Tilho Mission and Borno

An example of the type of musicians expected to announce and accompany the Shehu of Borno.

The historical chapter of the Documents scientifiques de la Mission Tilho, 1906-1909 remains an indispensable source for reconstructing the history of the vast region from Lake Chad to the Niger. Landeroin and the Tilho Mission collected numerous local traditions, reports, and descriptions which, despite some severe limitations, supplement Barth and Clapperton excellently. Since they mostly base their themselves on local informants who were not always named, and they did not find much in the way of local written records (though extracts from one local source mentioning the various campaigns of what appears to have been Ali b. Umar suggest military expansionism, the centrality of slavery and the use of slave officials and relations of the mai in administration were significant) or lost chronicles, their historical chapter is most detailed and useful for the last 100 or 150 years before the European colonial conquest and partition of the region. For events and processes prior to the late 18th century, they usually rely on the speculations and analysis of Nachtigal, Barth, and guesswork based on the current traditions of the heterogeneous populations inhabiting the Chad Basin. Despite these limitations, and some of their questionable assertions regarding the chronology and origins of the Sayfawa dynasty in Kanem and Borno, we know of no other source with similarly rich oral traditions.

Undoubtedly, the major question of Sayfawa (or Toubba) origins occupies much of our attention. Repeating the tales of Yemen origins and the Toubba kings who migrated into Kanem with related and servile groups, the traditions cited here contract Barth, Nachtigal, the Diwan, and the chronicles of Ahmad b. Furtu. Despite acknowledging the monumental contributions of Barth and the written sources he was able to procure, the Tilho Mission wants one to believe that when the Sayfawa (or Seibouas) first came to Kanem, it was under Bulala rule. Then, after seizing control of Kanem, they chose to migrate to Borno by the 15th century. Other sources, however, suggest Bulala pressure was one of the primary factors that pushed the Sayfawa out of Kanem by the late 1300s. Moreover, local sources suggest the Sayfawa dynasty were the earliest major dynasty in Kanem, not relative newcomers who seized it from the Bulala. What appears to have happened here is a Kanem informant, of Magumi origins, told the version of the ruling clan's history as understood in early 20th century Kanem to the French visitors. Somewhere along the line, the chronology was distorted so that the Sayfawa reconquest of Kanem in the 1500s was pushed further back in time to match the earlier history of Birni Njimi and the dynasty's Kanem phase. However, the Tilho Mission is in agreement with Barth and others about the generally highly important reign of Ali Ghaji and his role in restoring the dynasty's fortunes in late 15th century Borno. This suggests that they may have not been careful enough when interviewing informants and collecting data, so their chronology is suspect. Perhaps the timeline for the genealogies of the khalifas of Kanem (descendants of Dala Afuno, who was either a Magumi raised in Hausaland or a slave of the Sayfawa dynasty appointed by the latter) is also suspect. If, indeed, the Tunjur were selected to oversee Kanem for the Sayfawa rulers based in Birni Gazargamo after defeating the Bulala, we cannot easily determine exactly when they were replaced by Dala Afuno. We also know that Idris Alooma had placed a Bulala vassal sultan in power in Kanem, so we still need to uncover when the Bulala sultans were finally disposed of by Borno. Much of what transpired in Kanem under the Bulala and Tunjur.

The oral traditions of the Buduma, Kanembu, Kanuri, and other groups claiming descent from the Sao also complicate any simple-minded assumptions of ethnic identity or ethnogenesis. The oral traditions of the Buduma or Yedina, by the early 20th century, linked them to a Bulu and common ancestry with the Kanembu. Since Bulu was one of the early kings remembered in the Diwan, these oral traditions suggest deep relations with the Kanembu east and within Lake Chad. Despite the ancestors of the Buduma appearing in Ibn Said' work as the Kuri infidels raided by the rulers of Kanem in the 13th century, they were and are closely related to the Kanembu and intermarriage between the two even led to the formation of new populations of Buduma, Kanembu, and Tubu origins. In addition, oral traditions of Ali Ghaji also refer to his conflicts with the Tuareg before he established Gazargamo as the capital. Traditions of this conflict appear to have been remembered and later recorded in the Agadez Chronicles, which suggest the Sayfawa rulers did conquer or at least raid the Tuareg in the area north of Borno in the 1400s. While one should doubt that the new capital was pointed out to Ali by the Tuareg, it points to the role of both northern and southern conquests and trade in the expansion of Sayfawa rule in Borno. Indeed, some of the traditions suggest merchandise and trade was one way in which the Toubbas won the favor of the autochthonous Sao, later seizing the territory through ruse and war.

Besides close ties with groups such as the Buduma, various descendants of the Sao, and even the Tuareg, the Sayfawa and related Kanembu, Kanuri, Koyam and Kanuriphone populations suggest a complex process of ethnogenesis. The Koyam, supposedly Kanembu pastoralists associated with Islamic education and piety, were also related to the Sayfawa. Various clan names that appear among the Tubu, Kanembu, Kanuri, and Koyam also point to a deep antiquity of relations and likely migratory waves that traversed Kanem, Lake Chad, and Borno. Some of these traditions claiming deeper antiquity could also be of relatively recent origin, perhaps invented traditions that spread with the growth of Sayfawa power across the region. In that regard, it is interesting that the Buduma, who were mostly independent due to their mobility and piracy on Lake Chad, would claim common ancestry with the Kanembu. Perhaps that was due to largely peaceful relations with them and the absorption of Kanembu populations? With Borno, on the other hand, the Buduma were usually independent and carried out frequent raids for booty and captives. Yet in the early 20th century, the Buduma were culturally similar to the Kanembu but less thoroughly Muslim. As for the Tomageras, Kayi, Magumi, Sugurtis, Koyam, and other widely dispersed groups claiming common origins or clan names, they might be a testament to the strategic matrimonial alliances of the millennial Sayfawa, whose marriages with women from these aforementioned groups helped secure allies across a vast area of the Central Sudan.

Despite the problematic chronology and uneven collection of oral traditions, the Tilho Mission bequeathed to posterity an amazing source. Some of the traditions may be "false" or misleading or perhaps misinterpreted, but they add rich narrative and cultural nuance. For instance, the story of Mai Ali telling the Koyam shaykh that his own followers would not die for him helps explain why he was defeated by Mandara in the 1780s. Perhaps, by then, the Sayfawa mais were no longer able to command loyalty from the military and were already losing legitimacy. Certainly, the inability of the Sayfawa mais to protect and defend the western and northwestern frontiers of the empire would have compromised the willingness of soldiers and vassals to obey. The traditions likewise report personal details that may have played a role in the final demise of the Sayfawa. For example, the attempt in 1846 to remove Shehu Umar with the help of Wadai allegedly failed, in part, because the puppet mai's daughter revealed the details of the plot to her lover, a relative of Umar. The historical narrative here also sheds a more cynical light on Shehu al-Kanemi and his son, portraying the former as ambitious and usurping and the latter as corrupt and too close to his vizier. These details need corroboration, naturally, but unveil more of the personal dynamics of the key personages.