A Novice Speculating on KAKRH and Early Kanem

 

al-Ya'qubi's description of Kanem translated in the Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History (edited by Levtzion and Hopkins).

One thing we have been reconsidering is the claim by  Abdelkérim Souleyman Tério about the name of a Kanem ruler written down in the 9th century. In his Origine et évolution des Zaghawa: Du royaume du Kanem aux Etats modernes (VIIIe-XXIe siècle), the author suggests that the name of the Kanem ruler is actually a title. He then proposes the notion that it is etymologically linked to the modern Zaghawa word for king (kireh in Blench's Beria dictionary). If one reads the name recorded by al-Ya'qubi as a title and perhaps Kakira as the best fit, this does bear some resemblance with the Zaghawa word for king. Interestingly, Blench's dictionary suggests that the Zaghawa word for king is rooted in the word for elder, or old age. This is likely related to the Kanuri word for elder, kura. According to Cyffer's dictionary, this word can be used to mean "age" or "big" or related concepts with the use of Kanuri prefixes. Unlike the Beria or Zaghawa language, however, Kanuri does not use the word kura for a chief or king today. Indeed, decades ago Lavers expressed some skepticism about reading the name recorded by al-Ya'qubi as related to the word for elder or great. 

What is perhaps surprising about this is the Teda language using distinct words for the same concept. According to one Tudaga dictionary, the word for old is gibi. This seems to be related to the word for a chief or leader, bugidi (chief or old man). Carbou provided similar information in his work, too. According to Carbou, the word for grand/aged is bo, elder or chef is bougoudi. If Kanuri is more closely related to the Teda and Daza languages than it is to Zaghawa, it is intriguing that Kanuri uses words like kura instead of cognates of the Teda/Daza languages. Indeed, the word in Tudaga bears some resemblance to the Daju word for chief, a language from a distinct branch of the Nilo-Saharan family. Apparently, the Daju word for chief in more than one dialect is buge, so it would be interesting to note if it was based on a word for elder or seniority. In the Barma language of Bagirmi, from a different branch of the Nilo-Saharan family than the Saharan languages of Kanuri, the word for old is bon/o. An old man is gada and a chief is kadal (though the higher status bang or mbang for the ruler of Bagirmi is well-known). In addition, Barma and related Nilo-Saharan languages use ngare or similar words for chief or ruler. 

It nonetheless seems likely that Kanuri and the Beria language inherited words of deep antiquity in Nilo-Saharan languages related to age, seniority and great, if one accepts Blench's theories on Nilo-Saharan linguistics. If, however, an early form of kura was used to name early rulers of pre-Islamic Kanem, one still has to explain the k- added to it. Instead, we could be looking at the Kanuri prefix ker- or kə̀r(kura) as in the modern word kermai? But, that seems to be prohibited by the rules of Kanuri grammar which would use nemkura to make the word a noun. Alternatively, it may be following the ki- prefix in Beria identified by Blench as a pronoun. But this may be contradicted by the use of the prefix nem- to form words like bigness in modern Kanuri. It does not seem common to add the k- prefix to the word kura in the Kanuri language (although an archaic form of the language might have done so, perhaps like the Beria kî? or the addition of the initial k- to anem to specify the Kanem region).

Ultimately, the theory that the KAKRH is derived from the Zaghawa word for king (or, alternatively, the Kanuri word kura) remains highly problematic. Perhaps something like kurabe would match older, more senior, as that form may have meant something akin to "the great." Since al-Ya'qubi was writing down what was a word in a language he didn't speak over 1000 years ago, this is necessarily speculative. And as total novices in the study of the Kanuri language, our speculations on this should be seen as purely exploratory. 

Speculating on Haniguayaba's Name

Whilst randomly re-reading parts of Granberry and Vescelius's Languages of the Pre-Columbian Antilles, we noticed that the authors proposed defining ha or hai as the word for high in Taino. This makes sense given the name of Haiti itself, with the meaning of high or mountainous land. But what about Hanyguayaba, that poorly known chiefdom or cacicazgo in the Southwest of Haiti? Probably centered on the area of the Les Cayes plain, where the Spanish built a town after the conquest of that part of the island, the region was part of the "anus" of Hispaniola. Alternatively, we could read accept the hai in Haiti as tall or high and iti as upland or hills. 

