Sef dynasty of Bornu. They are said to have reached Kanem from Yemen,
travelling slowly and living on the alms offered them as wandering
students. With the consent of Mai Arri ben Haj Umar (1645-84), Sheikh
Abdullahi and thirty-nine companions established themselves at Belbelec,
sometimes called ‘the town of the Kullumfardos’, where they founded a
mosque and a school. The origin of the term ‘Kullumfardo’ is said to be
as follows. When Abdullahi and his companions, all Koyams but not of the
same family, presented themselves to Mai Arri, the latter asked them who
they were. They replied, ‘Koyam’, adding ‘Kullum fardun’, Arabic words
meaning ‘all, separately’, wishing to explain that they were all of the
Koyam tribe, but of different families. At the present day it is only
the descendants of Sheikh Abdullahi, their first ‘Mokaddem’ or religious
chief, that call themselves ‘Kullumfardo’; the descendants of the
thirty-nine others are called Koyams. Sheikh Abdullahi was succeeded by
his son, Sheikh Umar. Owing to Tuareg raids and to famine Belbelec was
abandoned and the Koyams scattered. Some went south and, abandoning
their rôle of students, became herdsmen and acquired wealth. They took
the name of Kel Etti, a term whose meaning and origin are unknown, and
became subdivided into seven fractions, each with its chief.
A small number of disciples followed Sheikh Umar to Nupe, where he
remained some time, but he afterwards returned to Bornu and re-
established himself at Gaskeru, situated, like Belbelec, north of the
River Yo.
Umar was succeeded by his brother, Mustapha, who was the first to join
political functions to the religious ones, to which his family had
hitherto confined themselves. He appointed his nephew, Mahmut, as chief
of the warriors and said to him: ‘You shall be the Sheikh’s auxiliary or
lieutenant’ (El Auan, Lowan). Lowan was thus originally a military
title, and later became applied to the head of a district or a town.
At the end of the eighteenth century Gaskeru was destroyed by the
Tuaregs and the Koyam ‘Mokaddem’ established himself at the pool called
Sandaram, inside the walls of the Bornu capital of Gazerregomo (Kasr
Kumo).
When the Fulani captured Gazerregomo the Koyam ‘Mokaddem’ followed the
varying fortunes of the exiled king. When Shehu Lamino became head of
the state, the Koyams applied to him to be dispensed from payment of tax
as they had always been hitherto. Lamino, who had studied among the
Koyams in his youth, consented and established the Koyam ‘Mokaddem’ at
Zigaba on the north bank of the Yo.
In the last year of Lamino’s reign, however, a great famine occurred and
the Koyams again dispersed. The incursions of Rabeh scattered them still
further, and the present representatives of the Koyam ‘mokaddems’ now
live at the village of Kullumfardo in Munio.
The Koyams in British Bornu are semi-nomadic cattle-owning people living
chiefly in the districts of Bussugua, Ngunse, and Gusumalla.
(_f_)[553] The Mangas are mostly bilingual, speaking both their own
dialect (said to be related to Bedde) and Kanuri. M. Landeroin inclines
to the opinion that they are an indigenous tribe conquered by the
Kanuri. Manga is said not to be their original tribal name, but to have
been given them by the Kanuri.
It is said to be a corruption of ‘Madinga’ which signifies according to
some ‘gens difficiles’, according to others ‘the cunning people’.
The Mangas inhabit the country both north and south of the River Yo.
(_g_) The Gamerghu are a branch of the Masa family, but are now almost
extinct. Their villages are scattered along the course of the River
Yedseram. Their chief industry is horse and cattle stealing. Barth gives
a detailed study of Masa in his _Central African Vocabularies_, and
there is a vocabulary of the Gamerghu dialect, collected by Barth, in
_Notes on Some Languages, &c._ (Benton). They are semi-pagan.
(_h_)[554] The Mobbers, like all the other tribes, assert that they
originated from Yemen. Serfs of the Magumis, who were themselves the
subjects of the Tubbas or Sef dynasty, they were installed by the latter
along the course of the River Yo, from which they never strayed far, as
they had no knowledge of well-digging.
