Oral histories relate that, during the 14th century, many members of the Kamara clan left the town of Niani in the Mali Empire after a failed rebellion against the Mansa.

[5] Modern-day historians have proposed that the Mandinka elite of Niani and Wuli did not, in fact, immigrate from the Manding region but may have come much earlier, from Bambouk and the upper Senegal river valley.

[7] Always an important center, the arrival of Europeans in the 15th century greatly Niani's trade, particularly channeling gold from Bambuk and Bure down the Gambia.

[9] Torodbe refugees from Futa Toro in the late 18th and early 19th centuries progressively islamized the kingdom, although the aristocracy retained their traditional beliefs.

[11][3] Sometime in the early decades, Kimintan Kamara killed his older brothers to seize the throne of Upper Niani and established a new capital at Ndougousine.