Ahmad Baba of Timbuktu

We truly wish Mahmoud A. Zouber's Ahmad Baba de Tombouctou (1556-1627), sa vie et son oeuvre was available in English translation. Zouber's work appears to be the best general overview of one of the best-known West African Islamic scholars of the precolonial era, based on his own works, the references from his disciples and contemporaries and the established modern scholarship. Although one wishes there was a deeper analysis of more than 8 of what Zouber considers Baba's most important, representative works, he undoubtedly succeeds in portraying the life of a Timbuktu scholar whose family were a key part of the Timbuktu intellectual scene. 

And yes, to a certain extent, the hyperbole surrounding the scholastic achievements and reputation of Timbuktu compared to the rest of the Muslim World finds some justification in the respected position of Baba during his Moroccan exile. That he was able to teach prominent Moroccan scholars and be taken as an equal attests to, at least in his case, the exemplary level of Islamic instruction achieved by some at Timbuktu and probably Jenne and other cities in the Western Sudan. Certainly, Ahmad Baba's principal teachers in Timbuktu, such as Muhammad Baghayogho, would have likely been perceived as excellent scholars if they had lived in Morocco. In light of this, Zouber suggests Timbuktu's comparable standing to other centers of Islamic learning like North Africa and Egypt but carefully avoids any firm conclusion on the question. After all, it was during his period in Morocco that Baba was most prolific, perhaps attesting to the greater availability of books in Marrakech and, though we cannot prove it, a more stimulating environment for intellectual production than the declining Songhay Empire?

In addition, Zouber's study dispels some of the myths and assumptions about Baba. For instance, the assumption that he was "black" or identified as such (despite one of his students in Morocco asserting he was not "black"), although Zouber pushes a strong patriotic or "national" identity based in the region of the Western Sudan on the part of Baba against the Moroccan invasion. Moreover, though only focusing specifically on 8 of the 56 works attributed to Baba, Zouber establishes the main areas of study he specialized in: grammar, fiqh, biography, morality, theology, history, and fatwas. Clearly, the Islamic sciences occupied most of his attention and to truly understand him or the intellectual scene in Timbuktu under Songhay rule requires some comprehension of Islamic learning and the connections with Egypt, the Maghreb, and earlier Islamic literature. 

But to know that several of Baba's works survived and his education in Timbuktu might shed light on comparable methods of education and curriculum for those of us interested in Hausaland and Borno during the same period. Perhaps, to a certain extent, Ahmad Baba's "Sudanese" upbringing and education can tell us something about Muslim writers from the same era in other parts of West, possibly revealing some of their shared concerns (like questions from Touat and North Africans about emerging discourses of "racialized" West Africans and the widespread illegal enslavement of Muslim West Africans). Perhaps, though Baba was critical of Idris Alooma, one can see possible influences of Timbuktu in the Birni Gazargamo of Ahmad b. Furtu in Borno and vice versa through the confluence of Songhay and Borno influence in Hausaland and Air.

Borno in the Rabih Years

Although our primary area of interest in Kanem-Borno lies in the Sayfawa dynasty, one cannot ignore the tumultuous late 19th century in Borno history. The Sudanese military leader Rabih was able to conquer a weakened Borno under Shehu Hashimi and pave the way for European colonial conquest of the region, thereby depriving Borno of a possible third dynasty and dividing the region into spheres of British, French, and German imperialism. Kyari Mohammad's Borno in the Rabih years, 1893-1901: The Rise and Crash of a Predatory State remains an important study of the conquest and short-lived state established by Rabih. 

The reign of Shehu Umar and his successors proved to be an unstable era in Borno. The al-Kanemi dynasty proved itself unable to adapt or bridge the gap between the aristocracy and the rest of the population. Divisions within the ruling class, excessive tax burdens on the peasantry, and unpopular leaders who were easily defeated by Rabih's disciplined, modern forces reveal how weak Borno was by the end of the 1800s. This decline and economic downtown was inherited by Rabih's brutal conquest, with its negative demographic impact, scorched earth tactics, and repressive measures. Rabih's "military dictatorship" further weakened the economy, agriculture, trans-Saharan and regional trade, and almost appears to have been doomed to fail. That the Shehus were unable to mount a real resistance and were only restored by European colonial support exhibits how weak and ineffective the al-Kanemi dynasty had become. And the fact that Rabih failed to establish a state but recycled the old fief system and had failed in nearly all his major diplomatic and economic initiatives illustrates the decline of Borno as a major power in the region. 

