The Song Sung to Kaigama Anterashi, Son of Lima

Palmer's Bornu Sahara and Sudan included the Kanuri praise songs earlier published with translations by J.R. Patterson.

As for "The Song Sung to Kaigama Anterashi, Son of Lima," it too is attributed to the time period of Ali b. Umar in the 17th century. This is difficult to confirm, although J.R. Patterson's introduction confirms it (and his translation pasted below of the song). However, when checking other sources from the reign of this significant mai of Borno, the only kaigama we found was named Ya'gha. Of course, this is from a mahram Palmer dated to 1647, so there may have been another kaigama before or after this date. Still, it is clear that the title was occupied people slaves by this time. However, as a "chief slave" of the mai and supreme military commander of Borno, these were very powerful men. 

Most of the song reiterates this strength, power, and military leadership of the kaigama in various ways. First, he is associated with the morning star, spears, the personality of a Sultan, and greater than all prosperous men. While the song reminds us that he serves the Sultan, he enjoys a number of privileges due to his importance position in Borno as the highest military authority. Unsurprisingly, Ali Eisami confirmed this since the regiment of the kaigama consisted of at least 1000 horsemen. Nachtigal likewise emphasized the slave origins of the titleholders (although not always the case in the annals of Kanem and Borno). His ability to feed troops, owning land or having tribute rights on dispersed lands, the influence in the south (Mandara and the Kotoko areas) and his even gifting slaves to praise singers suggest someone of immense wealth and power. This may explain the enigmatic allusion to witchcraft, since the power of the kaigama may have been aided by the use of charms and occult knowledge. Anterashi was also influential in Borno's southern frontier, with the mention of the Shari River and a few other place names pointing in that direction.

What is striking about this song, supposedly for someone who lived in the 17th century, is the praise song's vociferous praise of power officials with military and administrative powers that made more powerful than most free people. To be a slave with much power and owned by the most powerful person meant that, despite his enslavement, he was still one of the most powerful figures in Borno. One can imagine titled officials with family ties to the Sayfawa or origins in the royal dynasty might have resented this, which appears to be captured in a praise song to a yerima of noble lineage. 

Kaigama Anterashi

He is the Star of the morning

Chief slave, the rallying point of the spearmen

The hub of war

His town Chirami, his personality that of a Sultan

Morning and evening he is in the midst of the noise (of war)

A chieftain, the glowing embers of the Sultan’s Council

(His friendship) a death-trap; his friend short-lived

If a hawk snatches up a chicken

Following its tracks devolves on the Kaigama

Holder of the principal of the (Sultan’s) offices

Less than the Sultan, certainly, but greater than all the prosperous men

If the chief slave wages war, he does not do so in vain

If he does not engage in war, his idleness is not useless

Chief slave, if I say to you “Slave”

I mean the slave of the Sultan

Chief slave, if I say to you “Bush-cow”

You are a (Man with the heart of) a bush-cow among men

Chief slave, (if I say) your town is Ngumfane,

I mean that you are the forehead of all the slaves

Chief slave, patience is your attribute

Your patience like that of a dromedary

Chief slave, in your hand is a large-headed spear

Chief slave, you practice witchcraft

But its source is in the palm of your hand

Chief slave, my mastery, war is your hobby

Your play, play with a shining spear

You owner of the town of Zarara

Your attributes those of a Sultan

You and a Sultan do not eat from one calabash

Neither do you eat what a Sultan leaves

Sun (of greatness), seat (of power)

Embers of the Sultan’s assembly

If the Sultan counts as ten large kola-nuts

The Kaigama counts as twenty halves

If he and the Sultan are sitting together and their horses are fighting

He will not catch the Sultan’s horse

Nor will the Sultan catch his

Some other mann will catch them

These are the (privileges of) a chief slave

You are the father of all the minor chiefs

And the older brother of all the great chiefs

Chief slave, owner of the town of Ala and of Alari

Who lives between the Rivers Shari and Sharwa

Chief slave, Commander of Bornu’s army

Should the Sultan come out of an old woman’s dilapidated hut even,

After him will come the holder of the office of Kaigama

Should (the link in) the office of Kaigama break,

the Fuguma will join it up anew

Fuguma of the games that never cease

His play not like that of the women, nor of boys

They are games played with a polished spear

You (Fuguma) have lit the fires of war, and are feeling their heat

Other men look on at you from behind a screen

You (Kaigama) Chief slave, owner of the town of Fefelo and of Kafe Fello

Provide a thousand calabashes of food for your followers

The Ngijima, Babuma and Zakkama

All three have sung their song

For the success of the holder of the office of Kaigama

For the success of Anterashi, son of Lima

And he has given them seventy slaves.