Their chief towns at the present day are Bosso, on the northern bank of
the Yo where it debouches into Chad, and Yo on the opposite south bank.
Nachtigal says of the Mobbers: ‘This tribe is according to some a
remnant of the Beddes, according to others a mixed race of Kanembus and
Beddes or of Sos and Kanembus.’ Like the Mangas, they are bilingual,
speaking their own dialect as well as Kanuri.
Little reliable information is yet available regarding the pagan and
semi-pagan tribes in the British Province of Bornu. A certain amount
about the Bolewa of Fika, including a short sketch of the language, is
printed in Benton, _Notes on Some Languages of the Western Sudan_.[555]
There is a short account of the Beddes in Koelle, _African Native
Literature in Kanuri_, p. 210, and a vocabulary in Koelle, _Polyglotta
Africana_. Overweg visited Babur in 1852, cf. Benton, _Notes on Some
Languages_, p. 222; for Barth’s notes and vocabulary of Marghi cf.
_idem_, pp. 78, 134, and 144. For list of Marghi kings cf. Appendix X
under Maifoni. There is a vocabulary of Kerrikerri in Koelle,
_Polyglotta Africana_.
[Footnote 549: Cf. Appendix XIV A.]
[Footnote 550: Cf. Appendix XIV A, p. 334.]
[Footnote 551: The latest account of the Fulani is contained in Mr. H.
R. Palmer’s articles now in course of publication in the _African Mail_.
The first article appeared in the issue of December 29, 1911. Cf. also
‘Notes on the Origin of the Filani’, by Capt. A. J. N. Tremearne, in the
_Journal of the Royal Society of Arts_ for June 17, 1910. Cf. also
article by T. von Stephani in _Der Islam_, iii, 1912, 352-7.]
[Footnote 552: Account mostly taken from _Documents scientifiques de la
Mission Tilho_, ii. 396 ff.]
[Footnote 553: Account mostly taken from _Documents scientifiques de la
Mission Tilho_, ii. 421.]
[Footnote 554: Account mostly taken from _Documents scientifiques de la
Mission Tilho_, ii. 391.]
[Footnote 555: In addition to authorities there quoted, there are also
articles by the late Major George Merrick in the _Journal of the African
Society_ for July 1905 and October 1905. I was not hitherto aware of
these.]
APPENDIX XIV A
DERIVATION OF SHUWA AND KANURI
ACCORDING TO M. CARBOU
Some writers, especially d’Escayrac de Lauture and Vivien de Saint-
Martin, assumed that the Shuwas were descended from the Koreishites,
pagan Arabs driven from Arabia by Mahomet. M. René Basset, however,
declares that the Koreishites were not driven out but became converted,
and pertinently asks, if they were driven out as pagans, at what period
were they converted? There is no record or tradition of the Shuwa Arabs
ever having been anything but Mussulmans. Cf. Carbou, _La Région du
Tchad et du Ouadaï_, vol. ii, p. 11.
M. René Basset and MM. Hartmann and Becker incline to derive ‘Shuwa’
from the Arab word _shaua_ = sheep, and to make it signify nomad
shepherds as opposed to a sedentary people. Vid. Carbou, _La Région du
Tchad et du Ouadaï_ vol. ii, p. 20.
‘The Arabs of Bornu and of the “Territoire Militaire du Tchad” belong to
the religious order of the Tojani. This brotherhood, which preaches
toleration, is the one which counts most adherents throughout this
region: the Senussi are not found, except in Wadai and the northern
countries (Borku, &c.). A very simple way of recognizing the Senussi is
that they pray with the arms crossed, instead of keeping them parallel
with the body, as all the other Maliki sects do.’ Carbou, _La Région du
Tchad et du Ouadaï_, vol. ii, p. 18. Cf. note [458] of the present work.
H. Carbou, vol. ii, p. 36 ff., enumerates the tribes of the Kwalme
Shuwas as follows (cf. p. 328 _supra_):
(1) Oulad Mehareb [my No. 7].
