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Firearms in the Central Sudan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Humphrey J. Fisher  and
Virginia Rowland
Humphrey J. Fisher
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
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Extract

The earliest mention of firearms in the central Sudan appears to be from the time of Idris Alooma, ruler of Bornu in the latter part of the sixteenth century. Ibn Fartuwa says of Alooma:

Among the benefits which God (Most High) of His bounty, beneficence, generosity, and constancy conferred upon the Sultan was the acquisition of Turkish musketeers and numerous household slaves who became skilled in firing muskets.

Type
Papers on Firearms in Sub-Saharan Africa, I
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , April 1971 , pp. 215 - 239
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

1 Ahined, ibn Fartuwa, A history of the first twelve years of the reign of Mai Idris Alooma of Bornu (1571–1583) (Lagos, 1926), II. Palmer, in his introduction (p. 3), suggests that the ‘mosque of the Armi’, which Ibn Fartuwa mentions in his other book, may have been a mosque founded by Turks, called Rumi from the Byzantine empire (al-Rum) which they had conquered; but he adds that it is more probable that the term has its usual Sudanese meaning of North African sharpshooter. In either case, the presence of foreign soldiery, skilled in firearms, is implied. Perhaps we have here an early parallel for later groups, such as the Chokwe and the Griquas, specializing in the use of guns elsewhere in Africa.Google Scholar

2 For example, Froelich, J.-C., Les Musulmans d'Afrique noire (1962), 49–50, says that Alooma tried to put a little order in his army, purchased muskets and powder in Egypt while on the pilgrimage, brought Turkish instructors to Bornu, and created a corps of musketeers especially for use against the pagan Negroes of the south.Google Scholar

3 For example, Urvoy, Y. (Histoire de l'empire de Bornou, Paris, 1949 (reprinted Amsterdam, 1968), 76, 78) said that Alooma's early pilgrimage and especially his stay in Egypt must have been–revealing phrase–instructive, allowing him to note the value of firearms, which he later acquired in considerable numbers through caravan trade.Google Scholar

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6 Martin, B. G. (‘Kanem, Bornu and the Fazzān: notes on the political history of a trade route’, J. Afr. Hist. (1969), 25 and n.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar suggested this; but the passage which he cites, from Giovanni Lorenzo d'Anania, L'Universale fabrica del mondo, overo cosmografia (Venice, 1582), 349–50, does not specify that the Turks in Bornu were warriors, and might indeed be read as suggesting that they were clerics.Google Scholar

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8 Ibid. 79; and ‘Chronologie des rois de Borno, de 1512 à 1677’, extracts from the same doctor, Bull. de la Soc. de Géographie (Paris, 1849), 254.Google Scholar The doctor says this was in the time of Mai Abdullah, but letters from the Istanbul archives in May 1577 (see Martin, B. G., ‘Mai Idris of Bornu and the Ottoman Turks, 1576–1578’, in Stern, S. M., ed., Documents from Islamic Chanceries (Oxford 1971)) are addressed to Mai Idris, i.e. Alooma.Google Scholar

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10 de, la RonciÈre, op. cit. 76, 79.Google Scholar

11 Ibid. 84.

12 Ibid. 88.

13 Patterson, J. R, Kanuri songs (Lagos, 1926), vi, 9.Google Scholar

14 Arkell, A. J., A History of the Sudan from earliest times to 1821 (London, 1961), 212–3.Google Scholar Part of the evidence is a sixteenth-century musketball found in the ruins of Am Fara. More moderate statements come, for example, from Fage, J. D. (An introduction to the history of West Africa (Cambridge 1962), 36), who thought the increase of Alooma's power through firearms and Turkish military instructors enabled him to extract tribute from the Bujala in Kanem, and to extend his influence west to Hausa and south towards the Benue.Google Scholar

15 Ahmad, ibn Fartuwa, ‘The Kanem Wars’, in Palmer, H. R., Sudanese memoirs (Lagos, 1928, reprinted 1967), 1, 31.Google Scholar

16 As does Schultze, A., The sultanate of Bornu (London, 1953, reprinted 1968), 17.Google Scholar

17 A history of the first twelve years …, 12; followed by Urvoy, , Histoire, 76, 78, and others.Google Scholar

18 A history of the first twelve years…, 25 ff.

19 There is an interesting parallel with Kanajeji, Sarkin Kano (c. 1390–1410), said to have been the first to introduce quilted armour, iron helmets and coats of mail. He brought these in, following heavy losses in a campaign against Umbatu, and failed again. The following year he remained in the field, preventing the enemy from cultivating for two years, until they were starved into submission and paid tribute in their own children as slaves–‘The Kano Chronicle’, in Palmer, H. R., Sudanese Memoirs, III, 107.Google Scholar

