Initially called the Kingdom of Kanem, it was in the 12th century that this vast empire took the name of Kanem-Bornou. This vast kingdom extended over the territory that corresponds to the current North of Chad. The city of Njimi was established as the capital and the kingdom was made up of the Kanouri, the people of Kanem.
Birth of the Kingdom
History traces the founding of the kingdom of Kanem by the Toubou tribe. A legend tells that a man from Yemen, named Sef, was the initiator of the royal Sefuwa Magumi dynasty. With growing authority, the Sefuwa succeeded in controlling the territories of Bornou, Kaouar and Djado in the 11th century. Going further, the Sefuwa tightly control the eastern Sahara as far as Mourzouk, Borkou, Fitri, reaching the Hausa kingdoms in the west. They erect all the territories under their yoke into a kingdom, the kingdom of Kanem. And in the 12th century, it took the name of Kanem-Bornou.
In the management of the territory, the king, also called Maï, is surrounded by twelve main officers of the kingdom. Around the 1300s, the kingdom experienced tumults which weakened it.
Heyday of the kingdom
During the 12th century, the kingdom of Kanem-Bornou experienced its first moment of glory. The empire controls the wells of the Sahara, which makes it master of the commercial relations maintained with the Mediterranean and the East. In addition to trade, the kingdom is politically strong with alliances forged with Egypt and with the Hafsids of Tunis. The prestige of the Sefuwa is great throughout Mediterranean Africa: it is based on the military power and the cultural influence of the Kanemia kingdom. A quarrel in the 13th century weakens the kingdom and leaves a gateway to the Bulala to invade the kingdom and overthrow the Kanem. The survivors of the Sefuwa tribe fled to western Chad and founded the kingdom of Bornou.
The new kingdom of Bornou succeeded in reconquering Kanem back in the 16th century and the territory became Kanem-Bornou once more. It therefore begins a new climax. Idriss Alaoma, king at the time, extended his kingdom to the territories of present-day Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Nigeria, including the kingdom of Kwararafa in the Middle Belt region of Nigeria. The lands of the kingdom were rich in millet, cotton, cattle. But the economic importance of the empire is essentially due to an exceptionally good geographical position. As a crossroads of trade routes that cross Africa from east to west and trans-Saharan tracks, Bornou controlled trade between the Sahel and Sudan.
Fall of the kingdom
The 19th century marked the end of Kanem-Bornou as a powerful kingdom. Indeed, the Sudanese slave trader Rabah of the old Sultanate of Sennar devastated the region and imposed himself as regent. In 1901, Rabbah was killed by the French army and the territories under his domination were divided between French, British and Germans.
