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Home , African empires, Dixon Denham, Kanem (prefecture), Kanem (region), Mali Empire, Sokoto Caliphate

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Kanem-Bornu trade routes towards and and based its power on trans-Saharan trade. How- VINCENT HIRIBARREN ever, it would not be possible to envisage the ’s College London, UK creation of an empire before the expansion of towards the northern oases of Kawar Renowned as one of the most powerful during the 11th century. These conquests led of Western with , , to the creation of a trans-Saharan empire that and Songhai, Kanem-Bornu (Kanem-Borno) survived until the 19th century. is often cited as an archetypal example of During the 11th century, the Duguwa were an ancient African pre-colonial kingdom. replaced by another dynasty, the Sayfawa who The empire reached a certain degree of fame ruled the empire until the 19th century. How- not only because it was mentioned in the nar- ever, the territorial extent of this 800-year ratives written by Arab geographers such as long hegemony greatly varied. At first based al-Idrisi (Lange 1984: 239) but also because on Kanem, the center of empire shifted to its history has been taught in schools and the west of Lake during the 13th and universities as an example of the wealth of 14th centuries as a result of deteriorating cli- pre-colonial Africa. matic conditions. Indeed, the continued pro- gression of the was responsible for the THE LONGEST EMPIRE IN AFRICAN migration of the Kanembu to the more fertile HISTORY lands of Bornu. This region had already become the economic centre of the empire The empire of Kanem-Bornu finds its roots in the despite the fact that the between and the Bahr el-Ghazal Sayfawa still resided in Njimi the capital they in the region of Kanem (modern-day Chad). had built in Kanem. Furthermore in the sec- It was based on the state of Kanem created ond half of the 14th century after two centu- around the 8th century and was ruled by ries of civil war, Kanem was captured by the Duguwa, an aristocracy who chose a king the Bulala warrior aristocracy. Fleeing their among themselves (Barkindo 1985: 230). enemies, the Sayfawa managed to re-establish Gathering together agriculturalists and pas- their power in Bornu. This second empire toralists, this kingdom consisted of various reconquered Kanem in the ethnic groups able to use iron-working tech- but Bornu remained the economic and polit- niques and horsemanship. These different ical center of the country, hence the name populations gave birth to the Kanembu ethnic Kanem-Bornu to designate this polity. This group who spoke a Nilo-Saharan language. migration from Kanem to Bornu was a slow Located at the crossroads between northern and sometimes violent process integrating Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, this region various populations known under the collec- benefited from trade contacts with different tive name of So (or Sao) to the Kanembu. This parts of Africa (Barkindo and Lange 1988). merging gave birth to a new ethnic group The early history of Kanem is not well known known as the Kanuri who became the main but it appears that Kanem sought to control ethnic group in the empire. As a consequence,

The Encyclopedia of Empire, First Edition. Edited by John M. MacKenzie. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe014 2 their Nilo-Saharan language, Kanuri, became domination over a vast territory in order to the lingua franca of the empire. obtain from conquered regions. Kanem-Bornu was also a major diplo- Nonetheless, facing Tuareg and Tubu incur- matic power in the Sahara area and boasted sions from the north during the 18th century, embassies in both and the Ottoman the empire gradually lost its grip on territories Empire via Tripoli. Its links with the rest of in the desert and on the eastern side of theMuslimworldwerealsosignificantanda Lake Chad. hostel for Bornoan students and pilgrims en One of the largest threats came in 1808 route to was built in during the when the proclaimed by Osman dan reign of , or according to his Kanuri Fodio tried to conquer Bornu to integrate title, mai, Dunama Dibalami (1203–1242). it within the . This largely One of the most famous episodes of Bornoan Fulani invasion followed an 18th-century history was the correspondence between mai demographic expansion on the western Idriss Alooma and the Ottoman Sultan marches of Bornu. After a defeat and the Murad III during the 1570s, as Mai Idriss destruction of the capital, Birni Gazagarmo, desired to renew an alliance with the Otto- Mohammed El Kanemi, a learned man from