The Jolof Empire, also known as Great Jolof or the Wolof Empire, was a Wolof state in what is now Senegal that from the mid-fourteenth century ruled or held sway over portions of present-day Mauritania and Gambia as well. The empire bound together several Wolof and related provinces under a paramount ruler known as the Burba Jolof, who exercised authority over vassal states including Waalo, Cayor, Baol and Sine-Saloum. Jolof's unity broke down after the Battle of Danki in 1549, when the vassal state of Cayor defeated the empire's forces and, along with the other formerly subject provinces, became fully or effectively independent, leaving a reduced Jolof Kingdom in place of the earlier empire. The diminished kingdom persisted for centuries afterward before French colonial expansion absorbed the region into French West Africa.
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