20 E.g. ‘The Kanem wars’, 48, 49, 54.

21 A history of the first twelve years…, 90; Palmer, the editor, corrects 53 tO 33.Google Scholar

22 ‘Kano Chronicle’, Palmer, , Sudanese Memoirs, III, 109.Google Scholar Cf. H. Barth, Travels (London, 1857–1858), II, 641; Smith, M. G., ‘The beginnings of Hausa society, A.D. 1000–1500’, in Vansina, J. et al. The Historian in Tropical Africa (1964), 347–8.Google Scholar

23 ‘Kano Chronicle’, Palmer, , Sudanese Memoirs, III, 109–6.Google Scholar Kumbari b. Sharefa reigned 1731–43; he was notorious for excessive taxation. Babba Zaki b. Yaji reigned 1768−76; he imitated the Arabs of Kano in almost everything. These dates, estimated by Palmer, should be regarded very tentatively. During the seventeenth century it had been horses and mail coats that attracted military attention (ibid. 117–18). It is interesting that the Song of Bagauda, which remembers Babba Zaki, and credits him with strong cavalry wearing protective quilting, and with bodyguards, and with making the kingship remote, does not mention his guns; cf. M. Hiskett, ‘The “Song of Bagauda”: A Hausa king list and homily in verse’, Bull. S.O.A.S. (1965), 118.

24 Gustav, Nachtigal, Sahara und Sudan (Berlin, 1879–1889), 111, 367. Nachtigal writes that this sultan killed one of his sons by knocking his head in with the butt of a musket: 111, 370.Google Scholar

25 Ibid. 367.

26 Arkell, , A history, 215;Google Scholar cf. Lampen, C. D., ‘History of Darfur’, Sudan Notes and Records, XXXI (1950), 2, 185.Google Scholar

27 Nachtigal, , Sahara und Sudan, III, 437, 437; Aufseher der alten Königsflinten.Google Scholar

28 Mohammed, ibn-Omar el-Tounsy, Voyage au Ouadây (Paris 1851), 93 ff.Google Scholar

29 El, -Tounsy, Ouaday, 166.Google Scholar

30 He describes Sultan Abd ul-Kerim Sabun entering Massenya to ‘les descharges de mousqueterie’, Ouaday, 158.Google Scholar

31 Bovill, E. W. (ed.), Missions to the Niger, III: the Bornu Mission, 1822–25, Part 2, Hakluyt Society, Cambridge, 1964, 550.Google Scholar

32 Ibid. 552.

33 Greenberg, J. H., ‘Linguistic evidence for the influence of the Kanuri on the Hausa’, J. Aft. Hist., I, 2 (1960), 211, states that such evidence suggests that guns came into Hausa via Libya/Bornu.Google Scholar

34 According to Barth, Travels, iii, 531, Sabun was inspired to establish direct commerce with the ports of the Mediterranean coast to get those manufactures which, before the spoil of Bagirmi, had been almost unknown to Waday.Google Scholar

35 Abdullah, ibn Muhammad (trans. and ed. by Mervin, Hiskett), Tazyin al- Waraqat (Ibadan 1963), 108. In 1807 (?),Google Scholar at Dan Yahaya the Habe ruler of Kano, Aiwali, was defeated by the Fulani, whose archers did great execution among his heavy cavalry, despite their armour; Johnston, H. A. S., The Fulam Empire of Sokoto (London, 1967), 67.Google Scholar

36 Schultze, , The sultanate of Bornu, 260.Google Scholar

37 Ba, A. H. and Daget, J., L'Empirepeul du Macina (Paris, 1962), I, 36–7.Google Scholar

38 Ibid.39–40.

39 Clapperton, H., Journal of a second expedition (London, 1829), 186–8.Google Scholar

40 Ibid. 195.

41 Lander, in ibid. 283.

42 Clapperton, ibid, 159.

43 Johnston, , The Fulani Empire of Sohoto, 197.Google Scholar

44 East, P. M., Stories of Old Adamawa (1993), 55, 79.Google Scholar It is perhaps indicative of the relative unimportance of firearms that in Tremearne's collection of Hausa stories there are very few references to guns: one speaks of gunmen being sent to kill somebody in ambush. Tremearne, A. J., Hausa Superstitions and Customs (1913), 222, note on 467–8, says the guns were long muzzle-loading weapons of modern make, from Birming-. ham, usually called Dane guns; see Figs. 100, 101.Google Scholar