But with the word Haniguayaba, Granberry and Vescelius's hä- (han) seems to fit (meaning uppermost). This is followed by a i could mean near or eastern. So uppermost of the near guayaba (guava). But another definition might be han+i+guaya (meaning furthest back)+ba (big, great, or large). Thus, Hanyguayaba or Haniguayaba could have meant something like the "the upper, big and nearest part of the farthest" section? If one views the island through the indigenous perspective with the "anus" being the Tiburon peninsula of today's Haiti, that "behind" was quite far from other parts of the island. Perhaps the Les Cayes plain was the base for the largest area or concentration of settlements and was considered the "upper" section for its proximity to the "anus" of the island? Alternatively, reading it simply as the uppermost guava is possible? The Spanish sources from the 1500s certainly suggest the rich areas of mamey trees. Perhaps the area closer to Haniguayaba had lots of guava trees in the hills above the plain? 

The guayaba reading seems more likely than our own tortured attempt at using Granberry and Vescelius, however. However, there's uncertainty about the toponym as Las Casas also presented it as Haniguayagua. Moreover, Martyr d'Anghiera did not include it among his cantons or districts in the "anus" of the island. Instead, he listed a place called Guabaqua (perhaps Guabagua?). This might have been the Haniguayagua of Las Casas? Or Zavana (or, savanna, where the Spanish settlement was built after the colonial conquest) could have been an alternative name for Haniguayaba?

African Ancestry and the 2026 Update

 

With the news of the October update on Ancestry, we naturally rushed to check the new estimates. While the update seems to represent progress in a few areas, it's still a bit of a mess with the additional regions that overlap and are sometimes prone to misleading or potentially inaccurate results. We compared our results with those of our Haitian parent to take a closer look at African ancestry in particular. 

The new Igboland region is vast and encompasses a large part of Nigeria. Indeed, parts of it on the map extend into the central regions of the country. Nonetheless, we have found Igbo or Igbo-related ancestry to be very likely in our case. The preponderance of "Ibo" captives in Bainet during the 18th century as well as some of the shared genetic matches between us and our Haitian parent with Igbo people in Nigeria seem to confirm it. Yet the Igboland region also includes Igbo, Esan, Idoma, Igala, and Ibibio peoples. If one accepts oral traditions of the Idoma, for instance, then some of these peoples are undoubtedly related to groups further north or had migrated from central Nigeria in centuries past. The Sierra Leone region reference panel is derived solely from Mende, a group we have found shared matches with as well as 23andMe genetic group matches. 

The partition of Benin and Togo and the Yorubaland regions are also difficult to interpret. We undoubtedly do have ancestry from parts of that vast region. Our shared genetic matches, however, were with Ga or seemingly Ga peoples. As for some of the new regions like Mali-Dogon Peoples or Mali: Mande Peoples, we cannot help but wonder if the trace scores are more likely de to the genetic overlap of some of these groups with others. Something similar appears to have occurred with the Hausa and Fulani category. Although in past updates the Hausa were part of a "North-Central Nigeria" region which encompassed the Afizere, Anaguta, Atyap, Berom, Ham, and Hausa, the 2026 Update has split that region into new regions. Instead, the Nigeria-Jos Plateau region now includes several of those groups: Berom, Jarawa, Hausa, and Anaguta (plus the Saya and Polci). But by matching the Hausa with Fula, particularly with samples drawn from further west in West Africa, the algorithm seems to be inflating the "Hausa and Fulani Peoples" estimate in many users. Presumably, Fula samples with admixture from Senegambian, Mali, Guinea, or other western countries are being used here and inflating the scores based on shared Senegambian ancestry with various other groups. Perhaps a more likely indication of northern Nigerian ancestry is the Jos Plateau region and Southern Kaduna & Central Plateau region. These regions include groups that were once part of the "North-central Nigeria" region that included the Hausa. As previously stated, the Hausa are also included as one of the groups in the Jos Plateau ethnic groups, too. 