The Song of the Zakkama to the Sultan of Bornu

The Song of the Zakkama to the Sultan of Bornu is the last praise song in J.R. Patterson's Kanuri Songs (1926). Meant for the sultan, Aman Alimi, or Ahmad b. Ali, the praise song provides a window to view the Late Sayfawa Period court on the eve of the fall of Gazargamo in 1808. Ahmad Ali, who reigned from 1792-1808 in Lange's chronology, was remembered in the Diwan for supporting the poor and scholars. Since his father reigned for so long (1747-1792), it is possible he was also quite old by the time took the throne. Either way, like his father, he was a devout man identified as a savant in a time of generally good conditions. However, Ali Eisami's testimony does suggest a famine occurred in c.1792, which is unsurprisingly not mentioned in the praise song. 

Nonetheless, the praise song remembered for him follows the same conventions of the genre, and stresses his genealogy. Indeed, Ali b. Umar of the 17th century appears to be mentioned along with other illustrious ancestors in the Sayfawa dynasty. Of course, as one would expect, some of the praise is unrealistic or merely symbolic, like the assertion of Borno's rule over Mali (Melle), which surely must only mean the Fulani in Borno (whose ancestors came from the west centuries earlier). Praising the mai as the "scourge of pagan towns" or "firm like a fixed rock" point to military leadership, determination and other attributes of kingship. Like past praise songs, one notes a pattern of attributing fertile land and harvests to the leadership of the mai. However, as recorded in the Diwan, Ahmad b. Ali was also generous and seen as a "ruler of Islam." This suggests that some of the sources of authority and power for the Sayfawa rulers was indeed their status as Islamic savants, supporters of Islamic scholarship, and promoting the religion. 

Of course, we know all was not good in Borno. During Ahmad b. Ali's reign, Wadai attacked Kanem. In addition, the appearance of a poem (in Palmer's Bornu Sahara and Sudan) expressing anti-Fulani sentiment may be a hint of tensions between Fulani communities and others in Borno. What were once at least cordial relations with some Fulani in Borno (evidence from a mahram reconfirmed during the reign of Dunama b. Ali in the early 18th century) appears to have declined by the late 1700s. One might even detect the assertion of Sayfawa rule in this praise song over the Fulani as a reflection of this atmosphere of hostility. This led to, by c.1807, open conflict between some Fulani in Borno with the galadima, followed up by the later attacks on Birni Gazargamo. Only with the intervention of al-Kanemi, a celebrated mallam, were the Sayfawa able to retake their ancient capital. Of course, by the end of his reign, Ahmad b. Ali was old and supposedly blind, according to Brenner's study of the al-Kanemi dynasty. Thus, he was unable to provide the type of leadership necessary to defeat the jihadist forces. 

To see you is to see the world filled with light

And to attain one’s desire 

You are the chief of the chosen Arabs, fair of skin

And you the chief of the light skinned Debaba Arabs

West, Melle, the land of the Fellata is yours

And yours Aliarge

Your slaves were in battle order, and all armed; you came and entered their ranks

Your kingship is on a pinnacle as high as that of any of your ancestors

You are the strength of Bornu

You are the scourge of the pagan towns

Ruler of Islam

To-day you are the prop of the world

Yours the town of Makibirrum honey-sweet

To-day you have become as honey to all the princes

Your town Makibirrum, and you the son of Gumsu who wore a turban

Fadallam’s son

Son of the owner of the town of Ngalji the less, and Ngalji the greater, (Ngalji) Buro

You call the owner of Bidi, with its thousand roads, your elder sister

You have sat, have grown up, were born (with your brothers)

But you have excelled them all 

By the length of a train of a hundred camels 

Yours the town of Kakere Karowa

A woman, your mother, has a sieve made of gold

You are the chief even of her who owns the ‘Sokkutu’ head dress and the sieve

A sieve of gold

You give a tithe of gold for the fast month

And alms of a fine horse

Of your chiefs and of your juniors

To-day you are the (protecting) shade

What men call your kingship,

Is like the bite of a caterpillar and like black anger

That is kingship

(Habits) like (those of) a mason wasp, that is kingship

Which makes the children of others its own, that is kingship

(Habits of) an old goat which frightens away the young of others, that is kingship

(The fleetness of) a huntsman’s stick,

(the lightness of) a broken calabash,

that is kingship

To be firm as the fixed rock, 

that is kingship

(If you prepare for war) When the

rainy season comes, (your advisers say) there are tornadoes

(If) when the hot season comes, (they say) the sun is hot

(If) in the winter, (they say) there is cold

Make your own plans as your father used to make his,

Leave others’ plans and they will follow yours

(For) you are like a carrier’s pad made of the male ‘kamga’ bush.