mans. Their conquest of Tripoli in Kanem, organized the defense of the empire 1551had already giventheempireof and won a military, diplomatic, and reli- Kanem-Bornu access to Ottoman mercenar- gious battle against Osman dan Fodio. ies who has migrated across the Sahara. Indeed, in his correspondence with the sul- Their firearms and tactical superiority tan of Sokoto, El Kanemi proved that there resulted in victories which facilitated the was no reason to pursue the jihad in Bornu conquest of territories located at the south since its inhabitants practiced a pure form of and west of Bornu (Hunwick 1985: 360- . El Kanemi, who was subsequently 361). The introduction of gunpowder in called shehu of Bornu, managed to establish sub-Saharan Africa was short-lived as by his own power and founded a new capital in the end of the 17th century the Bornoan Kukawa in 1814. However, the nature of his armies had ceased using such weapons. power seems uncertain as the Sayfawas were However, the contacts with Tripoli never not totally supplanted before 1846 (Last totally ceased as embassies were exchanged 1996). The dynasty which took power in until the 19th century. the 11th century was then ended by Umar, To understand how the empire of Kanem- the son of Mohammed El Kanemi, in 1846 Bornu dominated and invaded its neighbors, (Brenner 1973). These events are relatively it is necessary to highlight the importance of well known because of narratives written its , as the empire relied heavily on the by European travelers in the 19th century strength of its horsemen for its conquests and such as Dixon Denham, Hugh Clapperton, slave raids. Divided between heavy and light , and Gustav Nachtigal. The cavalry and a large number of infantry, the third Kanem-Bornu dynasty of the Kanemis Bornoan army could still count 10 000 horses was relatively short-lived as Rabih az- when the German explorer Heinrich Barth Zubayr, a Sudanese warlord, invaded Bornu visited Kanem-Bornu in 1851. The Bornoan in 1893 and put an end to the independence army was not a professional organization of the empire. European conquest at the end and could only be deployed every year during of the 19th century then divided Bornu the dry season. However the reorganization of between the German colony of the army by mai Idriss Alooma enabled the and the British colony of . After 3

World War I, the territory of Bornu was ancestry was a common practice through reunified under British administration and which trans-Saharan could was officially reunited within independent assert their religious and kinship ties with Nigeria in 1961. Without formal political Arabia. power in Nigeria, descendants of Moham- As a Muslim empire, Kanem-Bornu was med El Kanemi are still shehus of not radically different from other “Islami- modern Borno at the beginning of the 21st cate” polities in sub-Saharan Africa. Indeed, century. whilst it was dominated by Islam, there were many pre-Islamic features that shaped polit- ical and cultural life. A perfect example of the ISLAM AS IMPERIAL CEMENT importance of this pre-Islamic culture was the cult of an undefined sacred object, the Kanem rulers were among the first to be Isla- mune, until its destruction by mai Dunama mized in sub-Saharan Africa in the 11th cen- Dibbalemi (1203–1242). The mune might tury. The empire of Kanem-Bornu became have been a pre-Islamic symbol of unity in rapidly renowned for its Islamic culture with Kanem-Bornubutwasstillhonoreduntil some of its mais undertaking the and the , more than two hundred building in the country (Barkindo years after the introduction of Islam in 1985: 235). Islam had an important political Kanem. Furthermore, the practice of record- role in Kanem-Bornu as the change of ing orally the names and genealogies of the dynasty between the Duguwa and the Say- of Kanem seems to have existed since fawa in the 11th century seems to have been the 9th century. The introduction of Islam triggered by political and religious factors. and the script codified this tradition Indeed, Hummay (r.1075–1080) became by making it possible to write down the ruler of Kanem and founded the Sayfawa names of the kings. This list or chronicle dynasty with the help of a pro-Islam faction of kings, the diwan or girgam, was written in the Kanem court (Lange 1993: 265). from the 13th or 16th century until the19th Moreover, Islam had an influence on the and contained the names of 67 kings from expansionist policies of the state as the devel- the 9th to the 19th century. It constitutes opment of the kingdom could be justified by one of the most important sources for the the conversion of non-. Islam also history of