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Empire · 1000–1902

Kanem-Bornu

Kanem, Bornu and Borno

One of the longest lived states in Africa.

Watch the Kanem-Bornu on the old map

At a glance

When did the Kanem-Bornu exist?
From c. 700 (Kanem) to 1902. It was at its height around 1580.
What was the capital of the Kanem-Bornu?
Ngazargamu.
What was the ruler of the Kanem-Bornu called?
Mai (Sayfawa kings), then Shehu (from 1814).
What happened to the Kanem-Bornu?
The Shehu of Borno reigns from Maiduguri, and the Emir of Dikwa from Dikwa, both traditional rulers in Borno State.
Who lives in the lands of the Kanem-Bornu today?
Hausa, Kanuri, Bade, Bolewa, Dghwede, Glavda, Karai-Karai, Lamang (Gwoza)

Overview

One of the longest lived states in Africa. It began in Kanem, east of Lake Chad, moved west into Bornu after about 1380, and at its height under Mai Idris Alooma reached from Hausaland to the Fezzan in the Sahara. It survived the Fulani jihad under the al-Kanemi Shehus and was divided between Britain, France and Germany in 1902.[1],[2],[12]High confidence

The empire began in Kanem, east of Lake Chad, around 700; the timeline picks it up at 1000.

Through the centuries

  1. c. 1000

    Kanem, east of Lake Chad

    The kingdom of Kanem is ruled from Njimi, a capital whose site has never been found. Its kings, the Mai, are about to convert to Islam (11th century), and the Sayfawa dynasty will soon replace the older Duguwa line.[1],[2]Medium confidence

    Capital: Njimi (site not located)

    Kanem lies in today's Chad, so nothing is drawn inside Nigeria yet.

  2. c. 1250

    Mai Dunama Dibalemi: Kanem at its first height

    Kanem controls the Kawar oases and the Fezzan as far as Waddan, the southern end of a Saharan trade route to the Mediterranean. Bornu, west of the lake, is a tributary province.[1],[2]Medium confidence

    Capital: Njimi (site not located)

  3. c. 1380

    Driven out of Kanem

    The Bilala drive the Sayfawa out of Kanem. The court moves west into Bornu and wanders for about a century without a fixed capital. The royal chronicle says the Bilala, allied with the Tubu, killed Mai Dawud; al-Maqrizi, writing around 1400, says Kanem's people had “renounced the faith” while Bornu stayed Muslim.[1],[2],[3]Medium confidence

    Extent during the era of instability is poorly known.

  4. 1472

    Ngazargamu founded

    Mai Ali Gaji builds Ngazargamu, a walled capital on the Komadugu Yobe river. Bornu becomes a settled state again; his son Idris Katagarmabe retakes Kanem in the early 1500s.[1],[4]High confidence

    Capital: Ngazargamu

  5. c. 1580

    Idris Alooma: the imperial height

    Mai Idris Alooma (c. 1570–1603) ends the long war with the Bilala, brings the Tuareg of Aïr and the Tubu of Bilma and Tibesti under Bornu, and so commands the central Saharan routes. He sets up qadi courts independent of the court, arms his army with Turkish musketeers, and plays the Ottomans against Morocco over the Fezzan, whose Ottoman garrison is massacred in the 1580s. His chief imam, Ahmad ibn Fartuwa, records his first twelve years. Kano pays tribute; in 1614 Bornu installs a king of Mandara.[5],[1]Medium confidence

    Capital: Ngazargamu

  6. c. 1650–1780

    Kwararafa at the gates; Katsina's patron

    Mai Ali ibn Umar (c. 1645–1680), who makes the pilgrimage three times, finds Ngazargamu besieged by Kwararafa and the Tuareg together, sets the two armies against each other and beats both. Katsina sends every new king's tribute of a hundred slaves, and by the late 18th century even Kwararafa pays Bornu tribute. Famines, remembered by names such as Dala Dama, strike the long reign.[7],[6],[1]Medium confidence