One is almost tempted to think back to the Sayfawa dynasty in the beginning of the century, who had to rely on al-Kanemi to drive the Fulani jihadists out. Yet the decline of the Sayfawa in the early 19th century does not appear to have been as severe as that of the Shehus of Kukawa. Nonetheless, it would be interesting to further explore the dynastic changes in 19th century Borno to trace the possible antecedence of the political turmoil, social dislocation and political decline that caused the kingdom to lose its position as the preeminent power of the Central Sudan. For instance, to what extent was the "peasant revolt" of the Manga in the 1820s similar to the failed movement of Mallam Abu Gantur's resistance to Rabih in the 1890s? Or peasant resistance to the excessive taxation of Shehu Bukar in 1883? Was the "contract" between rulers and ruled already so weak from the early 19th century conflicts or Sayfawa decline in the 18th century?

Borno's Borders

Although Hiribarren's A History of Borno: Trans-Saharan African Empire to Failing Nigerian State was not what we expected, it was an engaging analysis of how the territoriality and spatiality of 19th century Borno was adopted, recycled, adapted, and maintained by Rabih and the subsequent European colonial powers who "scrambled" for the Lake Chad Region (Britain, Germany, and France). The colonial and postcolonial borders of Borno, despite deviating from the actual borders of the 19th century state, were nonetheless the basis for how the British, Germans, and French carved up the region and, in the case of British Borno, implemented indirect rule through the institutions of the al-Kanemi Shehu government that they restored. Intriguingly, Hiribarren proposes some theories for why Borno played an important role in Nigeria's borders and internal states, possibly due to the Kanuri being an ethnic minority and having a recognized ancient history that could both be factors supporting the Nigerian state. 

However, the most interesting chapter is actually the fifth, which contextualizes the production of knowledge in colonial Borno through the essays and publications of British officials  and their local informants/collaborators. Due to the paucity of sources on the indigenous co-producers of knowledge, the chapter is speculative yet undoubtedly illustrates how colonial rule in Borno was aided and abetted by historical and anthropological knowledge on the Kanuri people and the sense in which Borno, as an ancient state in the region, could be appropriated by the British who saw themselves as the next great empire in the region. Our dear friend Palmer emerges here, and he clearly benefited professionally or politically from his outdated research on Borno's past through promotions up the ranks of colonial administration. 

What would be interesting for a fuller picture of colonial/colonialist historians of Borno and their reliance on local informants is a look at French scholars in Chad or Niger who also collected oral sources and data on Kanem-Borno's long history. We're thinking of Yves Urvoy for the most part, but a look at how Kanuri, Kanembu and other groups in today's Chad and Niger were also shaping Urvoy or other French scholarship on Kanem-Borno would be interesting for ways in which they too created a feedback loop or were in turn used for political legitimizing. From reading Yves Urvoy, one gets the impression that the French colonial-era scholars were also influenced by the legacy of ancient Rome, medieval Europe, and the ubiquitous Hamitic Hypothesis.

Borno in the 1820s

Although dismissed by some scholars for not being the best or most useful source on Borno's past,  Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa: In the Years 1822, 1823, and 1824 by Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney remains a key text. As the first representatives of Britain to reach Borno, the trio described the trans-Saharan route used to reach it (Tripoli-Fezzan-Borno) and the climate, geography, political context, social conditions and economic factors at play in Borno and nearby regions, particularly around Lake Chad and the Sokoto Caliphate to the west. Astonishingly, some of the social features described by Denham were still relevant in 20th century Borno, if the ethnographic work of Cohen is to be relied on for Kanuri village society. Indeed, Clapperton's account actually includes extensive information on Muhammad Bello, while Denham met with Borno's Sheikh al-Kanemi several times and described his skills as a political leader. Moreover, they were accompanied by a Caribbean native, Adolphus Sympkins of St. Vincent, who may have been the first Afro-Caribbean person to reach Borno. Particularly useful were the materials in the appendix, including a court document from Kuka, extracts from a work by Muhammad Bello on the land of "Takrur" (extending from Darfur in the east to the Atlantic coast of West Africa), and various letters by Sheikh al-Kanemi and the pasha of Tripoli. 