(2) Oulad Serrar [my No. 1].
(3) Oulad Salem, Oulad ’Amer [my Nos. 2 and 10].
(4) Assalé [my No. 8]. They are the descendants of Ali el Esselé (Ali
the Bald).
(5) Dagana [my No. 6], said to be descended from Othman Abou Diguen
(i.e. the long-bearded). They are mentioned both by Nachtigal and
Matteucci.
(6) Oulad el ’Aouan [not mentioned in my list, but apparently a
subdivision of the Dagana].
(7) Oulad Mansour [not in my list].
(8) Oulad Amiré, Oulad Ghanem, El Haouarti, Oulad Saïl, Oulad Mehoï
[not in my list].
(9) Beni Ouaïl [my No. 11].
(10) Oulad Abou Issé [my No. 14].
(11) Oulad abou Ghader [not in my list].
Carbou classifies the Wulad Himet [my No. 3], Salamat [No. 9], Badder
[No. 5], and Beni Hassan under the Djoheïna Arabs, not the Kwalme.
Two derivations are given of Salamat. One, that their ancestor was named
Salam. Another, that they are descended from a pagan slave, who, when
reproached for not fulfilling his religious duties, replied ‘nadem salla
mat’ (praying is killing work); hence he was nicknamed Sallamat. As M.
Carbou remarks, p. 56, this explanation is a little far fetched.
M. Carbou, vol. i, p. 4, says:
‘Kanem is a corruption of Keunoum or Konoum. This latter word has been
explained by means of the Tubu term “eunoum” or “onoum” which means
south, and of the letter “K” which serves to form the substantive. But
the Kanembu use the same word to signify the south, and it is especially
in their language that “K” serves to form the substantive.’
For all practical purposes the Kanuri and Kanembu dialects are the same.
‘Anum’ or ‘Ane̥m’ is the Kanuri for south, but I know of no use of ‘K’
for forming the substantive, unless one assumes it is an abbreviation of
the Kanuri ‘Kam’ meaning a man. Kanem-bu would then mean ‘the
southerners’. Cf. p. 314 of the present work.
M. Carbou, vol. i, p. 20:
‘This name, Kanuri, is explained in different ways. Some say that it is
composed of the Arab word “nur” (light) and the letter “K” which serves
to form the substantive. Kanuri would then mean “the people of the
light”, and this name would have been given to the inhabitants of Bornu
because they were the propagators of Islam in the country. Others say
that Kanuri is from the Kanuri “kannu” = (fire), and means “the people
of the fire”, a nickname given them by the Fulani, who as fanatical
Mussulmans considered the inhabitants of Bornu as destined to the flames
of hell as a reward for their sins.’
M. Carbou himself says that the Arab derivation has little value. The
Fulani one has less still: if the Fulani or any other foreigners wished
to nickname the Kanuri, would they not use their own language to do so?
Cf. p. 314 of the present work.
M. Carbou, vol. i, p. 21, has an elaborate argument to prove that the
word Bornu is derived from ‘birni’ meaning in Kanuri ‘a capital town’.
The Sef dynasty were driven out of their capital Njime by the rival
dynasty of the Bulala and went and founded another capital at
Gazerregomo. M. Carbou states that M. René Basset considers this
etymology of Bornu from ‘birni’ as very probable. In spite of this high
authority, the etymology is not convincing. ‘Birni’ or ‘Be̥rni’ might be
corrupted in Arabic writing into ‘Bornu’, or ‘Burnu’, but it is
important to remember that the natives never write ‘Bornu’ always
‘Barnu’. The Arabic vowel signs which we represent by i, e̥, and o or u,
are often interchangeable in Kanuri writing, e.g. I have seen the word
for ‘horse’ spelt ‘fir’, ‘fe̥r’, and less commonly ‘fur’, it could not
conceivably be spelt ‘far’. Cf. p. 311 of the present work.
