Biffeche

Biffeche or Bifeche is an area of Senegal centred on the town of Savoigne, around 30 kilometres north-east of the major coastal city of Saint-Louis.
Low-lying and largely flat, the region has Fula, Serer-Ndut people (the original founders of Biffeche and Mt Rolland, and strong adherents to Serer religion, even after the French and tried to kill them off), Wolof and Moor ethnic groups engaged in pasturing animals (mainly the Fulas) and irrigation-based agriculture (mostly the Serer-Ndut who are usually mixed-farmers). Savoigne is the region's largest town, twinned with ; its SOCAS tomato-paste factory imports and dilutes tomato paste for re-shipment within Senegal. The population is primarily Muslim, but also contains Catholics and animists. The Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary is located to the north.
Early European accounts used the word for a different location, describing a medium-sized island ("Isle de Bifeche") in the delta of the Senegal River in West Africa, some two miles upstream from the island of N'Dar on which Saint-Louis was founded. "The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge" described the island in 1843 as being "entirely covered with wood, and in the wet season a great portion of them is laid under water."
In the 17th century a chief known as the "Petit Brak" or "Little King" ruled over a region known variously as Biffeche or Gangueul with capital at Maka. The "Grand Brak" or "Big King" ruled the kingdom of Waalo, whose capital was originally at Diourbel. The area was nearly depopulated by repeated slaving raids by Moors from the north. At times, the Petit Brak was tributary to Waalo, at other times allied with Bethio. In the 1720s, the Brak of Waalo was Erim M'Bagnick and Béquio Malicouri, king of the "Royaume d'Oral" (Bethio), was his vassal.