What was perhaps most useful for our purposes, however, is the testimony of Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney on the political consolidation of Borno under the new Shehu dynasty in the 19th century. Unable to rise to the occasion of defending Borno from Fulani incursions and pillagings of the old capital and western Borno, the Sefuwa mai called for Sheikh al-Kanemi, who liberated the land from the "Felatah" jihadists and brought Kanembu and Shuwa Arab followers from Kanem. While Borno had lost some of its western territories to the Sokoto Caliphate, and faced invasions from Bagirmi and Wadai's incursions into the territory of Kanem, al-Kanemi's successful military leadership established a secure basis for a reassertion of Borno's political hegemony and influence over much of the Lake Chad Region. While former vassal states like Bagirmi and Wadai's intervention in Kanem were a threat, and Tuareg and "Biddoomah" islander raids continued, al-Kanemi established more secure conditions for Borno's subjects and traveling merchants. One cannot help but admire the man, even though his wars of conquest and raids were often generating hundreds or, in some cases, thousands of captives for the slave trade. Indeed, one must question the sincerity of al-Kanemi when he complained of the fact that Arabs would only trade for slaves. Perhaps al-Kanemi knew what Denham and Clapperton wanted to hear, and in order to promote the idea of direct exchange with Britain for manufactured goods, pretended to be personally opposed to the slave trade, which had for so long been central to Borno's trans-Saharan trade network.

But the main interest for us at the blog with regards to this text is contextualizing Borno in the 1820s within a larger "Sudanic" and African context. By this we mean Borno's relations with other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the "Sudanic" pilgrim route, trade and migration across the continent. For instance, a man Denham wished to meet, a native of Loggun who had lived in Sennar and was in Borno, would have been an interesting interview subject on the movement of people between Lake Chad and the Middle Nile. Or the fascinating Fulani "fighi" from Timbuktu, Abdel Gassam ben Maleky, en route to Mecca, who met Denham  in Kuka. The Timbuktu pilgrim's father was a "Felatah" chief of Jenne and was living on charity to make it to Mecca with caravans. Unfortunately, the young man was said to have drowned in Lake Chad after heading for Wadai. Alternatively, people from the Muslim central lands were also in the "Central Sudan," such as El Raschid, a native of Mecca who lived in Wadai and Sennar before meeting Denham in Loggun. Perhaps even more intriguing, Denham met a "Moor" fighi named Khalifa who had been to Sierra Leone ("Seralo") and knew English! Thus, despite the difficulties with Wadai and Bagirmi that made the "Sudanic" pilgrim route dangerous in the 1820s, Borno continued to host a variety of transients and migrants from different parts of Africa and the world. People who had traveled or lived in Timbuktu, Sierra Leone, Hausaland, Tripoli, Morocco, Mecca, Fezzan, Kanem, Bagirmi, Tuareg territories, Loggun, Sennar, and beyond intersected in Borno.

The Shehus of Kukawa

Louis Brenner's The Shehus of Kukawa: A History of the Al-Kanemi Dynasty of Bornu is required reading for the history of Borno in the 19th century in spite of its flaws. Brenner's use of internal and external textual and oral sources provided him with some basis for his speculations on the nature of land tenure, administrative structure, and social relations in Borno during the period. Unfortunately, Brenner's study does suffer from an absence of a larger, convincing thesis on the decline of the dynasty. While exploring the decline of the Sayfawas and their reliance on al-Kanemi to thwart the Fulani jihadists, and then covering the rule of al-Kanemi, Brenner is on strong ground. One almost wishes he endeavored to write a biography of al-Kanemi, a remarkable figure who rose from what was essentially a reputable village mallam to effective ruler of a powerful state in the Central Sudan. However, Brenner tried to continue the story of the dynasty's decline and fall for the rest of the 19th century, despite lacking a more sophisticated or larger argument about the reasons for its decline. 

While there are questions as to the nature of his "Field Notes" and his local informants on various episodes in the history of the Shehus of Borno, he usually corroborates it with textual sources and plausible speculation. Brenner also draws on the ethnographic work of scholars like Cohen and the earlier colonial-era research of problematic figures like Palmer in an attempt at reconstructing the administrative structure of new dynasty. He presents persuasive evidence of continuity in political structure from the Sayfawa dynasty to al-Kanemi and his progeny, even though the Shehus may have instituted a more centralized state with fewer semi-autonomous provinces. Due to al-Kanemi's reliance on Arab and Kanembu allies for his early political and military successes, the regime favored them with tax exemptions, political office, and territorial fiefs. So, instead of the earlier Kanuri and Sayfawa-affiliated courtiers and fief-holders, al-Kanemi leaned heavily on his coethnic Kanembu and Arab supporters for the new administrators and ruling class. 