45 El, -Tounsy, Ouaday, 194–5.Google Scholar

46 We are grateful to Mr R. S. O'Fahey for this information.

47 ‘Ch.and Coeur, M. Le, Grammaire et textes Teda-Daza, Mémoires de I'I.F.A.N., (Dakar, 1956), 140.Google Scholar

48 Another example of this is given by Burckhardt, who remarks of Sabun of Wadai that ‘among the Sultan's troops are a few armed with firelocks, and he has several small guns, that have lately been given to him by the Bey of Tripoli’. Travels in Nubia (London, 1819), 486.Google Scholar

49 Cf. section on ‘Kings and Arsenals’, below for examples of this.

50 Lyon, G. F., A Narrative of Travels in Northern Africa in the Years 1818, 1819 and 1820 (London, 1821), 153.Google Scholar

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52 d'Escayrac, de Lauture, P.-H.-S., Le Desert et le Soudan (Paris, 1858), 551.Google Scholar

53 Cf.Shukri, M. F., The Khedive Ismail and Slavery in the Sudan (1863–1879) (Cairo, 1938), 95, 132 and 191.Google Scholar

54 Hill, R., Egypt in the Sudan 1820–1881 (London, 1959), 30.Google Scholar

55 Ibid. 30.

56 Lampen, , 188.Google Scholar

57 George, Schweinfurth (trans. E. E. Frewer), The Heart of Africa: Three Years’ Travels and Adventures in the Unexplored Regions of Central Africa (London, 1873), III, 417.Google Scholar

58 In Wadai, Nachtigal observed that Jellaba merchants from the Nile Valley sold percussion guns of poor quality: 111, 240.Google Scholar

59 Gray, R., A History of the Southern Sudan, 1839–99 (Oxford, 1961), 67 and 72.Google Scholar

60 This is best demonstrated by comparing the numbers of firearms owned by three different sultans of Wadai: Muhammad Saleh ash-Sharif (1836–58), 300 guns; Ali (1859–74), 4,000 flintlocks; Doudmourra (1902–9), 10,000-seized by the French-of which one quarter were a tir rapide. Cf. Barth, , Travels, III, 554 Nachtigal, Sahara und Sudan, III, 240;Google ScholarCarbou, H., La Région du Tchad et du Ouadai (Paris, 1952), II 263.Google ScholarGaden, H. (‘Etats musulmans de l'afrique centrale et leurs rapports avec la Mecque et Constantinople’, Questions diplomatiques et coloniales (1907), 445) said that Doudmourra, preferring to buy rapid-fire weapons and cartridges from Egypt, sent Wadai's traditional tribute to Constantinople only once, and to Mecca not at all.Google Scholar

61 Cf. forthcoming article in J. Afr. Hist. by Guy, J. J., ‘Notes on the Firearms in the Zulu Kingdom’, Khedive Ismail in 1866–7 adopted a similar policy and sent a military mission to Europe which bought modem weapons to replace the muzzle-loaders used by the Egyptian army. These included breech-loading Krupp artillery left over from the Prussian wars and Remington rifles from the United States. Cf. Hill, Egypt in the Sudan, 109.Google Scholar

62 Cf.Adu Boahen, A., Britain, the Sahara and the Western Sudan 1788–1861 (Oxford, 1965), 109–11.Google Scholar

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65 Ibid., 163.

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67 Cf.Evans-Pritchard, E. E., The Sanusi of Cyrenaica (Oxford, 1949), 25–2.Google Scholar

68 Karl, W. Kumm, From Hausaland to Egypt, through the Sudan (London, 1910), 115.Google Scholar Cf. Vischer, Hans, Across the Sahara from Tripoli to Bornu (London, 1910), 67; in 1906, Vischer noted that ‘quantities of modem arms have been and still are imported from [Cyrenaica to Kufra the coast of an important Sanusi zawiya], in spite of Turkish vigilance and the representations of many Consuls. European guns and rifles of every pattem and origin, from the old blunderbuss to the latest Mauser pistol, can be found in most towns along the North African coast, and will be supplied by unscrupulous agents of respectable firms as long as there is a profit.’Google Scholar