APPENDIX XV
SELECTIONS FROM UNPUBLISHED CORRESPONDENCE
REGARDING OUDNEY, DENHAM, AND CLAPPERTON’S MISSION TO BORNU IN 1821-4
The following extracts are taken from the Tripoli Consular
Correspondence, now in the Record Office, and from papers in the
archives of the Royal Geographical Society. The latter are distinguished
by the letters [R. G. S.].
The following ‘précis’ from the accounts given of the travellers in the
_Dictionary of National Biography_ and in Nelson (vid. List of
Authorities) will help to elucidate the extracts.[556]
=Walter Oudney= (1790-1824), born of humble parents in Edinburgh, where
he picked up sufficient knowledge of medicine to become a surgeon’s mate
on board a man-of-war. 1814 promoted surgeon. At the Peace he returned
to Edinburgh, graduated M.D., when his inaugural dissertation was ‘de
Dysenteria Orientali’, and set up in private practice. Studied Chemistry
and Natural History, and had hopes of being appointed University
lecturer on Botany. He contributed a paper to the _Edinburgh Medical and
Surgical Journal_ for July, 1820, entitled ‘Cases of “Ileus” from a
twist of the Colon’. Appointed to the African Mission 1821, died at
Murmur near Katagum on January 12, 1824. Mrs. Larymore, in _A Resident’s
Wife in Nigeria_, p. 97, states that his grave is still pointed out by
the natives. Nelson says that Oudney asked Clapperton to hand his papers
to Barrow, i.e. Sir John Barrow, Secretary to the Admiralty, who edited
the account of Clapperton’s Second Expedition. In the Introduction to
the account of the First Expedition, however, Denham states that Oudney
practically left no papers. Nelson fears they may have been lost, but
remembering Oudney’s constant ill health, I think it is quite possible
that there were none beyond the few rough notes, half illegible and of
little interest, which are now among the Denham papers in the R. G. S.
Oudney is described as of middle stature and slight build, with a pale,
grave face, pleasing manners, and possessed of much enterprise and
perseverance. He was never married. In a letter to a friend from
Mourzouk, quoted by Nelson, Clapperton says that ‘Oudney is much admired
by the local ladies for the blackness of his beard, and myself for the
strength of my moustachoes’. Oudney, in a postscript on the same sheet,
says, ‘Clapperton is a strange-looking figure with his long sandy-
coloured beard and moustachoes’.
=Dixon Denham= (1786-1828), educated at Merchant Taylors School.
Articled to a solicitor, but in 1811 joined the army in the Peninsula as
a volunteer with the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers. In May, 1812, was
appointed a Second Lieutenant in that corps; promoted to First
Lieutenant in 1813. Distinguished himself at the battle of Toulouse by
carrying Sir James Douglas, commanding a Portuguese brigade, out of fire
when that officer had lost his leg. The following copy of a letter from
General Douglas to Col. Arbuthnot is among the Denham papers in the R.
G. S.:
MY DEAR ARBUTHNOT,
I am very sensible of the Marshal’s[557] kindness in desiring me to
recommend any officers of my Brigade to him who may have distinguished
themselves in the late affair. I avail myself of his permission to
mention for the third time Brigade-Major Maher and Lieutenant Denham of
the 8th Regt., my aide-de-camp. If His Excellency can in any way be
useful to Lt. Denham it will be a circumstance peculiarly grateful to
me. He is an officer I have lived in habits of the strictest intimacy
with—and whose conduct and attentions on the 10th[558] I am totally at a
loss how to repay.
Signed J. DOUGLAS,
Commg. 7th Brigade.[559]
Toulouse, 13 April, 1814.
To
Col. Arbuthnot,
Mily. Secretary,
&c., &c., &c.
