The first European settlement in the area was founded by the Portuguese in
1645. According to tradition, Ziguinchor's name and meaning comes from the time
when Portuguese traders and explorers came to the region to form a trading
post, and derives from Portuguese
Cheguei e choram, "I came and
they cry". The local people, seeing the Europeans, began crying, thinking
they were to be enslaved. Ziguinchor was in fact a slave port during much of
the Portuguese occupation.
The spot was not chosen at random. While a Jola village predated the town,
it was situated to trade with the Jola kingdom of Kasso, which