69 Robert, de Caix, ‘Les Evénements du Ouadai’, Bull. Corn. Af. Fr. (1950), 360.Google Scholar

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74 Nachtigal, , Sahara und Sudan, II, 72.Google ScholarDoughty, C. M. (Arabia deserta, 1923, I, 490, 500) described how bullets were sometimes made in Arabia of lead cast over a pebble; the resultant shot was light, and neither well centred nor round, yet a marksman might shoot within an arm's length at 200 paces. The lead was sometimes bought from passing hajj caravans. Mineral matter, falling from sand-cliffs, if round enough, might be used without lead.Google Scholar

75 E.g. Carbou, , La région, II, 265.Google Scholar

76 Nachtigal, , Sahara und Sudan, II, 32; he added that the Awlad Sulayman, a prominent desert tribe, dependent on their firearms, were fussy about the powder they used. Lyon, Narrative, 41, reported that the Arabs generally procured their powder and lead from Tripoli, though some were able to make an inferior kind themselves.Google Scholar

77 Nachtigal, , Sahara und Sudan, II, 479.Google Scholar

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82 Nachtigal, , Sahara und Sudan, II, 718.Google Scholar

83 Cf.Nachtigal, , Sahara und Sudan, II, 718,Google Scholar and Julien, , ‘Dar-Ouadai,’ 57–8.Google Scholar

84 Cf.Al-Shinqiti, , who says that the smiths of Timbuktu, who are regarded as of Jewish origin, make little knives and repair firearms which, however, they cannot manufacture: Al-Wasit fi tarajim udaba Shinqit (Cairo, 1911), 495; El Wasit, translated by Mourad Teffahi (Senegal, 1953), 117–18. The French translation uses the word maalein, but the Arabic original does not; guns are banadiq, but the smiths call them madafi’.Google Scholar

85 Jean, Ferrandi, ‘Abéché’, Bulletin de la Comité de l'Afrique Fran caise, Renseignements Coloniaux (1912), 369. Carbou does not mention the office of aqid al-bandaqia, but does write that one Ousta Kheir served for a short time as Aqid es-Salamat during the reign of Doudmourra, who eventually had him executed. According to Ferrendi, the French kept this man in office after the occupation of Wadail Carbou, La région II, 254; Ferrandi, ‘Abéché’, 369. Accounts of the firearms found in the sultan's palace in Abeshr agree that Doudmourra's guns were in excellent condition; cf. Delacommune, ‘Dans l'est du Ouadai’, Bull. Corn. Af. Fr., Ren. Col. (1910), 236. According to Nachtigal, Sahara und Sudan, III, 231, the post of Aqid es-Salamat was one of the most important military appointments.Google Scholar

86 Jennings, -Bramley, ‘Tales’, 176.Google Scholar

87 Theobald, A. B., Ali Dinar Last Sultan of Darfur, 1898–1916 (London, 1965), 162–3. Ali Dinar concluded his letter: ‘By God, this is all true, and when the hour comes, please God we shall fight with the spear and the safariq’ (rough weapons of heavy wood, resembling axes, which are much used in the eastern Sudan).Google Scholar

88 Last, M., The Sokoto caliphate (London, 1967), 73; cf. his account on the preceding page of the way in which the jihad forces at first vaunted themselves on not resorting to the elaborate armour of their opponents, until military losses cured the Muslim reformers of this prejudice.Google Scholar

89 Barth, , Travels, III, 17.Google Scholar

90 Richardson, , Travels, II, 10. The Tuareg evidently abandoned their contempt for firearms. Vischer, Sahara, 168, found the Asger Tuaregs ‘armed with good rifles, Mausers, Gras, and Winchesters, besides which some had a sword and long dagger carried on the left forearm’.Google Scholar

91 Chapelle, J., Nomades Noirs du Sahara (Paris, 1957), 107. The outcome of this battle is not clear; Chapelle sees little of historical validity in this story, its chief value being to demonstrate how the Tebu like to recall the benefits they derived from the Ajjer.Google Scholar

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93 Cerulli, E., Folk-literature of the Galla of southern Abyssinia (1922), 162 ff.Google Scholar

94 Siré, -Abbâs Soh, Chroniques du Fouta Sénégalais, ed. Delafosse, M. et Gaden, M. (Paris, 1913) 38: he was trying to shoot a being Like a female genie.Google Scholar

