A favorite of the seraglio of the ruler of Borno in the 1820s based on a sketch in Denham, Clapperton and Oudney. The woman bears an uncanny resemblance to the magira photographed in Palmer's Bornu Sahara and Sudan.
One of the great female rulers of Borno, Aisa Kili N’girmaramma, remains a mystery. The exact chronology of her regency, the conditions that led to her occupying the throne, and how she was able to lead military expeditions and protect a young Idris Alooma are not clear. However, they are aspects of a pivotal period in Borno’s consolidation as a major regional power. Said to have been the mother of Idris Alooma in some traditions while others others assert she was a Sayfawa ruler related to Dunama, her parentage has been tentatively identified with Dunama b. Salma of the Bulala rulers in Kanem. Using references based on Kanembu oral traditions recorded by Henri Carbou, it is possible to more confidently identify Aisa Kili as a daughter of the Bulala ruler remembered as Kalo, probably the very same Dunama b. Salma who was defeated by Idris Alooma’s grandfather, Idris b. Ali (reigned c. 1497-1519). In fact, her seizure by Borno forces may have contributed to the conflict between Idris b. Ali and the Bulala sultans that reignited during the reign of Muhammad b. Idris (c. 1519-1538). Once in Borno, however, the Bulala princess was married to Ali, the father of Idris Alooma. In spite of Ali’s death in c. 1539, Aisa Kili was able to reign in her own right and protect the interests of her adopted homeland.
Lamentably, it remains quite difficult to historicize and contextualize some of the traditions reported by Carbou. Take the Bulala king, Kalo, for instance. His mother was said to have been named Lafia.[1] The name Lafia appears as a mai named Lefia in H.R. Palmer’s Sudanese Memoirs. But, in Palmer’s sources, Lafia was the father of Jil, who was the father of Anas, who was the father of Salih.[2] Another Bulala sultan, who fought a losing war against Muhammad b. Idris, son of Idris b. Ali (r. 1497-1519), was named in the Diwan as Kaday b. Lafia.[3] Further identification of Kalo may be corroborated in Kanuri traditions of Aissa Kili bint Dunama, said to have been a daughter of the Bulala sultan Dunama b. Salma (r. c.1500-1530).[4] Assuming Idris Alooma’s mother was the daughter of Dunama b. Salma and not the other sons of Salma, who was the father of a Bulala princess remembered in Kanem as Assakele, then it is likely that Dunama b. Salma was in fact Kalo. However, traditions reported in Palmer’s Sudanese Memoirs are contradictory about Idris Alooma’s mother. According to Palmer, Aisa Kili succeeded Ali Gaji and ruled for 7 years. Ali Gaji was said to have married a daughter of the Bulala ruler, Umr. Moreover, Aisa Kili was allegedly a sister of Idris Alooma, and had lived among the Bulala.[5] Idris Alooma’s mother, named Amsa, was said to have been a daughter of Jil ibn Bikoru of the Bulala.[6] According to Lange, Dunama b. Salmama was one of the Bulala kings defeated by the Sayfawa mai, Idris b. Ali (r. c.1497-1519).[7] If so, this agrees with the chronology given by Dewiere (c.1500-1530). As for Aisa Kili, a girgam translated by Palmer listed her as a child of Dunama, and a “princess of the blood.”[8] This same girgam lists the parents of Idris Alooma as Ali and Hamsa, with no indication of Aisa Kili being the mother of Idris. As for contemporary written sources, Ahmad b. Furtu wrote that Idris Alooma was related to the Bulala by marriage or parentage.[9] The only other source asserting a Bulala origin for Idris Alooma’s mother is Muhammad Nur Alkali, who cited tradition that Idris’s mother was the sister of the Bulala sultan, Abdullahi.[10] Consequently, one is left uncertain about the Aisa Kili who was held by tradition to be the mother of Idris Alooma.
Ruins of Gambaru in Palmer's Bornu Sahara and Sudan.
Later traditions heard by Lange in the areas of Gambaru, Birni Gazargamo and other sites, add little more clarity. At the site of Mar, about 32 km southwest of Gambaru and where Aisa Kili was said to have died, Lange was told a well in the village had been constructed by the orders of Aisa Kili. In the village of Logomani, for instance, he was informed that it was founded by Aisa Kili, who was remembered in tradition as a male.[11] Intriguingly, her name has been translated as referring to her white horse, and tradition remembers her as leading military expeditions.[12] Lange also found that residents of the area of Gazargamo remembered Aisa Kili but not Idris Alooma.[13] Since Idris Alooma did indeed spend time at Gambaru and traditions remember a mother named Aisa Kili who built the site’s palace for her son, it does seem rather likely that Aisa Kili and Amsa are one and the same.