This, plus changes in the function of certain offices and Borno's loss of effective suzerainty over Kanem and declining trans-Saharan trade later in the 19th century, led to the chimas or holders of fiefs to extract more taxes from the peasantry. Brenner also suggests al-Kanemi's successor, Umar, was forced to reward less able sons of the original supporters of al-Kanemi, which further weakened the administration by supporting an unskilled nobility that, over time, failed to protect the borders, increase trade, or engage in activity besides court intrigue. Perhaps all accurate and plausible, but one finds Brenner engaging in tautologies to elucidate the decline of the al-Kanemi dynasty beginning with Umar. 

In short, al-Kanemi was a good ruler because he possessed great leadership skills. Umar, on the other hand, was a poor ruler because of his bad leadership skills or lack of will to lead. This in itself does not explain anything, but the larger structural flaws or shortcomings in Borno's political economy before and during the al-Kanemi dynasty might better elucidate the decline. If Brenner is correct about the exploitation on the peasantry and the lack of economic reforms, one might be on firmer ground to understand how and why Borno fell so quickly to Rabeh. One almost wishes the Sayfawa dynasty had succeeded in 1846 during their attempt to remove Umar from power. Perhaps a dynasty with legitimacy, political support, and nearly 1000 years of history in the Lake Chad Region might have been able to usher in a more united front and rebuild Borno from the foundation al-Kanemi started.

17th Century French Source on Borno

The anonymous author of Histoire chronologique du royaume de Tripoly de Barbarie has bequeathed to future generations a great historical source on Borno in the 1500s and 1600s, focusing on Borno's relationship with the Pashas of Tripoli. History, commerce, diplomatic relations and speculations on the state's origins and geography how one of the earliest "Western" studies of Kanem-Borno as a civilization came into being. The French author, a captive in Tripoli who personally saw documents and correspondence pertaining to Borno, provides us with several details and a flawed chronology of the Saifawa dynasty. But it is through his work that we know of tensions between Tripoli's pashas and the mais of Borno, such as one pasha's attempt to kidnap a Borno ruler returning from the hajj. Or the positive aspect of Borno-Tripoli interactions, such as the liberation of Medicon, a nephew of the Borno ruler who was sold into slavery and ended up in Tripoli. 

What stood out to us at the blog is the success of Borno in the early 1500s with the organization of trans-Saharan trade with Tripoli during the period of Christian rule in Tripoli, suggestive of possible links to Europe already in the 1500s. Although so far from the Mediterranean, one wonders how Borno saw itself in relation to Mediterranean Europe and North Africa. A significantly later European source mentioned one Borno prince who was witnessed in Tripoli in 1789, appearing well-informed on Europe and accompanied by his wives, one of whom spoke Italian. Although the Frenchman's account from the late 1600s does not mention Borno elites who spoke European languages, it is not too implausible that some in Borno by the 17th century attempted to gather as much information on Europe as possible. European renegades sent to Borno via Tripoli must have served as a source of information, in addition to numbers of European slaves sold across the Sahara. Borno, of course, relied heavily on an exchange of African slaves with Tripoli for goods from the Mediterranean and Europe, but definitely received some of the captives in Borno and the renegades who may have provided information about European politics and the Ottoman Empire.

The unnamed surgeon who authored the text also hints at possible relations between Borno and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Conflict with Agadez, which is how a mai's nephew was taken captive and sold into slavery, was clearly another factor in Borno's trade relations with Tripoli and the North. From reading Lovejoy's work, we know that Borno retained domination of the Kawar region and most of the Saharan sources of salt during this period, perhaps contributing to conflict with Agadez over that lucrative trade. Other sources mention conflict with the Kwararafa  in the 17th century, including a joint attack on Borno's capital from Agadez and Kwararafa (it's possible stories of this latter kingdom being Christian were already spreading among Europeans in 17th century Tripoli, and the author confused it with Ethiopia as another Christian state). The document also references enslaved Christians from Nubia and Ethiopia in Tripoli. Were these Christian Africans brought to Tripoli through Borno's extensive trade networks with lands to the east, of which we know little? Sure, the author's confused sense of African geography led him to believe Borno and Ethiopia were close enough to frequently go to war, but could there have been a trade in goods (and people) from Sennar and Ethiopia to Borno? Could Christianity have continued in Nubia if European missions were able to reach the region via Tripoli and the Fezzan? So many unknowns, but interesting hints of Borno's relations with the wider world emerge. 