95 Abdullah, ibn Muhammad, Tazyin, 132–3.Google Scholar This story has achieved wide circulation, and is found also in Bata folklore in the Cameroons: cf. Carnochan, J., ‘The coming of the Fulani; a Bachama oral tradition’, Bull. SOAS (1967), 631. Here thegun is said to have turned into water.Google Scholar

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97 Clapperton, , Journal, 83–4. He met them in Wawa, in Bariba country; they said they had been helping the king of Youri against the Fulani.Google Scholar

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100 Naum, Shugair, Tarikh as-Sudan (Cairo, 1902), II, 532–3;Google ScholarLampen, , ‘History of Darfur’, 188.Google Scholar

101 Nachtigal, , Sahara und Sudan, III, 443.Google Scholar

102 Lampen, , ‘History of Darfur’, 189;Google ScholarShukri, , Le Khedive Ismail, 299.Google Scholar

103 Nachtigal, , Sahara und Sudan, II, 718.Google Scholar

104 Ibid. III, 240. Some of Nachtigal's medical work in Wadai was concerned with gunshot wounds, including those caused by the explosion of defective weapons.

105 Julien, , ‘Dar-Ouadaï’ 142.Google Scholar

106 Carbou, , La region, II, 263–5.Google Scholar

107 Landerom, , in MinistÈre des Colonies, Documents Scientifiques de la Mission Tilho 1906–9 (Paris, 1910), II, 322.Google Scholar

108 August, Terrier, ‘La Prise d'Abecher’, Bull. Corn. Af. Fr. (1909), 335.Google Scholar

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110 Ibid. Just who these Fezzanians were is not clear, but they were probably Sanusi advisors. Vischer, Across the Sahara, 214, found that the safest way to fight the Tuaregs was to ‘show oneself well and so offer a good target. They will be tempted into takingaim, and, as they always miss, one is quite safe.’

111 Un, Saharien, ‘La question’, 380.Google Scholar

112 Ibid. 381; Carbou, , La région, II, 162. This Large number of Wadaian casualties perhaps can be attributed to the French use of two canons de 80 de montagne, or simply to exaggerated French estimates.Google Scholar

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120 Gallieni, , Deux Campagnes au Soudan Français (1891), 185, attributes this opinion to Soybou, son of Momodu Lamin, executed by a French firing squad in 1887; and, 86, also to a messenger from Momodu Lamin, whom the French shot in 1886.Google Scholar

121 Brun-Rollet says that c. 1840 Sultan Sharif (Muhammad Saleh ash-Sharif) of Wadai sent 2,400 quintals of ivory to Benghazi, but does not mention guns: Le Nil Blanc et Le Soudan (Paris, 1855), 132. El-Tounsy, in his Voyage au Darfour, mentions an Egyptian Arab in the army of Sultan Abd ar-Rahman, an able hunter with a gun, who infiltrated the forces of Abd ar-Rahman's rival, Ishaq, whom he killed: (1845), 99–200.Google Scholar

122 Alldridge, T. J., The Sherbro and its Hinterland (1901), 172–3. Crawford speaks of Msidi in Katanga, whose initial armoury was only five flintlocks, training the local people, the Va Sanga, as elephant hunters: Thinking Black, 183.Google Scholar

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132 Ibid.

133 Theobald, , Ali Dinar, 188.Google Scholar Such beliefs may have spread in Africa partly in imitation of Arabia. Doughty mentions hjaba, or amulets, against lead. Metaab ibn Rashid, prince of Shammar, had one such, but a nephew murdered him with a silver bullet; Doughty, , Arabia Deserta, 1, 257–8.Google Scholar

134 Tremearne, , Hausa superstitions, 139–40;Google Scholar cf. Winstedt, R., The Malay magician (London, 1951), 37, for an ewer of holy water containing a bullet, among the royal regalia of a prince in Java. Tremearne writes also (168–9) of a special charm in vogue during the British conquest of northern Nigeria, called the she bara, which protected its wearer by making the bullets of his enemies rebound and wound those who had fired them. Tremearne's cook had fought against the British at Kano, being there defeated, but still had faith in charms.Google Scholar

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146 Nachtigal, , Sahara und Sudan, III, 54. Nachtigal refused to comply with this demand but eventually did get an audience with Ali.Google Scholar

