With the peace established between ah-ḥājj Umar and Faidherbe in 1860, Bokar Saada became the undisputed sovereign over all of Bundu. He would rule until 1885, longer than any previous Almaami, save Maka Jiba. His immediate challenge was to rebuild the state's economy. The French-Umarian struggle had devastated the upper valley, resulting in the disruption of trade and neglect of agriculture. Further exacerbating Bundu's suffering was a cholera epidemic that impacted the whole of the Senegal Valley during the 1860s. In an effort to remedy these problems, and in a manner reminiscent of his father Saada Amadi Aissata, Bokar Saada developed a policy of perennial raiding in the neighboring territories, particularly to the south, to realize several objectives: first, the repopulation of Bundu and the revitalization of its agriculture via the importation of servile labor; second, direct access to British trade along the Gambia, and in particular the cultivation of groundnuts, the latter the result of European promotion during the second half of the nineteenth century; and last, the acquisition of foodstuffs and cattle to offset their scarcity in Bundu. Bambuk gold continued to be a lure as well. This rebuilding of Bundu via repopulation and exploitation of regional trade resulted in approximately ten years of modest economic recovery.