Lange, in his earlier study and translation of the Diwan, suggested Aisa Kili was perhaps the mother of Idris Alooma’s grandfather, Idris b. Ali. This interpretation is based on the idea that Aisha may have been an important figure at the time who ensured the succession of Idris b. Ali (r. 1497-1519).[14] A defense of Lange’s interpretation can be found in the second volume of Palmer’s Sudanese Memoirs, where Ali Gaji Zeinami was said to have married Amsa, a daughter of the Bulala sultan, Umr.[15] Nonetheless, Nur Alkali makes a stronger case for placing Aisa Kili’s reign to the period of Abdullahi (r. 1557-1564). For instance, the maira Aisa Keli Ngermaram's reign was remembered to have included periods of famine or drought, which correlates with the Diwan on Abd Allah’s reign.[16] Likewise, the girgam published by Palmer places the reign of Aisa right before Idris Alooma’s. But unlike Muhammad Nur Alkali’s assertions, the girgam describes Aisa Kili as a daughter of Dunama, not a sister. To make matters even more baffling, Palmer’s Bornu Sahara and Sudan seems to imply she was a daughter of a Sayfawa monarch as well as a Bulala princess.[17]
Another question one must consider is the possibility that Aisa Kili was the magira but not necessarily the biological mother of Idris Alooma. The confusion found in the oral traditions might have arose due to the memory of Idris as Amsami in remembrance of his biological mother, but later fused her with traditions of the magira, Aisa Kili, who was indeed a major figure who held the throne for perhaps as many as 7 years. This might explain some of the inconsistencies in traditions about Idris Alooma’s mother as well as some of the contradictions in the traditions about relationships between similarly named kings of the Sayfawa from the time of Ali Gaji in the 15th century to Idris Alooma in the second half of the 16th century. Kings with similar names, might have been confused with their predecessors or successors and tradition remembered Aisa as a powerful ruler in her own right, perhaps thereby making her either a successor of Ali Gaji, mother of Idris Alooma, sister of Idris Alooma and sister of Dunama and Abdallah. A praise song even turns her into a daughter of Dunama Dibalemi.[18] This remains plausible since the same traditions sometimes turn Dunama Dibalemi into the father of Ali Gaji. In other words, the most prominent rulers of the annals of the Sayfawa were remembered and sometimes anachronisms emerged as events were traced to their illustrious reigns.
In summation, Aisi Kili likely was a Bulala princess who, through a series of events and circumstances, briefly held paramount authority in Borno. Based on the Kanembu songs referring to a Bulala princess named Assakele, who was seized by Borno forces, it is likely she was the daughter of Dunama b. Salma (or Kadai). Kanembu sung tradition seems to identify Dunama b. Salma as Kalo. This very same Kalo was also said to have led the heroic resistance against the forces of Borno, presumably the campaign of Idris b. Ali (r. 1497-1519). Idris b. Ali’s son, Muhammad, subsequently led a Kanem campaign that defeated the Bulala sultan, Kadai b. Lafia, a brother of Dunama b. Salma. At some point, probably during the campaigns of Idris b. Ali or Muhammad b. Idris, Assakele was seized by a tsarma of Borno. She later became the wife of Ali b. Idris, who reigned briefly in c.1538-1539 in Borno. If she was indeed the mother or queen-mother of Idris Alooma, who came to the throne in c.1564, she was able to establish herself politically and even lead military expeditions, perhaps during the troubled period of famines and drought that preceded the coming to power of Idris Alooma. If tradition can be trusted, she even sponsored fired-brick palaces and mosques at Gambaru and may have played a key role in the cordial relations between the Bulala and Sayfawa royal houses. In fact, the Bulala sultan, Abd Allah ibn Jil, who performed the hajj with Idris Alooma in 1565, would have been a cousin of the mai.[19] While much remains unanswered about her exact connection with Idris Alooma, it appears likely she was indeed at least a magira whose leadership skills helped the Sayfawa stay afloat during the turbulent years of famine in the 1550s and early 1560s.
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[1] Henri Carbou, La region du Tchad et du Ouadai, tome 2, 47.
[2] H.R. Palmer, Sudanese Memoirs 3, 29..
[3] Lange, Diwan, 79.
[4] Remi Dewiere, Du lac Tchad à la Mecque, 379.
[5] Palmer, Sudanese Memoirs 2, 42-43.
[6] Ibid, 44.
[7] Lange, Diwan, 79.
[8] Palmer, “The Bornu Girgam,”79.
[9] Palmer, Sudanese Memoirs 1, 19.
[10] Muhammad Nur Alkali, Kanem-Borno Under the Sayfawa, 200.
[11] Lange, A Sudanic Chronicle, 132.
[12] Muhammad Nur Alkali, Kanem-Borno Under the Sayfawa, 148.
[13] Lange, A Sudanic Chronicle, 133.
[14] Lange, Diwan, 80.
[15] Palmer, Sudanese Memoirs 2, 39.
[16] Muhammad Nur Alkali, Kanem-Borno under the Sayfawa, 150.
[17] Palmer, Bornu Sahara and Sudan, 232-233.
[18] Lange, A Sudanic Chronicle, 132.
[19] Collet Hadrien, “Royal Pilgrims from Takrur According to ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazīrī (12th–16th Century),” 193.