Bibliography

Davidson, Basil, and F. K. Buah. A History of West Africa, 1000-1800. New rev. ed. London: Longman, 1977.

Dewière, Rémi. Du Lac Tchad À La Mecque: Le Sultanat Du Borno Et Son Monde (XVIe - XVIIe Siècle). Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2017.

Hodgkin, Thomas. Nigerian Perspectives: An Historical Anthology. London: Oxford University Press, 1960.

Kalck, Pierre. "Pour Une Localisation Du Royaume De Gaoga." The Journal of African History 13, no. 4 (1972): 529-48. http://www.jstor.org/stable/180753.

Kane, Ousmane. Beyond Timbuktu: An Intellectual History of Muslim West Africa. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2016.

The Bornocentric World

We here at the blog cannot recommend a book more passionately than Du lac Tchad à La Mecque by Rémi Dewière. Using primarily the chronicles of Ahmad b. Furtu, a French captive's writings on Borno who was enslaved in Tripoli in the 17th century, plus a variety of other local and external sources on on Borno, Dewière's study shows what can be accomplished with new theoretical models that reconsider our unfortunately limited primary source materials. By situating Borno in a Braudelian Sahara and trans-Sahelian context, one can gain new insights into the nature of the Borno sultanate's development as the dominant power in the "Central Sudan" and Lake Chad Basin. The text introduces us to the geography, climate, ecology, seasonal nature of trans-Saharan trade, shifts in Islamic practice and shifting legitimating ideologies of the Sefuwa dynasty to elucidate how Borno's rulers from the 1500s to early 1700s engaged with the wider world. Naturally, much of the story here focuses on Idris Alooma and successors like Ali ibn Umar in the 17th century, but the analysis encompasses earlier and later moments in the long-lived Sefuwa house. 

Most significantly for us, the analysis includes Borno's relations with lands further east, connecting "Sudanic" Africa from the Senegal River to the Red Sea. Of course, much more work remains to be done by archaeologists and historians eager to explore this topic, but this important book on Borno at its apogee includes some theories on the nature of trade and cultural exchange between Borno and lands further east, such as the Funj Sultanate and Ethiopia. While the "Sudanic" pilgrim route was probably already in practice by the later period encompassed in the study, we hoped there would be additional sources that could shed light on this intriguing dilemma. For such an approach, however, one would probably have to contextualize the history of Kanem, Bagirmi, Wadai, Darfur and the Kordan from 1500-1710. So, a future book awaits researchers eager to connect the entirety of the "Bilad al-Sudan" and center this "Sudanic" context for the history of Africa. The primary obstacle would be the paucity of surviving records to illuminate this, since the external Arabic sources usually prioritize trans-Saharan over trans-Sahelian contacts. Either way, the oral traditions referenced in the study suggest Kanem-Borno played a key role as a brigde between the Eastern and Western "Sudan," with villages in Darfur believed to have been established by people from Borno. Indeed, the Banī Dāwud of the Sefuwa dynasty may have settled there after the dynastic squabbles in the 15th century, if oral traditions can be reliable here. 

While we still wish something akin to Dewière was applied to the Sefuwa dynasty's earlier Kanem period, one must accept the limitation of the sources and hope for archaeology to shed light on early Kanem and its role in the premodern world. We here, through our own speculative reading of the external Arabic sources on Kanem and Nubia, tend to think migrations and trade between the Eastern and Western "Sudan" was already in place. Kanem may very well have already been the dominant cultural and political influence in the lands between Lake Chad and the Nile through the "Zaghawa" and the "Taju." Perhaps later polities like Uri, Wadai, and Darfur (and its previous dynasties) reflect an earlier influence from Kanem that intersected with Christian Nubia. Perhaps, for all we know, the Sefuwa rulers in Borno were continuing the political and cultural agenda of their forebears.