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.

Contribution à l'histoire des populations de Sud-Est nigérien: le cas du Mangari (XVIe-XIXe s.)

Maikorema Zakari's important book builds on Landeroin and colonial-era scholarship as well as general histories of Borno in an endeavor to trace the history of northern and northwestern provinces of imperial Borno. Today part of southeastern Niger (Kazal, Mangari, Kutus, Munio) and peopled by Kanuriphone groups of diverse origins (Manga, Dagra, and others) as well as nomadic groups like the Koyam, Sougourti, and Tomagheras, these regions of the Bornoan Empire have probably been underpopulated and politically decentralized for most of their history, particularly due to the expansion of the desert, the lower levels of rainfall and nomadic incursions, especially by the Tuareg. Nonetheless, some of the area's residents like the Koyam, Sougourti, and Tomaghera, have strong links to early Kanem (through various queen mothers) and very well, despite some practicing a nomadic lifestyle, could have been present in Borno by the 1300s. The site of Garoumele as one of the possible Sayfawa capitals before Birni Gazargamo might be suggestive of the area's past importance for the ruling house of Borno.

Since northern Borno was perhaps one of the first areas incorporated into an expanding Kanem state by the 1200s, and probably one of the early bases of the Sayfawa dynasty after their flight to Borno in the 1380s, Zakari begins the story there. Unfortunately, besides some oral traditions and the general centuries-long migrations of Kanembu and other peoples from the eastern shores of Lake Chad, Zakari does not have too much to work with to piece together the ancient past of southeastern Niger. Relying on general histories and analyses of Kanem-Borno, particularly Lange, Palmer, Zeltner, Brenner, and a few other scholars, plus archaeological and oral history insights, the rest of the book focuses on the period from around 1500 to the fall of Rabih. The resurgence of Sayfawa power by the late 1400s under Ali Ghaji and the powerful mais of the 1500s established Borno as the dominant power in the Central Sudan, and the historical trends of the center of the empire help somewhat with Zakari's endeavor to make sense of the local history. Unfortunately, much of the oral traditions collected at various sites is not particularly useful for events before the 19th century and memories of the various local dynasties are often unclear on collateral succession and chronology. Nonetheless, Zakari's study is an important work for local histories or sub-regional histories of Borno, aiding the reader in piecing together how Borno's territorial expansion has marked areas outside the core.

Under the rule of various local chiefs or dynasties with little authority beyond their own village, the area, which should have been protected by the central authority of Borno to defend it from the Tuareg, was, as Zakari's study suggests, deliberately kept that way by the Sayfawa and al-Kanemi dynasties to better rule or tax its inhabitants. Indeed, the rulers of Borno appear to have appointed local lawan or village chiefs by receiving gifts from prospective candidates, who then taxed the population while not effectively protecting the inhabitants. This contexts helps explain why the emergence of a strong local authority to defend the populace from Tuareg or Tubu raiders never developed, and why the emergence of Zinder as a strong kingdom in the 19th century presented another threat from the west. This may also explain why the Sufi or mystical Islamic settlement of Kalumbardo was under incessant threats from the Tuareg and Tubu in the 17th century. Indeed, besides the Shehus of the Koyam and the 19th century Islamic presence under Koso of Munio, one does not find strong evidence of widespread Islamic practices or beliefs beyond a superficial level. Nor does one have a clear idea on the antiquity of salt and natron production in Mangari but one would think it was also important in pre-19th century eras. So, archaeologists and historians have a lot of work to do to help us understand the process of Kanurization and regional studies of Borno's imperial phase.