IV.3. CYCLES OF GROWTH, CONFLICT AND NEW POWER

4.3. MENU: Cycles: Growth. Conflict. New power

THROUGHOUT THE SAHEL CIVIL WARS BREAK OUT,  NEW COMMERCIAL FORCES WIN AND STRONGER POWER SPRINGS UP TO CONTAIN THEM 

In the most developed regions charismatic leaders, advanced merchants and destabilized crowds establish states of an unprecedented kind — theocracies.

Turmoil like that of Djimini takes place in much of the light green zone, with far more intensity.

Growth, destabilization 

and much more control

• Change ripples down from the more commercial north  

• An explorer is taken for a messianic leader   

• "Everywhere the humble show their masters their teeth"   

• A theocracy amps up growth...

•  Then contains it

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Next,  

Change ripples down from the more commercial north

CHANGE RIPPLES DOWN FROM THE MORE COMMERCIAL NORTH

A TRANSFORMATION LIKE THAT OF THE MIDDLE NIGER TAKES PLACE TO THE EAST

The trade route through the Sahara leads to Bornu, a kingdom that resembles those of the Middle Niger. Comparing the accounts of two explorers,* in 1825 and 1855, shows signs of coming storm.

 -- Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa in 1821, 1822, 1823
by Captain Hugh Clapperton, London, 1826

-- Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa by Heinrich Barth, London, 1855

Regions at the epicenter of Boko Haram now.

# # #

Bornu toward 1825:

• The economy is comparable to that of 15th-century France. This horseman resembles a knight:

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Clapperton's narrative

• A theocratic ruler becomes head of the 1000-year-old kingdom. He is stronger than the former obese kings, but constraints still hem him in:

Shehu al-Hajj Muhammad al-Kânemi, Clapperton / zoom

White robes represent saintliness and being the representative of God strengthens authority...

Zoom

But the giant turban hampers movement and the barrier isolates.  

  

Logone, a state south of Bornu so farther from the Saharan trade route, keeps traditional restraints on growth:

• The king offers the mission many more supplies than it can consume, which makes obtaining them from local producers pointless.

• Clapperton sees an iron for the first time and gives it a rare illustration:

Zoom (no text)

 

• But commerce is expanding and power becoming stronger, as in Djimini. Weaving and dyeing appear in the 18th century. Chieftaincies unite at about the same time and toward 1800 the king becomes nominally Muslim, a sign of centralization since it brings the claim that power comes from God.

# # #

In Bornu a generation later...

• Barth finds that a revolution has defeated the oldest nobility, that is, the descendants of the men with the huge turbans. The ruler is free of physical constraints. 

• Cowries arrive with that revolution. The change takes place decades later than in Djimini, because the king is more powerful than the Kondougou chief.

In Logone...

•  Commercial production expands:

Cotton is grown, "weaving and dyeing are here carried on to a considerable extent, new land is being cleared, a market is "fairly active," and "field-hand villages" grow up during the rainy season. 

• Cotton bands have replaced the iron money. They are a divisible currency, though less so than cowries : one band = eight cowries.   

• But the government remains the same: The ruler continues to provide a huge quantity of supplies, enough for a hundred people though Barth is alone. He receives him behind a curtain.

The economy is developing 
 but authority stays the same:
It should watch out. 

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Next,
An explorer is taken for a messianic leader

AN EXPLORER IS TAKEN FOR A MESSIANIC LEADER

BARTH UNWITTINGLY BEHAVES AS AN AGITATOR AND AUTHORITIES ARREST HIM 

Bagirmi officials think he will "upset the kingdom" should he arrive in the absence of the sultan, who is on a slaving expedition.

Adapted from a Google map

He is arrested for 18 days, four of them in irons. The sultan eventually lets him leave but not explore Bagirmi, a polite way of saying, "Get out of here and don't come back."

His trouble comes from how on his way from Logone to Bagirmi, he seems to want to attract followers: He...

