TRANSFORMATION RIPPLES DOWN FROM THE MORE COMMERCIAL NORTH

BORNU, AMONG THE FIRST CENTERS OF TRANS-SAHARAN TRADE, IS CHANGING. SO IS, THOUGH MORE SLOWLY, THE STATE OF LOGONE ON ITS BORDER 

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.

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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 has recently become head of the 1000-year-old kingdom. He is stronger than the obese kings, but constraints still hem him in:

Shehu al-Hajj Muhammad al-Kânemi / same source / 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.  

  

Logone, farther from the Saharan trade route, keeps traditional restraints on growth:

• The king offers the mission an immense quantity of supplies, much more than it can consume, which makes obtaining them from local producers pointless.

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

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• But commerce expands and power becomes stronger, as in Djimini. Weaving and dyeing appear in the 18th century. Stronger power follows the economic changes that explosive innovation implies: Toward 1700, chieftaincies unite and toward 1800 the king becomes nominally Muslim, a sign of centralization since power comes from God.  

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A generation later in Bornu...

• 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 at the same time: later than in Djimini, because the king has more power to reject them 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. (Who owns them, the oligarchy or independent producers? Barth does not say.)  

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, and 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