Overall, the update was a bit of a confusing mess and some attempts at greater detail or granularity likely muddled things. There are some clear errors but maybe subsequent updates can attempt to improve it. When comparing this with the genetic groups on 23andMe, the latter appears to have the edge in terms of general accuracy or reliability (even if they did lower the matching threshold to increase the number of genetic groups to assign). Ancestry still hasn't taken the next step of indicating which groups in their reference panels users share DNA with, so that can be one area to improve results. it would also be nice if some improvement can be done in these confusing maps which, perhaps inevitably, overlap in confusing ways. And getting data from the Lake Chad region, northern Cameroon, Congo and DRC wouldn't hurt, too. The Luba peoples region is interesting, yet we are lacing other interior groups between them and the ooast.

Writing the Qur'an in Borno

  

Although we have definitely watched this documentary before, we found it fascinating upon our second viewing. Entitled "Borno calligraphy - Creating hand-written Qur'an in northeast Nigeria" and featuring Goni Aminami, Malam Tahir Abba, and Dmitry Bondarev, the scribe explains the process of writing by hand a Qur'an in Borno.

Le christianisme éthiopien

 

We enjoyed this recent talk with Marie-Laure Derat and Martina Ambu on Ethiopian Christianity. Quite interesting. 

Speculating on Kandakma and 'an.d.k.ma

 

The title of Dunama, the man who killed Kaday b. Dunama (Augustin Holl, The Diwan Revisited: Literacy, State Formation and the Rise of Kanuri Domination (AD 1200-1600)). 

Something we have been reconsidering whilst re-reading parts of the Diwan is the dignitary who murdered Kaday b. Dunama (in c.1277, according to Lange's reckoning). As he indicated in his footnotes, the Arabic text suggests that the man who killed the mai, named Dunama, held a title or perhaps was a dignitary in the Sayfawa court. Lange, however, did not venture speculating on what the title may have been, yet his French translation rendered it as the above.

H.R. Palmer, in his Bornu Sahara and Sudan, endeavored to identify the title. According to Palmer, who did not explain his reasoning, it was a "Dikuma" who was supposedly the chief of the N'Galma Diku (N'Galma Duku). Using evidence from the gargams, Palmer also believed that Kaday (or, Kadai) was killed at Zui Zui in Borku. 

Muhammad Nur Alkali was apparently influenced by Palmer's thinking here for he raised the possibility of Zuwi Zuwi being an oasis known as Zau Kura along the Kawar-Tripoli trade route. Thus, he rendered the title in the Diwan as "Ndikuma." This is more reminiscent of the Dirkuma of the Tura and difficult to reconcile with Palmer's claim the title was held by the chief of the N'Galma Duku. 

As for Heinrich Barth, he wrote the title as ʿAndákama. Barth's reading is close to Lange's. Here is how the Arabic text looks for this part of the Diwan on page 38 in Lange:

Lange wisely avoided a guess at the possible meaning or origin of the title. We, however, wonder if this obscure title or official disappeared in the Sayfawa court but survived among the Bulala sultans in Kanem (and later, Fitri). Our evidence is slim, but Hagenbucher's study of the Bilala of Fitri found a title called kandakma. Described as the premier adjoint of the galadima, the title was occupied by the N'guidjim. Part of the Birni dignitaries of the sultanate, they were on the "left" of the court. Among the Birni or "people of the left" were the N'Guidjim, Kassawa, Gaswa, Madawa, Fadawa, Kiliti, and Argumba. Since many of these titles appear to be of Kanembu/Kanuri origin, and the Bulala sultanate in Kanem likely borrowed many titles from the Sayfawa court, we wonder if the kandakma is another borrowing. Even if we are correct, we cannot automatically assume the office meant the same thing given the vast chronological distance between 13th century Kanem and 20th century Fitri.