Which, if a man takes on his head, wears his head away

If he moves it to his shoulder it wears his shoulder away

If you leave it on the ground, you leave what the Sultan has put in your care

East, the land of the Beni Hassen is yours

West, the Beni Mala Feram pool,

The watering-place of one thousand cattle

Yours Makabiroma, Mai Haji of Mecca Damaram

Sultan Haji of Mecca,

Has every attribute of kingship

Kaigama Ali whose mother was Rashi and father Idirisa,

Has all his father’s attributes

Mohammadu owner of Lergam town, and whose mother was Mune, and his father Aji,

Has all his father’s attributes

The head of Ngala City, Kadabu the lion, son of Duna Haman,

Has all his father’s attributes

Fusam, daughter of Umar, whose towns are Bantigu and Tarmuswa

Has all the attributes of power

Mai Ibrahim son of Aman, son of Aman the son of Saifu

Has all his father’s, Aman Saifumi’s, attributes

You whose town is Lergam, whose mother was Mune, Mai Mohammadu,

whose father was Haji

Mai Haji of Mecca Damaram, whose mother was Fanna

You have attained to the topmost heights of power

You son of Gumsu, Gumsu Amina daughter of Talba, you Ibrahim,

Have attained to your father’s place among the great

(During your reign) One rainy season gives seven harvests

A he-goat gives milk and oxen give milk

Because of his kingly power set forth to war (you men of his)

Because of his good luck, set forth to war

You, son of Haji, who are the owner of Ngeleru, whose mother was Gumsu

Gumsu Amina, Talba’s daughter

You have attained to the greatness of your father Arri son of Umar

And Amadu was Arri’s son

You have attained to your father’s greatness

And Ibrahim was Amadu’s son

You have attained to your father’s greatness

Son of Dalatu, Mari Arri of Minarge town

You have every attribute of power

To the East we look to worship, pray, give alms and sit in congregation,

To-day you hold it with a rod of gold

The West, the world’s back, 

You hold with a rod of gold

The North, the world’s foot, 

You hold with a rod of gold

The South, the world’s head,

To-day you hold with a rod of gold

May God (put a future) full of health before you

May God (leave a memory) of happiness behind you

Reign in health, the health of Fusam

Long life, good fortune, perfect health be yours

Reign amidst happiness.

Yerima Mohammadu

With a song composed in honor of a yerima named Mohammadu, J.R. Patterson suggested it dated to the reign of Ali b. Umar. A major mai of 17th century Borno reigning from c.1639-1677, various sources attest to conflict with the Tuareg of Air at this time. For instance, the enslaved French doctor in Tripoli, who wrote extensively about Borno, mentioned conflict between the powerful kingdom and Air. Additional sources, including works translated as the Chronicles of Agadez by Yves Urvoy allude to this conflict. Written sources from Borno, including an Account of Gazargamo dated to 1658 by Palmer in his Bornu Sahara and Sudan, similarly mention one of the conflicts with the Tuareg of Air. Sadly, none of these sources agree on the name of the Air sultan and of the names suggested (Ali, in this praise song, Ada Hamma in the Account of Gazargamo), none are supported by Air internal sources. 

In fact, the Account attributes the conversion of the Air ruler to Islam to his capture by the forces of Borno, something contradicted by a plethora of sources referencing the Islamic "Istambulawa" dynasty ruling at Agades since the earliest time. For the time period during Ali b. Umar of Borno's reign, Air was ruled by the following sultans, according to Djibo Hamani: Muhammad al-Tafrij, succeeded by his brother, Muhammad al-Mubarek. Thus, we believe it likely that some of the names attributed to Air "sultans" in the Borno sources may refer to Tuareg leaders of clans who autonomously raided Borno's northwestern frontier in the 1600s (and continued to do so into the 1700s and 1800s). This seems plausible given the paltry number of horsemen who endeavored to raid the cattle of Fulan in the land of Digima, under the care of the yerima, Mohammadu. It was essentially a small raiding party, but the praise singer turns it into an epic instance of the military prowess of Mohammadu who fought the raiding Tuareg with only 7 horsemen. In other words, he heroically fulfilled his duties in protecting Borno's border. 

