The Sao people have existed according to researchers for almost 1800 years before our era. Between the year 930 and the year 970 they are present south of Lake Chad. But according to historians they came to mix in this place with a population living there before them. This population lived there since the year 425 before Jesus Christ. Together they formed the Sao Empire. The settlement was formed in a wave of three migrations. The first migration consisted of hunters armed with spears and accompanied by hounds. The second migration also by hunters, but these armed with bows and arrows. The third and last migration is made up of fishermen equipped with nets from the shores of Lake Chad. The Sao therefore constitute a people resulting from the grouping of several ethnic groups.
Climbing and way of life
From the 6th century, this mixed people made up of strong men undertook the construction of their homes. Architects in essence, they build gigantic cities surrounded by dry land and surrounded by fortifications and ramparts. This model of construction seduces the other peoples and surrounding kingdoms. The Sao are therefore consulted for the quality of their architecture. This is how their political weight increased and the Empire developed important diplomatic relations with the kingdom of Kanem established in eastern Chad and made up of the Kanuri people.
Being great architects, their way of life was essentially based on clay sculpture.
Despite their age, they had the beginnings of modernity. Indeed, the Sao buried their dead in tombs of three and sometimes 4 levels. Graves furnished with pillows on which the heads of the deceased rested. This mode of burial has evolved. Thus, during the period considered the classical period of the Sao, they opted for jars, ancestors of today’s coffins. These jars were made of terracotta, fully or partially decorated with chevrons and symbolic patterns. The lower jar, in which the dead body was placed in the fetal position, was closed either by another jar of the same size, vertically opposed edge to edge, or, more frequently, by another pottery, of the same ovoid shape but smaller in size.
The Sao people have been recognized worldwide for their political and artistic genius. Politically, city-states constituted the Empire. These city-states developed a strong sense of patriotism. The cities were barricaded by strong walls which, in addition to dominating the life of the countryside, also protected it. The government was finely structured with a hierarchical organization headed by a divine guide. The latter appeared very rarely publicly except during ceremonies, where they were covered and out of sight. Women were not marginalized among the Sao. On the contrary, the latter occupied a respectable place like the Queen Mother and the elder sister of the King who exercised a powerful political influence on the decentralized governments of the States.
Composed mainly of sedentary farmers, the Sao had in their ranks artistic and industrial geniuses. They worked brilliantly with clay and various metals to make household utensils, tools and works of art for religious use. Relics and artifacts found from this empire included funerary urns, statues of animals and human beings made from clay and bronze. According to archaeologists, these objects date from the year 700 after Jesus Christ. The Sao empire has long resisted the onslaught of the Kanem and Bornu empires, which sufficiently proves the solidity of their government.
Decline of the Sao Empire
The arrival of the Islamic religion will contribute to the fall of the Sao Empire. Indeed, from the arrival of Islam in the 16th century, the religion will prohibit any representation among the Sao. The latter can no longer build their clay figurines.
Also, relations with the kingdom of Kanem were deteriorating. Wars and guerrillas broke out between the two kingdoms. If victories and defeats alternate, the tide will definitely turn for the Sao when the people of Boulala, originally from Yemen, seize Kanem and definitively drive the Sao out of the region. This is the end of the Sao Empire. The survivors of this people will be exterminated for the most part later by the Massa and the Bornu. Those who managed to escape settled in northwest Cameroon, where they mixed with the Massa populations settled there to create the Kotoko ethnic group. The territory of the Sao Empire extended over present-day Chad, part of Nigeria and Cameroon.