Kanem-Bornu and has been exten- influenced the discourse of state-creation as sively used by historians of the empire. This rulers during this period claimed to be des- is a rare type of document in sub-Saharan cended from a Yemenite ancestor, the 7th- Africa, because of the lack of precise written century figure Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan of Himyar sources but also because of the period that (Smith 1983). Moreover, since the end of the the document covered. As such it has , and maybe since an earlier attracted a relatively large number of publi- date, the mai (the head of the empire) cations since it was sent to Europe by the Ger- assumed the title of “caliph” (Lavers 1993: man traveler Heinrich Barth in 1851. 257) and the Sayfawa throne was also sup- Different authors have tried to recreate the posed to be the degal lisalambe, the “cradle precise chronology of the diwan, since it cov- of Islam.” As a consequence, the mais used ersnearly1000years,whichmakesthehistory Islamic advisors and, in theory, their power oftheempireofKanem-Bornuoneofthebest- could not exceed the prescriptions of the documented histories of the African . This creation of a Muslim religious continent. 4

AN ENDURING POLITICAL AND Nguru and when present in Birni Gaza- SPATIAL STRUCTURE garmo was a full member of the council (Alkali 1983). Even though it is difficult to generalize the One of the striking features of the empire nature of political power for more than of Kanem-Bornu was its complex territorial 1000 years of history, some features seem organization which allowed it to survive for to have been present throughout the history more than a millennium. Diplomatic corre- of Bornu. The royal family was at the heart of spondence and oral history confirm that the the political system meaning that the head of Kanem-Bornu Empire was an empire with the Sayfawa family was also the mai.Itseems different types of borders. Some of them that to prevent wars of succession, the chir- may have been rather vague, such as those oma, generally the eldest son or the brother along the Saharan trade route, whereas of the mai, was designated during the life- others could have been precisely delimited, time of the mai. Members of the royal family such as the borders south of Lake Chad with were also important office-holders. For the Bagirmi or westwards with the Hausa example, the magira, the queen mother, held states. Moreover, the core of Bornu and the for a long time the highest number of fiefs in newly conquered regions had sensibly differ- the kingdom while the first wife of the mai, ent territorial structures. In metropolitan the gumsu, was responsible for the palace Bornu, a double fief system enabled the mais duties with the three other wives of the and later the shehus to levy taxes and troops mai (Cohen 1967). As a consequence, the in their empire. The first one was a personal stability of the empire was synonymous with fief where the fief-holder, the chima jilibe, the stability of the royal family. However, owned a fief over people, the second one political power was not solely in the hands was territorial: here the fief-holder, the of the ruling family as members of the coun- chima chidibe, was in charge of a specific ter- cil were also in charge of political affairs. It ritory. This system enabled the empire to appears that there were around twelve mem- control its sedentary population as well as bers in this council and that apart from the incorporating its nomadic or semi-nomadic descendants of the close advisors of the first subjects such as the Shuwa . This Sayfawas, their office was not hereditary. It administrative structure was present in met- would be difficult to attribute a specific role ropolitan Bornu whereas the satellite regions to each of the members of the council over were still administered by a local ruler. For the centuries but some office-holders seem example, the sultanate of Zinder was semi- to exert the same roles. For example, the autonomous but still part of the Kanem- mainin kenandi was the Islamic advisor of BornuEmpireuntilthemiddleofthe19th the mai whereas the kaigama was in charge century. of the armies of Kanem-Bornu. This highly structured political system could also be found in the territorial organization of the TRANS-SAHARAN TRADE AS kingdom. Indeed, the empire of Kanem- A SOURCE OF POWER Bornu was organized territorially and divided into different administrative The paid by satellite regions such as regions. For example, the galadima was sup- Zinder to the Kanem-Bornu Empire were posed to be the viceroy of the Western part not its sole source of income. Bornu