The Kanema and the Mai

 Another thing we have also been thinking about whilst revisiting the Diwan is the kanema Muhammad b. Abd Allah. According to Lange's chronology, this kanema killed a Sayfawa mai named Ghadji in c. 1454. Although Lange, in a footnote, referenced Barth raising the possibility of the kanema here being a reference to a Bulala sultan in Kanem, that seems less likely. Even Palmer, in Bornu Sahara and Sudan, believed the Kanem-ma was the Bulala sultan. After all, the author(s) of the Diwan had already recognized a Bulala ruler as king in the entry on Dawud b. Ibrahim. Later sections for references to the Bulala sultans of the 1500s sometimes name them as such. Consequently, we wonder if kanema was actually an old Sayfawa court title which disappeared by the time the dynasty ended. 

Fortunately, a possible clue, though weak, can be found in Hagenbucher's article on the Bulala in Fitri. According to Hagenbucher, one of the titles given to the sister of a sultan (the equivalent of the tata mairambe in Borno) was kanama. Indeed, one kanama was tied to the lineage of the Bulala sultan (the Lafiawa) whilst another kanama was the head of the Wadawa and also the son of a sultan's sister. Given the strong influence of the Sayfawa court on what the Bulala sultans organized in Kanem and Fitri, we wonder if the kanema who killed Ghadji with his sword was actually a dignitary of the Sayfawa court. Perhaps he was the son of a sister of Ghadji or one of his predecessors. 

Indeed, the kanema being a Sayfawa dignitary participating in the conflicts between the descendants of Dawud and Idris in this period fits with the context of this era until Ali b. Dunama's rise to the throne. We just need to find out more about the kanama among the Bulala and the chances of it being yet another Sayfawa-derived office the Bulala sultans added to their own courts.