4.4.1. GROWTH RIPPLES DOWN FROM THE SAHARAN FRINGE

THE MISAKULLAH STORY FORESHADOWS REGIONAL UPHEAVAL

Saharan trade leads to the kingdom of du Kanem, much like that of Songhay. 

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The king is white: the man who made the map invents.

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Trade routes toward 1400.

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Comparing the accounts of two explorers in Bornu (Northern Nigeria) 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.

Trade routes through the central Sahara lead to Bornu, a kingdom that resembles those of the Middle Niger.

Bornu toward 1825:

(The shortened name used for Kanem-Bornu in the 19th-century)

• 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...

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But the giant turban hampers movement and the barrier isolates.  

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Logone, a state south of Bornu so farther from Saharan trade, changes more slowly, and in 1825 has kept traditional restraints on growth:

• To keep the mission from seeking supplies from local producers the king offers the mission far more supplies than it can consume.

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

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• Commerce expands and power grows. Weaving and dyeing appear at about the time that commercial people overthrow the king of Kong and open the routes to the south (toward 1800). Chieftaincies unite and the king becomes nominally Muslim, a sign of strength since he claims that power comes from God. 

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In Bornu a generation later...

• Barth finds that a revolution has defeated the oldest nobility, the descendants of the men with the huge turbans.

• Cowry use follows that revolution. 

While 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. 

-- Barth, reference coming.

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

• The government stays the same: The ruler receives Barth behind a curtain and provides him with enough supplies for a hundred people.

The economy is developing 
 but authority is unchanged:
For now.

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Next,
4.4.2.
An explorer is taken for the messiah