Looking for Borno in Aïr Traditions

Whilst perusing  Documents Nigériens: Tome I, l'Aïr edited in French by Boubou Hama in the late 1960s, we came across references to Borno multiple times. Unfortunately, the corpus of oral traditions collected here are often of a very vague nature. Indeed, when recounting the history of the sultans of Agadez, informants appeared to be making composite figures of various sultans without any clear chronological precision. With these limitations, it is sadly difficult to use these traditions to better contextualize the relations between the Tuareg of Asben and Borno.

Nonetheless, some of the traditions do affirm a period of Bornoan hegemony of Aïr. For instance, one elder reputed to be over 100 years old, reported that that the people of the region had to pay tribute to the people of Borno annually. Part of this tribute consisted of animals (cattle?), slaves, and sometimes nobles. Since the tribute was too onerous, the Abzinawa decided not to pay it any longer. When Borno's representative came to collect it, the people of Aïr refused. The sultan of Borno, not named, prepared to go to war and came to Aïr with his army. But, the Tuareg had fled to the mountainous caves of Bagzam and withstood the besieging forces of Borno. Through a ruse conceived by a man named Hamed Yahya, the eldest, the Tuareg sent out an old camel stuffed with grains, dates, and water. When the Bornoan forces killed and opened the entrails of the camel, they found it full of provisions. This led the Bornoans to assume the Tuareg had sufficient food and water in their mountainous caves to continue to avoid engaging the king of Borno. Deciding to leave Asben, the Bornoan troops lifted their siege and returned to Koukaoua (Kukawa). Obviously, the reference to Kukawa is an anachronism here since this event is said to have taken place when Agadez was a small village or recently founded. This campaign is probably the ill-fated Bornoan expedition to Asben mentioned in the Kano Chronicle, taking place in the 1400s. 

Another informant cited in the study also referred to the same conflict with Borno. According to an elder named Ousmane ben Elhadj Kemel, the Bornoans collected an annual tribute from the Tuareg of Aïr consisting of a beautiful young girl. The Bornoan envoy was called Aganga (a Kanuri or Bornoan form of this word is not known to us) and was refused the tribute one year. According to tradition, the girl who was supposed to be given in tribute had a brother who refused to accept it. What is distinct about this version of events is that the girl's brother actually killed the Aganga, triggering an invasion from Borno. In addition, this tradition of the conflict mentions 3 camels whose stomachs were filled with ample food, giving the impression to the Bornoan troops waiting out the Tuareg hiding in the caves of Bagzan that their enemies had ample resources. Meanwhile, the Bornoan troops were running out of water and supplies, forced to abandon Aïr soon after. Another distinguishing trait of this tradition is that the Istanbul legend starts here, with the Tuareg sending their dignitaries to find a sultan in Istanbul during the time Borno's sultan was in the region. 

Other references to Borno or areas once affiliated with Borno are more arduous to connect with other sources. For example, one tradition based on information from Mohamed ben Agueb refers to Younoussou and Mohamed Ben Younoussou. The latter is mentioned for having attacking Gobir and forcing its ruler to flee their capital. In 578, a year equivalent to our 1182-3. But the context of this attack on Gobir and the conflict in Bilma are more suggestive of the 1700s. The reference to Fachi and Mohamed Younoussou appointing Ibrahim ben Ahmed as chief of Bilma seem to refer to the period of conflict over Kawar in the mid-1700s. 

Later on, Mohamed ben Younoussou defeated Gobir and went to war with Borno, occupying a Bornoan fortress built on a high hill. This campaign was advised by the Agadez sultan's vizir, Abdallahi ben Youssouf, who actually wantedt o weaken the Tuareg. Thus, the troops sent by Agadez to attack Borno found themselves completedly encercled by Bornoan warriors, who trapped the Tuareg on the hill. Eventually, Mohamed ben Younoussou was able to escape and reached Haedja, where he fought with a Bornoan leader named Ibrahim. It is possible this Ibrahim was a galadima of Borno sometime in the mid-1700s. By the end of the conflict, the Tuareg were defeated in 608 and force dto flee to Agadez where the Bornoans followed the Tuareg to Talmari, where they were defeated by the Acharifane. Upon his return to Agadez, Mohamed Elbaki was appointed as heir. 