147 Nachtigal, , Sahara und Sudan, 1, 595.Google Scholar

148 Ibid. II, 312.

149 Ibid.III, 20.

150 Ibid. III, 21.

151 There are some hints to this effect in Harris, , The Highlands, 1, 371. At Alio Amba, a market town, Harris saw a member of the king's matchlock guard, but the king forbade the removal of such weapons from his presence. Cf. II, 26, for an Ankober official, who forfeited his gun for some offence but was later pardoned and had it restored to him.Google Scholar

152 Nachtigal, , Sahara und Sudan, II, 11.Google Scholar

153 Ibid. I, 590.

154 Doudmourra, the last independent Sultan of Wadai, had an arsenal containing 10,000 guns. One quarter or more were à tir rapide: Martinis, Colts, Remingtons, Winchesters, and Gras. Cf. Julien, op. cit., 142; Carbou, , La région, 264;Google ScholarCornet, (Capt.), Au Tchad Trois Ans chez les Snoussistes, les Ouadaiens et les Kirdis (Paris, 1910), 21.Google Scholar After the capture of Absehr, 3,500 guns, of which 1,500 were à tir rapide, 15,000 Martini cartridges, and 15,000 cartridges for the fusil modÈle 1874, 6 bronze cannons, 3 cast-iron cannons, shells, and quick matches were found in the Sultan's palace. Cf. ‘La Prise ďAbecher’, Bull. Com. Af. Fr. (1909), 427, and Lt., Delacommune, ‘Dans l'est’, 236.Google Scholar

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156 Nachtigal, , Sahara und Sudan, I, 89.Google ScholarMalte-Brun, V. A., Résumé Historique de l'Exploration Faite dans l'Afrique Centrale de 1853 à 1856 par le Docteur Edouard Vogel (Paris, 1859), 17 says the Turkish garrison at Murzuk had four piÈces de canon de six.Google Scholar

157 Nachtigal, , Sahara und Sudan, I, 595. It was presumably one of these that Nachtigal saw in procession at the end of Ramadan in 1870, drawn on clumsy wooden discs, by two mules. It was then attended by four gunners, under an officer, Mohammed Medfa (i.e. Cannon Mohammed), from Fezzan—he had to supplement his army pay by operating as a merchant; II, 746–7.Google Scholar

158 Nachtigal, , Sahara und Sudan, iii, 240.Google Scholar French reports disagree on the number of cannon found in the sultan's palace at Abeshr. Carbou maintains that Sultan Doudmourra had five old cannon which had been left by Napoleon in Egypt, taken to Khartoum in 1885, and then used by Usman Djano in Darfur before Sultan Yusuf acquired them. A Mahdist chief, defecting, brought them to Wadai. Doudmourra had a special official, the melik el medfa, who was responsible for taking care of these cannon. Carbou (1912), 11, 249. None of the French accounts mention locally made artillery, and Carbou and others state that there was no-one in Wadai who knew how to use cannon. Cf. Carbou, 11, 249; Delacommune, , ‘Dans l'est’, 236;Google ScholarCornet, , Au Tchad, 139. Cornet writes that in 1902 Doudmourra used two cannon to defeat the forces of his rival, Abu Au Ghazali.Google Scholar

159 Nachtigal, , Sahara und Sudan, III, 347. Pall;me reports four iron cannon at El-Fasher: Pallme, 1844, 302. El-Tounsy tells of a Mamluk, Zaouanah, who with some ten other Mamluks came to Darfur with a cannon and an obusier (howitzer); but Sultan Abd al Rahrnan, suspecting them of planning to assassinate him, had them killed. Darfour, 108–12.Google Scholar

160 Modat, (Capt.), ‘Une Tournée en Pays Fertit’, Bull. Com. Af. Fr., Ren. Col. (1912), 233–4. Chevalier claims that this cannon was used only on ceremonial occasions: L'Afrique, 145.Google Scholar

161 Ashmun, J., History of the American colony in Liberia (1826), 36.Google Scholar

162 Cf. Gentil, La chute; Gaston, Dujarric, La Vie du Sultan Rabah. Les Français au Tchod (Paris, 1902) III, 153–4, 213.Google Scholar

163 Nachtigal, , Sahara und Sudan, III, 403.Google Scholar

164 Oliver, R. and Mathew, G., History of East Africa (London, 1963), I, 277, 282. In the mid-1850s the Yao, without guns, were attacked and dispersed by their Makua neighbours with guns, and the Yao then set about to get guns, trading slaves to the Arabs for them (286).Google Scholar