| Kingdom of Bornu Maido ma Bornu Timeline: Differently | ||||||
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 Location of Bornu in Northern Africa
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| Capital (and largest city) | East Ngazargamu | |||||
| Official languages | Kanuri | |||||
| Religion | 72.3% Islam -61.6% Salehiyya -8.5% Sunni -2.2% Other 24.2% Christianity -20.4% Roman Catholicism -5.6% Oriental Orthodox -0.5% Other 1.2% Other/none |
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| Government | Unitary parliamentary monarchy | |||||
| - | Mai | Alauma II | ||||
| - | Prime Minister | Simplice Sarandji | ||||
| Establishment | ||||||
| - | Approximate origins of Kanem | 700 | ||||
| - | Traditional foundation of Bornu | 1370 | ||||
| - | Constitution | 14 October 1959 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 2,583,212 km2 997,384 sq mi |
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| Population | ||||||
| - | Estimate | 50,284,849 (36th) | ||||
| Currency | bornu | |||||
| Drives on the | right | |||||
Bornu, officially the Kingdom of Bornu (Kanuri: Maido ma Bornu), is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Kanem and Egypt to the north, Ethiopia to the east, Sokoto, Biafra and Cameroon to the west, Bangui to the southwest, Congo to the south, and Uganda and Kenya to the southeast. Bornu and Kanem both descend from a prominent medieval kingdom also named Kanem, which formed around 700 and was Christianized about a century later.
The capital and largest city is East Ngazargamu, located near the border with Sokoto. Bornu's official and most widely spoken language is Kanuri, which is part of the Nilo-Saharan family.
At 2.5 million square kilometers, Bornu is the largest country in Africa, ranking tenth in the world. With over 50 million inhabitants, it ranks 32nd among the world's most populous countries and 8th in Africa.
Bornu is a member of the League of Nations.
History[]
Formation of Kanem[]
In its early centuries, the nation was chiefly known as Kanem, which comes from anem, meaning "south" in the Teda and Kanuri languages, and hence a geographic term. It was located at the southern end of the trans-Saharan trade route between Carthage City and the region of Lake Chad (now in located in Sokoto). Slaves were imported from the south through this route. Besides its urban elite, it also included a confederation of nomadic peoples who spoke languages of the Teda–Daza (Toubou) group.
During the first millennium, as the Sahara underwent desiccation, people speaking the Kanembu language migrated to Kanem in the south, contributing to the formation of the Kanuri people. Kanuri traditions state the Zaghawa dynasty led a group of nomads called the Magumi. This desiccation of the Sahara resulted in two settlements, those speaking Teda-Daza northeast of Lake Chad, and those speaking Chadic west of the lake in Bornu and Hausa-land.
The origins of the Kingdom of Kanem are unclear. The first historical sources tend to show that it began forming around 700 AD under the nomadic Tebu-speaking Kanembu. The Kanembu were supposedly forced southwest towards the fertile lands around Lake Chad by political pressure and desiccation in their former range. The area already possessed independent, walled city-states belonging to the Sao culture. Under the leadership of the Duguwa dynasty, the Kanembu would eventually dominate the Sao, but not before adopting many of their customs.
Dynastic rule was established over the nomadic Magumi around the 9th or 10th century, through divine kingship. For the next millennium, the Mais (kings) ruled the Kanuri. Kanem is mentioned as one of three great empires in the North African Christian tradition. Living as nomads, their cavalry gave them military superiority. Their king was considered divine, believing he could "bring life and death, sickness and health." Wealth was measured in livestock, sheep, cattle, camels and horses.
Arrival of Christianity and Islam[]
Medieval Kanem warriors
Kanuri-speaking Catholic Christians and Salehiyya Muslims from the north gained control of Kanem from the Zaghawa nomads in the 9th century. This included control of the Zaghawa trade links in the central Sahara with Bilma and other salt mines. Yet, the principal trade commodity was slaves. Tribes to the south of Lake Chad were raided because they were considered "heathens" and then transported to Christian towns in western Egypt, where the slaves were traded for horses and weapons. The annual number of slaves traded would increase from 1,000 in the 7th century to 5,000 in the 15th.
Mai Hummay began his reign in 1075, and formed alliances with the Kay, Tubu, Dabir and Magumi. Mai Humai was the first Christian king of Kanem, and was converted by his Orthodox Christian tutor Hanno from Carthage. This dynasty replaced the earlier Zaghawa dynasty and remained nomadic until the 11th century, when they fixed their capital at Nijmi.
Humai's successor, Dunama (1098-1151), visited Jerusalem three times in his lifetime, and his wealth included 100,000 horsemen and 120,000 soldiers.
Kanem's expansion peaked during the long and energetic reign of Mai Dunama Dabbalemi (1210-1259). Dabbalemi initiated diplomatic exchanges with nations in North Africa and even southern Europe, sending a giraffe to King Sancho II of Portugal. During his reign, he declared a crusade against the surrounding "heathen" tribes and initiated an extended period of conquest with his cavalry of 41,000. He fought the Bulala for over 7 years.
