printed by Tho. Johnson for the author |location=London |access-date=25 November 2022 |via=Early English Books}}</ref>{{rp|365}}<ref name=Rodney/>{{rp|67}} Ogilby also claimed that, upon the king's death, his wives, servants, horses, and court favorites would be killed and buried alongside him to serve him in the afterlife.<ref name=Ogilby/>{{rp|366}}

==Legacy==
The modern [[Quinara]] region is named after the kingdom.<ref name=Dict/>

== References ==
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{{Reflist}}

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[[Category:Kingdoms]]