DJIMINI CYCLES IN A MORE COMMERCIAL REGION

GROWTH AFFECTS THE LAKE CHAD REGIONS
 OF BORNU AND LOGONE

Compare the accounts of two explorers
(Barth and Clapperton, in 1825 and 1855).

They may see important matters
and even illustrate them,
but do not grasp their implications
or pursue the economic information that slips in:
So we interpret 

 -- 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

• Bornu toward 1825

° The economy is comparable to that of 15th-century France

and this horseman resembles a knight

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 / Clapperton

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

 Same

...yet giant turbans hamper movement and the barrier isolates.  

  

• Logone,

farther from the Saharan trade
and so more primitive, 

is changing more slowly 

° Ways to discourage 
the emergence of independent producers  

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

* Clapperton sees iron money for the first time, and gives it a rare illustration:

  

° But commerce expands
and power becomes stronger,
as in Djimini  

* Economic transformation: 
weaving and dyeing appear in the 18th century.

* Reinforced power: 

-- Toward 1700, chieftaincies unite, that is, at about the time that traders smash Kong's monopoly of routes to the south and reach Djimini.

-- Toward 1800, the ruler becomes nominally Muslim, a sign of centralization since power comes from God. The change that coincides with Gnapon's take-over.

• 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.

° 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 replace 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 receives him behind a curtain.

The economy is developing 
 but authority stays the same:
Watch out. 

*     *     *

Next,
An explorer is taken for a messianic leader