Transferred to the 54th Foot,[560] who were in reserve at Huy during the
battle of Waterloo. In 1819 he entered the senior department of the
Royal Military College. In Oct. 1821 he purchased a company in the 3rd
Buffs. In Nov. 1821 he was put on half-pay, given the local rank of
Major in Africa, and sent to join the African Mission. Amongst other
things, he explored part of the shores of Lake Chad, which he named Lake
Waterloo. He returned to England in June, 1825, and was promoted to a
majority in the 17th Foot.[561] In Nov. 1826 he was given an unattached
lieutenant-colonelcy, and sent to Sierra Leone as superintendent of
liberated Africans[562] on the West Coast. In 1828 he was appointed
Lieutenant-Governor of the colony of Sierra Leone, but died there of
fever in May of the same year.
It is perhaps of some interest to note that Denham appears to have been
very modern in his ideas of the proper way of keeping in health in the
tropics. In letters to his brother [R. G. S.], written before they left
Mourzouk, he mentions that he always rises before sunrise, takes horse-
exercise, is very careful about where he gets his drinking and even his
bathing water from, and also says that he has a daily shower-bath, made
by pouring water through a wooden box with holes bored in it.
=Hugh Clapperton= (1788-1827), born at Annan in Dumfriesshire, son of
George Clapperton, surgeon.[563] At thirteen he was apprenticed as a
cabin-boy in a ship trading between Liverpool and America. He showed his
spirit by refusing to black the captain’s shoes. He was charged with a
petty act of smuggling at Liverpool, and sent on board the naval tender,
which carried him to Plymouth, where he was made cook’s mate.
Eventually, through the interest of his uncle in the Marines,[564] he
was made a midshipman, and served off the coast of Spain and in the East
Indies. On his way out to the East Indies he was ordered to take charge
of a boat which was sent to the relief of a ship in distress. The boat
was capsized and all the occupants drowned, except Clapperton and one
other. As he was being hoisted on board again, ‘he had his feelings
strongly excited, on hearing the wives of the Scottish soldiers on board
exclaiming, “Thank Heaven, it is na our ain kintryman, the bonny muckle
midshipman that’s drownded after a’!—”’
In the East Indies he joined the _Clorinde_, one of whose officers was
Mr. Mackenzie, youngest son of Lord Seaforth. Clapperton formed a great
friendship with this young man and nursed him through a dangerous
illness. Mackenzie eventually went home and died, but particularly asked
his mother, Lady Seaforth, to treat Clapperton as her own son. She did
all in her power to help Clapperton when he returned to England, but,
according to Nelson, Clapperton was too proud and touchy to accept much.
He had been deeply wounded by an insinuation of his messmates that he
was a tuft-hunter.
At the storming of Port Louis, Isle of France, in Nov. 1810, he was the
first in the breach and hauled down the French colours. He was next sent
to Canada and was cast away off the coast of Labrador, and lost the use
of the first joint of his left thumb from frost-bite; the thumb became
crooked and Clapperton got the nickname of ‘Hooky’. This is Nelson’s
account, but in the memoir by Clapperton’s uncle prefixed to the account
of his second expedition, it is stated that he lost his thumb when
trying to carry a boy during a retreat across the Canadian Lakes over
the ice.
At one time Clapperton thought of marrying an Indian princess and
settling in Canada. He used to give great feasts to the Indians, and
indeed this led to a deficiency in his accounts to the victualling
department. This deficiency was afterwards deducted from his half-pay
and involved him in financial difficulties, from which he was not
altogether relieved until his return from his first African expedition.
Whilst serving on the Canadian Lakes he used to have a hole broken in
the ice for him to bathe every morning, but could not persuade any of
his companions to join him.
He used to decorate his log-book with sketches of the sails carried by
his ship day by day, together with sketches of the coast, harbours, &c.
The officers who examined him for his promotion to lieutenant were so
struck with this log-book that they sent it to the Admiralty, where it
still remains.[565] He was promoted lieutenant in 1816.
In 1817 he returned to England on half-pay and became acquainted with
Dr. Oudney. Nelson tells an amusing story of how Clapperton was taken in
by a swindler. This gentleman, who represented himself to be a minister
of religion anxious to pay his tailor’s bill, borrowed £10 from
Clapperton, and in return asked him to dinner at Barclay’s Hotel in
Edinburgh.
