Borno in the 1820s

Mai Ibrahim (?), who was allowed to maintain a Sefuwa court at New Birni while all effective power was in the hands of Sheikh al-Kanemi, the "George Washington of Borno"

Although dismissed by some scholars for not being the best or most useful source on Borno's past,  Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa: In the Years 1822, 1823, and 1824 by Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney remains a key text. As the first representatives of Britain to reach Borno, the trio described the trans-Saharan route used to reach it (Tripoli-Fezzan-Borno) and the climate, geography, political context, social conditions and economic factors at play in Borno and nearby regions, particularly around Lake Chad and the Sokoto Caliphate to the west. Astonishingly, some of the social features described by Denham were still relevant in 20th century Borno, if the ethnographic work of Cohen is to be relied on for Kanuri village society. Indeed, Clapperton's account actually includes extensive information on Muhammad Bello, while Denham met with Borno's Sheikh al-Kanemi several times and described his skills as a political leader. Moreover, they were accompanied by a Caribbean native, Adolphus Sympkins of St. Vincent, who may have been the first Afro-Caribbean person to reach Borno. Particularly useful were the materials in the appendix, including a court document from Kuka, extracts from a work by Muhammad Bello on the land of "Takrur" (extending from Darfur in the east to the Atlantic coast of West Africa), and various letters by Sheikh al-Kanemi and the pasha of Tripoli. 

What was perhaps most useful for our purposes, however, is the testimony of Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney on the political consolidation of Borno under the new Shehu dynasty in the 19th century. Unable to rise to the occasion of defending Borno from Fulani incursions and pillagings of the old capital and western Borno, the Sefuwa mai called for Sheikh al-Kanemi, who liberated the land from the "Felatah" jihadists and brought Kanembu and Shuwa Arab followers from Kanem. While Borno had lost some of its western territories to the Sokoto Caliphate, and faced invasions from Bagirmi and Wadai's incursions into the territory of Kanem, al-Kanemi's successful military leadership established a secure basis for a reassertion of Borno's political hegemony and influence over much of the Lake Chad Region. While former vassal states like Bagirmi and Wadai's intervention in Kanem were a threat, and Tuareg and "Biddoomah" islander raids continued, al-Kanemi established more secure conditions for Borno's subjects and traveling merchants. One cannot help but admire the man, even though his wars of conquest and raids were often generating hundreds or, in some cases, thousands of captives for the slave trade. Indeed, one must question the sincerity of al-Kanemi when he complained of the fact that Arabs would only trade for slaves. Perhaps al-Kanemi knew what Denham and Clapperton wanted to hear, and in order to promote the idea of direct exchange with Britain for manufactured goods, pretended to be personally opposed to the slave trade, which had for so long been central to Borno's trans-Saharan trade network.

But the main interest for us at the blog with regards to this text is contextualizing Borno in the 1820s within a larger "Sudanic" and African context. By this we mean Borno's relations with other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the "Sudanic" pilgrim route, trade and migration across the continent. For instance, a man Denham wished to meet, a native of Loggun who had lived in Sennar and was in Borno, would have been an interesting interview subject on the movement of people between Lake Chad and the Middle Nile. Or the fascinating Fulani "fighi" from Timbuktu, Abdel Gassam ben Maleky, en route to Mecca, who met Denham  in Kuka. The Timbuktu pilgrim's father was a "Felatah" chief of Jenne and was living on charity to make it to Mecca with caravans. Unfortunately, the young man was said to have drowned in Lake Chad after heading for Wadai. Alternatively, people from the Muslim central lands were also in the "Central Sudan," such as El Raschid, a native of Mecca who lived in Wadai and Sennar before meeting Denham in Loggun. Perhaps even more intriguing, Denham met a "Moor" fighi named Khalifa who had been to Sierra Leone ("Seralo") and knew English! Thus, despite the difficulties with Wadai and Bagirmi that made the "Sudanic" pilgrim route dangerous in the 1820s, Borno continued to host a variety of transients and migrants from different parts of Africa and the world. People who had traveled or lived in Timbuktu, Sierra Leone, Hausaland, Tripoli, Morocco, Mecca, Fezzan, Kanem, Bagirmi, Tuareg territories, Loggun, Sennar, and beyond intersected in Borno.