The best we could do for trying to situate the above tale with the known history of Agadez-Borno wars is to suggest the campaign in which the Agadez sultan penetrated deep into Borno and was forced to flee happened during an attack on Gaskerou or Kawar in the middle decades of the 1700s. According to Landeroin, Bornoan forces did attack and pursue the Tuareg in that raid, before ultimaetly fleeing back to Borno.  In Koyam tradition, the place where the pursuing Bornoan army was defeated was not Talmari, although it is possible the Tuareg and Koyam traditions remember the place differently. 

The same source also included Borno or the Beriberi as enemies of Agadez during the reign of Sultan Mohamed "El Fadel," who reigned after the aforementioned Mohamed ben Younoussou. Apparently, the Beriberi and "Baghoussow" had crossed the Niger to provoke the Tuareg of Aïr on their own territory and committed massacres at Tiguida and Ingall before being vanquished by Mohamed El-Fadel. We could not be sure to what extent any Bornoan sources recall this, or if there is confusion on the part of the traditionists.

Askia Muhammad, Borno, and Dallol Maouri

Although evidence for it is likely not strong, traditions included in Landeroin's "Notice historique" in the Documents scientifiques de la Mission Tilho, 1906-1909 include a tale of Askia Muhammad of Songhay passing through Borno on the return from the hajj. Well, according to the Tarikh al-Sudan, Askia Muhammad went to Mecca in 1496, returning to Gao in 1498. Oral tradition in Dendi, however, has Askia Muhammad going on the pilgrimage at age 15. But the youthful Askia Muhammad of Dendi tradition was apparently able to kill his uncle, the Si (Tchi in Landeroin's spelling) and undertake the pilgrimage as an atonement of sorts. In the words of Landeroin, "Au cours de son voyage de retour, Maammarou aurait traversé le Bornou, dont le sultan Dounama lui aurait rendu hommage, puis passant par Shifaoua (région de Sokoto) où un chef peul lui aurait fait présent de mille bœufs, il serait enfin rentré dans son pays par Bounza, Finguila, Tounouga, Sanafina, Koulou, Kirtachi et Saÿ." 

The legend seems to associate the return of Askia Muhammad, or Maammarou with the placement of different peoples on the way to Gao. Of course, there is also no evidence for Askia Muhammad being a teenager when he undertook the pilgrimage. But is there any chance of contact between Borno and the Askia? The mai he allegedly met, Dounama, would have been Ali b. Dunama (r. 1465-1497), if the recorded dates for the Askia's pilgrimage are correct in the chronicles. Since there is evidence of Ali b. Dunama also going on the hajj and meeting al-Suyuti, it would be intriguing if the two monarchs did meet at some point. But one must wonder if the Askia would have returned via Borno, particularly if Muslims from the Western Sudan were using trans-Saharan routes to reach North Africa and Egypt. 

But, Landeroin found lingering traditions of the Sayfawa visiting the area of the Maouris, too. Their chiefs supposedly had body scars similar to those of the Manga and Mobbers of Borno. Moreover, they claim descent from a Sayfawa prince named Ari. Said to be the son of a Sayfawa mai named Kaloumbou, who ruled contemporanously with Askia Muhammad I of Gao, one is tempted to think of either Ali b. Dunama or Ali b. Idris (r. 1538-1539). But when Landeroin calculated the number of generations based on the genealogies collected from the Maouri, he believed that their origin dated back to the 17th century. If so, is it possible that the name Kaloumbou might actually be connected to Kaloumbardo, a Sufi center in Borno whose members dispersed after its destruction in 1677?

Either way, it is very difficult to take at face-value the attempt to link Askia Muhammad with Borno. But there does seem to have been some movement into the Maouri region of people with roots in Borno. Later on, those claims were perhaps refined and a fictitious link to the Sayfawa became part of the narrative. Whether or not the famous Kalumbardo had any connection to the Arewa of Dallol Maouri is still speculative at this stage.