Bornu arises[]
By the end of the 14th century, internal struggles and external attacks had torn Kanem apart. Wars with the So and the Bulala led to the deaths of several Mais. Finally, around 1387 the Bulala forced the last Mai to abandon Njimi and move the Kanembu people to Bornu on the western edge of Lake Chad.
But even in Bornu, the dynasty's troubles persisted. During the first three-quarters of the 15th century, for example, fifteen Mais occupied the throne. Around 1460, Buluma (1473-1507) defeated his rivals and began the consolidation of Bornu. He built a fortified capital at Ngazargamu, to the west of Lake Chad, he first permanent home a mai had enjoyed in a century. So successful was the rejuvenation that by the early 16th century Mai Idris Katakarmabe (1507-1529) was able to defeat the Bulala and retake Njimi, the former capital. The empire's leaders, however, remained at Ngazargamu because its lands were more productive agriculturally and better suited to the raising of cattle.
Mai Idris Alooma[]
Bornu peaked during the reign of Mai Idris Alooma (c. 1571–1603), reaching the limits of its greatest territorial expansion, gaining control over Hausaland, and the people of Ahir and Tuareg. Peace was made with Bulala, when a demarcation of boundaries was agreed, upon with a non-aggression pact. Military innovations included the use of mounted Byzantine musketeers, slave musketeers, mailed cavalrymen, and footmen. This army was organized into an advance guard and a rear reserve, transported via camel or large boats and fed by free and slave women cooks. Military tactics were honed by drill and organization, supplemented with a scorched earth policy. Fortifications were built on frontiers, and trade routes to the north were secure, allowing the continuation of diplomacy and trade with Carthage, Rhomania, and the Sassanid Empire.
The Lake Chad to Carthage route became an active highway in the 17th century, with horses traded for slaves. About two million slaves traveled this route to be traded in Carthage, then the largest slave market in the Mediterranean. As Martin Meredith states, "Wells along the way were surrounded by the skeletons of thousands of slaves, mostly young women and girls, making a last desperate effort to reach water before dying of exhaustion once there."
Successors[]
Young woman from Bornu, mid 19th century
Most of the successors of Idris Alooma are only known from the meagre information. In the eighteenth century, Bornu was affected by several long-lasting famines. The Principality of Agadez (now part of the Tuareg Confederation) was independently operating the Bilma salt mines by 1750, having been a tributary since 1532.
The administrative reforms and military brilliance of Aluma sustained the empire until the mid-17th century when its power began to fade. By the late 18th century, Bornu rule extended only westward, into the land of the Hausa of modern Sokoto.
The empire was still ruled by the Mai who was advised by his councilors in the state council or "nokena". The members of his Nokena council included his sons and daughters and other royalty (the Maina) and non-royalty (the Kokenawa, "new men").
During the 17th century and 18th centuries, Bornu became a centre for learning. The Kanuri language was widely adopted, while slave raiding propelled the economy.
19th century[]
In the early 19th century, during the Fulani War, the old city of Ngazargamu was raided by the Hausa and mostly destroyed. Citizens needed to be evacuated until the war was over in 1808 and settled eastward. This new city was called East Ngazargamu and became Bornu's new capital. Although the original city was eventually repopulated, it did not grow to the same size of the new capital.
By the mid-19th century, Bornu had good relations with the neighboring Ethiopian Empire to the east, as well as the more distant countries of Carthage, Rhomania, Spain, and Portugal. It also maintained peaceful relations with the growing Empire of West Persia.
In the late 19th century, the Scramble for Southern Africa began, and European powers, mainly the French and British, began to establish colonies in the continent. Bornu, although a good ally of European powers, did not express intent of establishing colonies, but neither did it oppose European advances. At that time, the colonies that would later become Kanem (France) and Sokoto (Britain) bordered the territory of Bornu. This was ultimately good for Bornu's economy, since trade with the distant powers of Britain and France was now much easier and more accessible. Bornu traded important local information and goods for British and French technology, experiencing a period of modernization that lasted until the late 1900s. Today, many are critic of this and state that Bornu should have fought the colonization of its African brothers instead of allowing and profiting from it.
20th century[]
Bornu participated neither on the Great War nor on the Cold War. It stayed neutral during both conflicts, as did most other West African nations.
Bornu's first and current Constitution was enacted on 14 October 1959. It marked the country's transition from an absolute monarchy to a parliamentary monarchy.
Bornu participated briefly on the Niger Border War, fighting in the Sokoto side until 1971.
21st century[]
Since the beginning of the 21st century, Bornu has been a relatively prosperous and democratic nation. This contrasts with other Sub-Saharan countries that remain largely authoritarian (such as Dahomey, Sokoto and the Swartist nations) or impoverished (such as Kenya and Mutapa).
Politics[]
Alauma II, current Mai (king) of Bornu
The politics of Bornu take place within a framework of a unitary, parliamentary, representative democratic monarchy. The current monarch, Alauma II, is the country's head of state.
The unicameral parliament, called Bornu Assembly, is responsible for passing laws, adopting the state's budgets, and exercising control of the executive government through its elected representative, the Prime Minister - currently Simplice Sarandji.
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