1000 Years Around Lake Chad
Focusing on Kanem, Borno, Lake Chad, Sahel, and West Africa from a historical perspective
10/11/24
"Mali" Ancestry
10/10/24
North-Central Nigeria...
10/2/24
The Lāmīb̳e of Fombina : a political history of Adamawa, 1809-1901
9/27/24
Damagaram
Due to the founder of Damagaram's ruling dynasty's links to the 17th century Islamic settlement of Kalumbardo, the history of this state is yet another interesting product of that famous community of mystics. It is also worthy of study since it went from being a peripheral vassal state of Borno to becoming one of the major powers and trading centers of the Central Sudan in the 19th century. Salifou's history, Le Damagaram ou Sultanat de Zinder au XIXe siècle, endeavors to provide a complete history of this vital century. Relying on colonial-era documents like the Tilho Mission, translated Arabic chronicles or local texts, and oral sources from informants in the region today, he largely succeeds in providing a synthetic overview of the area's rise and fall with attention paid to economic, social, political, military, and cultural factors.
According to Salifou, Damagaram's Maalaam, or Malam, the founder of the ruling dynasty, did not establish a kingdom as such in the late 17th century. Instead, after fleeing the destruction of Kalumbardo (and supposedly said to be the son of a Sayfawa princess in one source), he established himself in the region of Damagaram. He and his sons for the next several generations, ruled villages but not as a united kingdom. That development appears to have only occurred by the 19th century, when Damagaram began to become a major player. The apogee was achieved under Tanimun, who continued the kingdom's expansion, improved the administrative and military capacity of the state (using slave officials and manufacturing and importing firearms and cannons) and increasingly acted autonomously of Borno. Indeed, this reversal of relations between the tributary state of Damagaram and Borno under Shehu Umar is clear due to Damagaram's central role as a trans-Saharan trade center through which Borno received northern imports. Damagaram, however, continued to pay a costly tribute to the Shehus of Borno, but were able to act autonomously and absorb their neighbors.
Overall, Salifou's short history of 19th century Damagaram provides an overview of this complex region during an era of great change in the Central Sudan (the impact of the jihad of Uthman dan Fodio, the decline of Borno, and European colonialism). Damagaram's rapid rise at this late date is undoubtedly due to this dynamic. It soon became a regional player whose military power was so feared that even Borno cancelled a campaign against it. Damagaram was also able to stabilize relations with the Tuareg, establish sharia law, produce firearms and cannons (albeit less effective than the imports), and profit from dynamic commercial links with slaves, salt, natron, textiles, and ostrich feathers as major commodities. To Salifou's credit, he acknowledged the central role of slavery and the slave trade in all of this, although the negative impact of this trade on leading to a state of constant war and aggression (plus the negative impact of Arab or North African financiers and traders who wanted slaves for northern markets) is perhaps not fully elucidated. Furthermore, given the limited sources for Damagaram, especially for developments before the 19th century, it might be beneficial to consider writing a general history of Kutus, Damergu, Damagaram, Minaw and nearby areas from the 17th to 19th centuries. Perhaps this greater regional context would provide readers a greater sense of Borno's long-term interests in this area and how, once Borno's decline began, smaller polities like Damagaram could rise to local and regional significance.
9/8/24
Talaka and Talakawa
8/22/24
Research Guidelines
Reading some of the research guidelines for projects in the 1980s on the history of Quranic education in Borno and the biographies of the ulama of the Central Sudan since the 15th century was an interesting experience. Although the projects seem to have never took off, the short publications tied to the Centre for Trans-Saharan Studies at the University of Maiduguri contain a number of interesting ideas, bibliographies and a rough plan for how to conduct these vast research projects. Alas, with the exception of a tabaqat of Borno ulama in Bobboyi's dissertation, The 'Ulama of Borno: A study of the relations between scholars and state under the Sayfawa, 1470-1808" and the project edited by Hunwick and others on Arabic literature in the Central Sudan, we are still in the dark about these rich topics.
8/21/24
On the Zagwe Dynasty
Marie-Laure Derat's L’énigme d’une dynastie sainte et usurpatrice dans le royaume chrétien d’Ethiopie, XIe-XIIIe siècle is an intriguing and challenging work. The lack of adequate documentation for most of the rulers of the Zagwe dynasty and the problematic reliance on oral traditions, hagiographies and historiography based on the Solomonic legend of the subsequent dynasty makes it rather difficult to establish with greater clarity what was the Zagwe dynasty. However, using the available Arabic sources (particularly Copts writing the history of the Patriarchate of Alexandria), later hagiographies, archaeological evidence, and inscriptions, land grants and kings lists, Derat proposes some new interpretations while raising more questions. Derat does this while endeavoring to understand the paradox of how the Zagwe rulers were seen as both usurpers yet holy.
For example, the assumption of an Agaw or Cushitic origin of the Zagwe dynasty is far from clear. Further, the oral traditions compiled by Conti Rossini are contradictory and difficult to make sense of. Instead of assuming a Cushitic or Agaw origin, Derat proposes a model in which the Zagwe rulers emerged from a long-lasting second wave of Christianization that occured in the late Aksumite and post-Aksumite period in eastern Tigray. Archaeological evidence indicates there an area of ongoing church construction and thriving Christian communities, perhaps leading to a reunified Ethiopian Christian kingdom that reestablished contact with the Patriarchate in Egypt. Derat even suggests that the famous rock-hewn churches at the site associated with the most illustrious Zagwe ruler, Lalibela, were not built because of Muslims prohibiting Ethiopians from making the pilgrimage there. Indeed, the Zagwe appear to have contributed to the Christianization of an already used space, building marvels that were associated with rulers like Lalibela. Their donations to churches and ecclesiastical groups similarly exemplify their efforts to reinforce their rule as patrons of the Church and monasteries.
Unfortunately, since it is so difficult to disentangle the problematic sources written during the Solomonic era and shed light on the Zagwe dynasty from sources written during their dynasty. The genealogy of rulers is uncertain, the hagiographies were written after their fall and promote the idea of the holiness of some as saints while also accepting the Solomonic legend of the legitimate dynasty which took over in 1270. Nonetheless, it does seem like the standard narrative on the Zagwe dynasty in Ethiopian historiography is in need of substantial change. Portraying them as "Cushitic" or Agaw usurpers against "legitimate" Semitic Solomonic rulers or implying that the former practiced matrilineal succession based on the contradictory sources available indicate this problem quite well. All one can say is that the Zagwe rulers such as Lalibela and Yemrehanna Krestos achieved sainthood while modeling an idealized kingship, one which was later adopted by Zara Yaq'ob and subsequent Solomonic rulers. This paradox of usurpers and holy rulers may reflect that long process of Christianization in other regions of the kingdom which, influenced by the traditions of the Kebra Negast and apocalyptic literature from Coptic and Syriac sources, later emerged the Solomonic dynasty as heirs to Aksum.