    Capital: Ngazargamu

  7. c. 1781–1808

    Beaten by Mandara

    Around 1781 the Mandara kingdom, once installed by Bornu, defeats a Bornu army in a major battle and takes tribute from some 15 chiefdoms of its own. Bornu's grip on its edges loosens just as the Fulani of its western provinces begin to stir.[9],[1]Medium confidence

    Capital: Ngazargamu

  8. 1808

    The jihad takes Ngazargamu

    Fulani in Daura and Bornu's western provinces rise for the jihad. Mai Ahmad sends help to Daura and writes to Usman dan Fodio that his people are Muslims; dan Fodio's side replies with war. In 1808 the Fulani take Ngazargamu and the blind mai abdicates. At Ngala a scholar from Kanem, Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi, beats off the jihadists with his students and Kanembu and Shuwa Arab soldiers, then helps Mai Dunama win back the capital. Hadejia, Katagum and Misau are lost to Sokoto for good.[10],[1]High confidence

  9. 1814

    Kukawa and the Shehus

    Al-Kanemi founds Kukawa as his seat and takes the title Shehu. The old Mai survive as figureheads until 1846, when the office ends. Kukawa grows into one of the great cities of the Sahel.[1],[12]High confidence

    Capital: Kukawa

  10. 1846–1893

    The end of the Sayfawa

    Mai Ibrahim tries to win back power from Shehu Umar Kura with an army from Wadai, which captures and destroys Kuka. Ibrahim and his son are defeated, the old mai's capital Kafela is razed, and the thousand-year Sayfawa line ends. Umar Kura rebuilds his seat as Kukawa, twin towns inside a six-metre wall, home to 60,000 or more people at the end of the trade road to Tripoli; Barth visits in 1851.[13],[10],[1]High confidence

    Capital: Kukawa

  11. 1893

    Rabih az-Zubayr conquers Bornu

    Rabih az-Zubayr, a Sudanese warlord whose army of rifles had grown from 400 men to thousands, destroys Kukawa in May 1893 and rules Bornu from Dikwa with a brutal tax system. He kills a French column at Togbao in 1899, and on 22 April 1900 a French army with Bagirmi allies kills him at Kousséri. The al-Kanemi shehus return under French, then British and German rule, and in 1902 Bornu is split: British Borno at Kukawa and later Maiduguri, German Borno at Dikwa.[15],[14],[13],[16]High confidence

    Capital: Dikwa

Wars, treaties and turning points

Today

Shehu of Borno, Maiduguri

The Shehu of Borno reigns from Maiduguri, and the Emir of Dikwa from Dikwa, both traditional rulers in Borno State.[1]High confidence

Its people

Kanuri

Living in its lands today

Peoples whose homelands lie inside its lands at its height, by number of LGAs.

Hausa, Kanuri, Bade, Bolewa, Dghwede, Glavda, Karai-Karai, Lamang (Gwoza)

Sources

Every claim carries a confidence level: high (well attested), medium (one source or approximate) or disputed (sources disagree).

  1. Wikipedia contributors. Kanem–Bornu Empire
  2. Barkindo, Bawuro M. (1980). The early states of the Central Sudan: Kanem, Borno and some of their neighbours to c. 1500 A.D. (in Ajayi and Crowder, eds., History of West Africa, vol. 1, 3rd edition, 1985). Longman (cited elsewhere, not yet checked directly)
  3. Wikipedia contributors. Bilala people
  4. Wikipedia contributors. Ngazargamu
  5. Wikipedia contributors. Idris Alooma
  6. Wikipedia contributors. Kingdom of Katsina
  7. Wikipedia contributors. Ali III Walamma
  8. Wikipedia contributors. Kwararafa
  9. Wikipedia contributors. Mandara Kingdom
  10. Wikipedia contributors. Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi
  11. Wikipedia contributors. Ibrahim Dabo
  12. Brenner, Louis. (1973). The Shehus of Kukawa: A History of the al-Kanemi Dynasty of Bornu. Clarendon Press, Oxford (cited elsewhere, not yet checked directly)
  13. Wikipedia contributors. Kukawa
  14. Wikipedia contributors. Battle of Kousséri
  15. Wikipedia contributors. Rabih az-Zubayr
  16. Wikipedia contributors. Dikwa Emirate