• Gives away so much wealth (in needles) that he is called "the needle prince:" Hand-outs are meant to gain partisans.

• Shares provisions of the Logone ruler with a caravan leader, not realizing that  he is acting like a king. 

• Sits on a carpet until he learns it a prerogative of kings.   

• Appears to have supernatural powers. 

• That is partly due to bad luck: When thunderclouds disperse as he leaves his hut, he is called "king of the high regions." Then he stays in his hut as much as possible, inaccessibility probably adding to his aura.

• Distributing medicines sparks belief in his magic: On his expulsion, crowds follow him "all the way from Bagirmi" to obtain them.

As well, no one has seen a white person. That physical oddity makes him distinct.  

 

# # #

The crowds themselves, which seem to spring up out of nowhere, reveal the destabilization the economic growth brings. The Logone ruler does not have the power to control it.  

In medieval Europe millenniel movements begin at the end of the 11th century in places where commerce expands (the Rhine valley, parts of northern France and Belgium and later, large parts of Europe). There are no records of such turmoil in regions where there is little economic growth. 

                                                                    -- The Pursuit of the Millenium by Herman Cohn, Oxford, 1957, p. 22 and on.

It is a classic study of European revolutionary messianism.

Those crowds foreshadow the mass movements that will soon sweep the savannah.

Kanembu warriors, "Le Tour du monde," ed. Elysée Reclus, 1885

(The Kanembu: a Bornu population)

A messianic leader? Vigorous and unencumbered, riding a white steed, whom a disciplined infantry follows (please read on)...

When lands are lost,
the old ways are irretrievably gone,

social ties dissolved
 and ancestral beliefs no longer reassure,
people may flock to leaders who are outside the norm —
including a European explorer of Africa. 

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Next,

 "Everywhere the humble show the masters their teeth"

"EVERYWHERE THE HUMBLE SHOW THE MASTERS THEIR TEETH"

-- Citation: Dakar archives, 1857

This page and the next summarize Aubin, pp. 457-94

UPHEAVALS SWEEP THE SAVANNAH

A precocious movement begins in the mid-1850's on the alluvial plain of the Senegal River and establishes a theocracy on the Middle Niger. 

(In 1854)

Factors that made the Futa Toro region distinct:  

• Cattle-raising gave its Toucouleur population a sense of private property that was unusual for the time. Many became traders.

Adapted from a Google map

• The French outpost of Saint-Louis stimulated production, especially after 1830 when the Industrial Revolution led to demanding more hides and peanuts. As well, a greater need for provisions, for the growing population* and for slaves and slave-ship crews with the slave trade at its height.

* In the 1780's 6,000 people, in the 1850's 15,000.

-- Aubin, note p. 454.

 Zoom (among other pictures)

Inauguration of the bridge on the right; costumes suggest the 1850's

 

# # #

Growth enriches some, but many lose their lands and points of reference.

• An early millennial movement deepens social cleavages by letting almamies (Muslim leaders), who are deeply involved in commercial production and long-distance trade, control communal landholdings and impose tithes, which they often keep.

 -- Aubin pp. 465-6, n. 109-116.

   

• Toucouleur prophets appear from the 1770's. In 1830, one of them preaches "the spirit of pillage and devastation" against infidels and "an army of saints [...] ready for martydom [...] grows from village to village [...] with prayer-beads in hand, heads shaved, marches before him [...]". 

-- Abbott P.D. Boilat, 
Esquisses sénégalaises,1853, p. 411.

• In the 1840's, bands of ragged marauders threaten a traveller's boat.

-- Anne Raffenel, 

Voyage en Sénégambie occidentale, 1846, I, pp. 38-9, 47, 177-8, 267-8.

In the early 1850's al-hajj Umar Tall, a Toucouleur merchant, scholar and rare West African to have been to Mecca, calls for a society based on divine law.

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His followers include one fourth of the Toucouleur population

and subordinates from other ethnic groups: peasants who have lost their lands, slaves and lineage minors.

