Borno and Haiti

While perusing the excellent Corpus of runaway slave ads for Saint Domingue, we came across what appears to be one of the few other sources to mention "Borno" Africans in Saint Domingue. Instead of spelling the name of their homeland in the same manner as Descourtilz (Beurnon), it was rendered as Bernon. The 1789 advertisement in Affiches américaines also mentions that one of the "Bernon" fled his owners in the company of 3 Hausa named Aly, Dominique and Aza. Scipion, the man of "Bernon" nation, was likely very familiar with Hausa people due to Borno's long history in northern Nigeria. Perhaps they also shared an Islamic background that may have helped them transcend "ethnic" differences and find some commonality with other enslaved African Muslims in Saint Domingue. The text likewise mentions another maroon, Christophe of the "Bernon" nation. He was stamped Pommier and belonged to a different owner. 

One cannot help but wonder if these "Bernon" captives were part of the same group of prisoners of war who were sold into slavery and ended up in the Rossignol-Desdunes plantation. "Bernon" Africans seem to have been somewhat uncommon in Saint Domingue, although it is possible the ambiguous "national" labels assigned to Africans in Saint Domingue misidentified them. It is possible that enslaved West African Muslims united through religion, and may have adopted or assumed a name like "Mandingue" or "Hausa" which obscured the distinct origins of some members. Such a phenomenon occurred in Trinidad's Free Mandingo mutual aid society, whose members were not solely Mandingo. Alternatively, there were probably some Africans who spoke multiple languages and were lumped into one or another "nation" which did not accurately reflect their homeland.

As an empire mostly drawn into the trans-Saharan orbit, and primarily exporting other peoples as slaves rather than their own (with a few exceptions, according to Descourtilz), it is interesting to consider the connections of Haiti with the "Sudan" and Borno. While most "Muslims" in Saint Domingue were probably drawn from various Mande groups, "Senegal" and probably Hausa and some "Malais," the links to the Central Sudan may have also been important. One wonders if Haitian writers of the 19th century, reading French works that mention, sometimes in detail, various kingdoms in the heart of the continent, also thought of their own population, which still included people born in said regions. For example, Baron de Vastey's knowledge of Mungo Park and his detailed description of Segou was utilized as proof that Africa wasn't as "uncivilized" as Europeans usually depicted it. Surely, Baron de Vastey knew of "Bambara" and "Mandingue" in the kingdom of Christophe who could also enlighten him about their homelands. Perhaps Haitian writes were also familiar with Descourtilz's description of Borno, and that of other European accounts, which depicted a sophisticated Islamic kingdom with security, literacy, and order. Who knows, maybe the Borno Africans living in Haiti also offered an example of "civilized" Africans from ancient kingdoms that the kingdom of Christophe could reference for proof of racial equality and justification of monarchy?