was for of the kingdom. He had his own capital at example known for its horses. In addition, 5 since the 15th century, the commerce in REFERENCES was also profitable. Indeed, it is striking that Alkali, N. 1983. “A Tentative Reconstruction of the the capital of Kanem-Bornu, Birni Gazar- Political System and Administrative Structure of gamo, was located at the heart of a salt- Bornu Under the Seifawa Dynasty.” In N. Alkali producing region in Bornu. This salt was sold and B. Usman (Eds.), Studies in the History of throughout the Central and was used Pre-colonial Borno: 101–126. Zaria: Northern in the textile industry and for medicinal and Nigerian Publishing. “ culinary purposes. The salt trade did not Barkindo, B. 1985. The Early States of the Central reach the same trans-Saharan dimension as Sudan: Kanem, Borno and Some of Their Neigh- bours to c.1500 A.D.” In J. Festus, A. Ajayi, slave trade but it was still possible to evoke and M. Crowder (Eds.), History of , a regional market for this product. Volume 1, 3rd ed.: 225–254. Harlow: Longman. The trans-Saharan links of the Kanem- Barkindo, B. and D. Lange. 1988. “The Chad Bornu Empire were central to this economic Region as a Crossroads.” In M. Elfasi and I. growth. As it controlled the trade route Hrbek (Eds.), Unesco General , through the towards northern Africa, Volume III. Africa from the Seventh to the Elev- – Kanem-Bornu was one of the main actors of enth Century: 436 460. London: Heinemann. Brenner, L. 1973. The Shehus of Kukawa: a History the internal African slave-trade. However of the al-Kanemi Dynasty of Bornu. Oxford: difficult it may be to give an estimate on Clarendon Press. the number of slaves sold by Kanem- Cohen, R. 1967. The Kanuri of Bornu. Case Studies Bornuan traders from the 6th to the 19th in Cultural Anthropology. New York: Holt. century, it is certain that the empire mainly Hunwick, J. O. 1985. “Songhay, Borno and the derived its wealth from the slave trade. As Hausa States, 1450–1600.” In J. F. Ade Ajayi, Muslims could not enslave each other, the and M. Crowder (Eds.), , Volume 1, 3rd ed.: 323–371. Harlow: Longman. empire of Kanem-Bornu benefited from its Lange, D. 1984. “The Kingdoms and Peoples of geopolitical position because it was located Chad.” In D. T. Niane (Ed.), General History at the frontier of Islam and therefore could of Africa, Volume 4: Africa from the 12th to enslave non-Muslims. Slave trading affected the 16th Century: 238–265. London: Unesco/ political decisions since military expeditions Heinemann. were undertaken with the aim of slave-raiding. Lange, D. 1993. “Ethnogenesis from within the As a consequence, it is certain that Kanem- Chadic State: Some Thoughts on the History ” Bornu as an empire built its strength on of Kanem-Bornu. Paideuma: Mitteilungen Zur Kulturkunde Paideuma / Frobenius-Institut, and slave trading. Caravans crossing 39: 261–277. the Sahara were thus the main providers for Last, M. 1996. “Le Califat de Sokoto et Borno.” In goods which could be bought in exchange J. F. Ade Ajayi (Ed.), Histoire Générale de for slaves. The profits they generated for l’Afrique, Volume 6, rev. ed.: 599–646. Paris: the mais and later the shehus were consider- Unesco/Presence Africaine. able and enabled them to levy powerful Lavers, J. 1993. “Adventures in the Chronology of ” armies. This source of income was inter- the States of the . In D. Barreteau and C. de Graffenried (Eds.), Datations et chron- rupted by the European colonization and ologies dans le Bassin du Chad: 255–267. finally ceased in the 1920s. Bondy: Orstom. Smith, A. 1983. “The Legend of the Seifuwa: A Study in the Origins of a Tradition of Origin.” SEE ALSO: Fulani Empire (Sokoto); Ghana, In N. Alkali and B. Usman (Eds.), Studies in the Empire of; ; Morocco: 1. Medieval History of Pre-colonial Borno:16–43. Zaria: empires; ; Northern Nigerian Publishing. 6

FURTHER READING Last, M. 1977. The . London: Longman. “ ” Cohen, R. 1970. Incorporation in Borno. In R. Lange, D. 1977. Le Diwan Des Du Kanem- Cohen and M. J. Cohen (Eds.), From Tribe to Bornu: Chronologie et Histoire d’un Royaume Nation in Africa: Studies in Incorporation Pro- Africain (de La Fin Du Xe Siècle Jusqu’à 1808). cesses. Scranton: Chandler. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner. “ ’ Dewière, R. 2013. Le Discours historique de l estat Urvoy, Y. F. M. A. 1949. Histoire de L’empire Du du royaume de Borno, genèse et construction Bornou. Mémoires de l’Institut Français d’Afri- ’ d une histoire du Borno par un captif de Tripoli que Noire. Paris: Larose. au XVIIe siècle.” In Afriques. Débats, méthodes et terrains d’histoire, 4. DOI: 10.4000/afriques.1170.