Ultimately, we suspect this Mohammadu probably was a yerima sometime during the second half of the reign of Ali b. Umar, and was his grandson through a daughter of his. Using evidence from a mahram dated by Palmer to 1647 in Bornu Sahara and Sudan, which named the yerima as Kaday, we suspect this Mohammadu must have served in perhaps the 1660s or 1670s. The praise song states, "But good fortune belongs to the man twenty years old." This suggests the recipient of the praise song was a young man and, if he was not yerima until after 1647, we suspect this was a youthful yerima who may have been in office after the more alarming actions of the Tuareg in the 1660s (one of which led to the capture and enslavement of a nephew of Ali b. Umar in the Mediterranean after the Air Tuareg were invited by princes fighting for the throne of Borno to help their cause against the mai). It seems unfathomable that the Sayfawa mai would have appointed a young man in his 20s as the yerima during such troubled times. 

Either way, he would have been well-connected in Gazargamo, as his mother was the daughter of Ali b. Umar. According to Maikorema Zakari, the yerima usually lived in Gazargamo himself, while Nachtigal emphasized he was (always?) the son of a princess. Furthermore, Ali Eisami, whose testimony for pre-jihad Borno requires attention, described the yerima as capable of fielding 1000 cavalry forces. Based in the capital, a grandson of the mai and perhaps among the more loyal relatives of Ali b. Umar than his the sultan's brothers, Mohammadu may have been a large supporter to the state in the waning days of Ali b. Umar's reign.

Here is the "Song to Yerima Mohammadu" translated by Patterson in Kanuri Songs:

Son of Doguma Lafiya

Who was like a mudu of kanya fruit which was better than a sa of dates

Lafiya, precious as choicest food, (you Yerima) are the son of Sultan Ali’s daughter

Your land Air is fruitful, full of jujube trees, has rivers full of fish in which to bathe

Guzun is your town in which “darra” is played, it is mosquito-ridden

Yerima is our chief

The holder of the office of Yerima

(compared with) a he-goat is bright red,

(Compared with) a she-goat is light brown as men of the Kingena tribe

Three (sections of the) N’gal tribe and thirty (sections of the) Ngalaga are yours

The Yerima is like a prancing horse whose legs are not hobbled

Like a camel which wanders where it will without a halter.

He is but the grandson of a Sultan, but he is greater than a prince,

Yerima Mohammadu, son of Doguma:

Let me sing his praises and do you give heed.

My song (will fit him) as a gown made with a neck-band,

As trousers made with a slot for a string round the waist.

If you doubt it, ask the Ngijima, Babuma and Zakkama 

who are the three people whose news is trustworthy.

White hairs are dignified,

But good fortune belongs to the man twenty years old.

The fair women of the capital are Asma, daughter of Rugaya,

Kagudi, daughter of Jamall,

Zahra, daughter of Ali the leather worker:

(The women said) ‘Kelima, playful fellow, we do not see the truth of what you say’

He said, ‘Is what I said a piece of reading?’

Playfulness it is that makes the world forgetful of trouble

To rouse the men we said it

There is a prince of Kanem, a son of Fanna

And a prince son of Mune, and whose town is Chungul

And one whose land is Gajiga, who is a son of Gombo

And the prince who is greater than all others

And the prince whose town is Titiswa, and whose father was Gwali

And the fair-skinned prince whose land is Ngamma

And the prince whose land is Danna

You are grandson of a Sultan but greater than a son of a Sultan

Prince Yerima son of Doguma

Kelima Mele son of Hawa (says to you),

Prince Yerima, did you hear what took place last night?

The Angel of Death with his followers,

Seventy horsemen all men of Sultan Ali whose country is Air

Came to take away the cattle of the Fellata of the land of Digima who are your special care

“What is your plan my six horsemen?” (the Yerima said)

There is Kagel, Mele’s son

Mohammadu son of Askura

Adam whose “furra” (?) consists of weapons

Bukr who never fights a fight in vain

Mohammadu whose pleasure is to hear of deaths in battle

With Mohammadu son of Forto there are six, I myself make seven

We shall conquer them

(The Yerima’s) singer is the Kelima

A prince with a Sultan in his pocket

You are a greater man than Iyrima Daudu or Maidalla Hawami

Or than Gadamanga

We have received what we sought

May God preserve you.