‘An excellent dinner was set upon the table and discussed. Madeira,
champaign and other expensive wines were called for, and the two got
cheerful, joyous, happy, glorious. At length the swindler made a
pretence for going out a little, and Clapperton found he had to pay £2
or £3 for the dinner as well as the original loan, which he never saw
again.
He was appointed to the African Mission in 1821, returned to England in
June, 1825, and was promoted Commander. In the same year he was sent out
on a second expedition, whose object was to reach Sokoto from the West
Coast. Clapperton reached Sokoto, but died at Chungary or Jungavie, near
Sokoto, in April, 1827.[566] The account of his expedition was published
by his servant, Richard Lander. Clapperton had a noble figure; he was
six feet high and broad-chested.[567] He never married.
It will probably have been fairly obvious to any one who reads between
the lines of Denham and Clapperton’s account of their travels, that
their relations were not altogether harmonious. That they were not so is
abundantly clear from the Tripoli Consular Correspondence and the Denham
papers in the R. G. S., in fact, for a great part of the time they seem
hardly to have been on speaking terms. Doubtless there were faults on
both sides, though on the whole the correspondence leads one to side
with Denham. Clapperton himself admits in his journal on the road to
Sokoto during his second expedition that he was not a mild-tempered
man.[568] Oudney, his bosom friend, calls him ‘a rough diamond’, and he
appears to have been clearly in the wrong in refusing to obey Denham’s
orders, though the latter was very likely not tactful. It was not
unnatural, though it may sound snobbish, that the ex-A.D.C. to one of
Wellington’s brigadiers should find himself little in sympathy with the
ex-cabin-boy[569] and the self-taught surgeon’s mate, both of them
Scotchmen, a fact little likely to prejudice an Englishman of those days
in their favour. In a private letter to his brother Charles, now in the
R. G. S., Denham remarks of Oudney: ‘Neither had his professional or
pleasurable pursuits ever placed him in any other situations than the
gun-room of a man-of-war and his rooms in Edinburgh, twice on a horse in
his life, and except by water I think he had never travelled 30 miles
from Edinburgh.’
In another private letter to his brother Charles he calls him ‘Dominie
Sampson with more cunning’. In another, apropos of Clapperton, he
laments that a ‘gentleman’ had not been chosen as his assistant.
On Feb. 1, 1822, before they left Tripoli, Denham proposed to his
companions in writing that Europeans—except Dr. Oudney, who would be
busy with scientific work—should take it in turn to be ‘on guard’, or,
as we might say, ‘officer of the day’, for twenty-four hours. Duties—to
see sentries posted, stores issued, &c., &c. Dr. Oudney objected and the
scheme was not adopted. Oudney and Clapperton considered the proposal of
too ‘martial a nature’, and seem to have thought Denham was trying to
‘boss’ them.
Denham was, indeed, far from conciliatory, and there is a most offensive
letter from him to Clapperton, written some time after their arrival at
Kuka, in which he plainly states that he considers Clapperton’s conduct
throughout to have been unworthy of an officer and a gentleman, and
suggests that he shall mend his ways. The breach was very much widened
when Clapperton discovered that Denham had not informed him of a charge
of the grossest immorality that had been made against him by some of the
Arabs of the caravan. This is the charge referred to in the
Sheikh’s[570] letter to Clapperton printed on p. 430 of vol. ii of the
_Travels_. Denham afterwards wrote a formal statement disclaiming any
belief whatever in the charge, and explaining that the strained
relations existing between them had made him unwilling to mention the
subject.
The real fault of the matter lay with the Home Government, who had not
made the powers and position of the various members of the expedition
sufficiently clear; hence the jealousy and distrust, without which the
materials brought back by the Mission would probably have been more
ample than was actually the case. Denham and Clapperton were both fine
specimens of their respective Services, and deserve equal honour and
credit. The extracts from correspondence will now be intelligible.
The travelling names of the various members of the Mission were as
follows:
Major Denham. Rais Khaleel.
Dr. Oudney. Tibeeb.
Clapperton. Abdulla.