 -- Dakar archives, 1880.

• They hope for lands and booty, and the collapse of their former communities predisposes them to accept a new one.

• Those armies contrast with royal ones: Pursued, surrounded, they did not change their regular pace and let themselves be killed rather than flee." 

-- Dakar archives, 1880.

The Futa Toro Army on the Match, 1820 / zoom

But the authorities resist. 

Sign of their strength — there are no markets.

-- Raffenel I, 233.

Umar leads his following to the Niger.

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 Next,

A theocracy amps up growth...

A THEOCRACY AMPS UP GROWTH...

MUSLIM LAW ENCOURAGES COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION 

So the most dynamic traders of the Middle Niger a theocracy. 

(That of al-hajj Umar, the Tukulor confederation of Segu, 1861-1890)

Adapted from a Google map

The capital is the town of Ségou, on the Middle Niger.

 It uses Islamic law to...

• Impose private landownership 

When Umar and his crowd arrive, communal property is at the heart of local Muslim as well as animist social structure. But Islamic law demands division among heirs, and the regime sends soldier-backed judges to enforce it.

By the 1890's all the land in the densely-populated Segu area is privately held, and produces millet for fifty local markets.

Communal organization is gone.

-- Dakar archives, 1895.

• Obtain labor through "holy wars" (A page in the next chapter says more):

Drawing of the time

 Al-hajj Umar Tall 

A robe and headdress that do not encumber and steps, not a barrier, steps increase the aura.

"He said he was a mere soldier of Mohammed, but that gave him infinitely more power than that of the usual king."  

 -- An official mentioned in Dakar archives, 1887, 
citing Amadou Tall, Umar's son and successor.

• Let rulers choose their heirs and transmit their wealth to them.

Along the Senegal and Niger, succession that passed from brother to brother ensured short reigns and prevented a single dynasty from accumulating wealth. But now the leader alone possesses "baraka" (divine grace), and can convey it to his chosen heir.

Umar chooses his son Amadu, who too appoints his successor.

And keeps the treasure. When his father's followers accuse him of "stinginess" —  the usual complaint when a king does not share  — he hires soldiers of his own. He takes 20 camel-loads of gold (500 kilos) on campaign and the French find gold jewels valued at 300,000 francs buried in the palace.

-- Aubin p. 476, notes 161, 163, 164.

# # #

Doctrine is adapted to practical needs: Segu becomes a pilgrimage destination equal to Mecca and Amadu has 800 wives.

1920's postcard

The pilgrimage reinforces the theocracy and the wives let all groups hope that a son of theirs come to power. 

-- Mecca: Paul Soleillet, 
Voyages et découvertes dans le Sahara et dans le Soudan, 1887, p. 233. 

-- Wives: Lt. de vaisseau Mage,
 Voyage dans le Soudan occidental, 1868, p. 408.

Enforcing such change requires stronger authority: The theocratic rulers contrast with the animist or syncretist rulers who maintain the status quo. 

# # #

To understand the hold of mass philosophies,

set them in their economic contexts

and observe the practical effects of applying them.

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Next,

Then contains it

• 
  

THEN CONTAINS IT

AMADU RESTRAINS THE MOST ASSERTIVE TRADERS

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Hausa silver traders, 1920's

Hausa legacies go to the State.  

They are the traders who bring textile production to Djimini and whom several kingdoms expel.

Umar shows his favor to them when he makes his successor Amadu, his son by a Hausa wife, as his successor. Amadu looks Hausa and speaks Hausa, and a Hausa interlocutor in Segu told me that his father and one of Amadu's sons exchanged cordial visits.

Yet they cannot transmit their wealth.

 -- Dakar archives, 1895

As for the Soninke, Amadu says, "Their fortunes are like the fleece of sheep, which grows back as one cuts it."

-- Bamako archives, 1897

 In limiting profits
his theocracy remains traditional.

End of this section.

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Next section,

IV.4

Back to Djimini: Violence reappears