Another obstacle is explaining the absence of the initial k in the Diwan. One wonders if what occurred here is a case in which the prefix was not included by the copyist of the Diwan through an error or differences between spoken forms of Kanuri in medieval versus more recent times? Assuming the Bulala spoke Kanembu during the centuries their sultanate controlled Kanem,  and the adoption of a Naba or Kuka-related language began after their exodus to the Fitri region, one might expect kandakma to be closer to an early Kanuri/Kanembu pronunciation of the word. Alternatively, there may be no connection whatsoever between the Bulala kandakma and the 'an.d.k.ma in the Diwan. But if the two words are indeed linked, which seems plausible, then the dignitary who killed Kaday b. Dunama in c. 1277 may have been someone who served the galadima and was close to the court. This, of course, assumes the deep antiquity of the title galadima and the post possibly being connected to the N'guidjim of Kanem (according to Carbou, the chief of the N'guidjim in Kanem was called galadima, although the uncertain but close ties to the Bulala may mean one cannot assume continuity from the earlier Sayfawa period in Kanem).

Another one of our incredibly speculative thoughts on this title is a possible link to a word in Kanuri, kə́ndə́gái, which the English–Kanuri dictionary (by Norbert Cyffer) gives for a reception room in a palace. Hutchison's study of Kanuri word formation analyzes kə̀ndə́gái ("royal reception room") and kə̀ndə́gà ("living") as derived from the verb dəgá, "live." If the Diwan's ʿan.d.k.ma and the Fitri kandakma reflect a form like kəndəg(a)-ma, the consonants k-n-d-g-m would account for the whole skeleton. The formation has a close parallel. Cigama (cikama), the Kanuri "gatekeeper" or chamberlain, from ciga, "town gate," plus -ma, so an office named after a part of the palace is exactly the kind of title that could explain the kandakma. We must stress that kəndəgama is not attested, that Lange has suggested control of royal audiences fell under the remit of the Cikama and correspondence and visitors to the Digma. If the link holds, the kandakma would be a palace-household officer attached to the reception room, with the kind of access that could explain how he reached Kaday.

Ultimately, our theory remains a tentative one. Clearly, Lange himself did not propose this in his study of the Diwan, and to our knowledge, the title has not been clearly elucidated or identified. The -ma suffix and the structure of the sentence suggest a title, and the overlap with the kandakma of the Bulala sultanate in Fitri is rather striking.  As for what the function of the 'an.d.k.ma may have been, it was perhaps a title for a first deputy of the galadima who may have been a "first minister" and thus close associate of the mai who advised the ruler. This is purely speculative, but one wonders if the word galadima is etymologically linked to an Old Kanembu word for advise (galā in Bondarev's dictionary of Old Kanembu). The kandakma Dunama was thus someone who was likely closely entwined in court affairs and possibly related to Kaday. Since Kaday's successor was his brother Bir, it is not inconceivable that 'an.d.k.ma Dunama was acting on behalf of Bir's faction. 

The Man Who Died Twice

On a whim, we recently purchased a copy of Osman's The Man Who Died Twice from a bookstore. We were not huge fans of the first novel in the series, but there is something quite charming and humorous about 4 elderly sleuths solving dangerous and difficult murder cases. The second book in the series also unveils more about Elizabeth's past and, despite some convoluted and unlikely turns, is a satisfying sequel. The humorous style throughout the book can be a bit jarring in some chapters, especially after particularly violent or brutal killings take place. But we can see how useful each member of the club is in this book, even if Ibrahim Arif is less involved. Perhaps trying to integrate the Connie Johnson investigation into the larger mystery of the two murders of the spies was doomed to be an insurmountable challenge. Yet the Polish immigrant Bogdan's character returns and Ron and Joyce have their great moments. Kudos to the author for the clever revelation of the location of the stolen diamonds. Who knows, maybe we will read the other two books in the series...