552 



NATURE 



[April 26, 1877 



(3) Kanuri or Magomi ; (4) Masa or Mosgu ; (5) Yedina 

 or Buduma and Kuri ; (6) Bulala and Kuka ; (7) Dana 

 or Danawa ; (8) Bede ; (9) Ngisem ; (10) Kerrikerri ; 

 (11) Babir ; (12) Bagirmi ; (13) Haussa ; (14) Arabs. 



1. TiBUS, of whom, as already stated, every variety is 

 represented. They occupy the greater part of Kanem 

 proper and are found on both banks of the Komodugu 

 Yoobe in Bornu, between the 12° and 13° E. long. Prin- 

 cipal pure nomad Tibu tribes : Gunda, Atereta, Worda, 

 Juroa, or Osumma, Mada, Wandala, Dogorda, w^ith a 

 total population of 13,000, Principal pure settled Tibu 

 tribes : Salemea, Beggaroa, Aborda, Nawarma, Oreddo, 

 and Billea, numbering altogether 4,400, Mixed and 

 doubtful Tibu tribes : Gadawa, Kumosoalla, Hawalla, or 

 Famalla, Medolea, Jinoa or Mallemin, say 10,500, giving 

 a total of 27,900 Tibus in the Chad district. 



2. Kanembu, dwell principally round the eastern, 

 northern, and western shores of the lake, therefore, as 

 already remarked, both in Kanem and Bornu. Their 

 principal tribes are the Sugurti and the Tomaghera or 

 Tomagheri, both in Kanem and Bornu ; the Konku, 

 Gallabu, Kuburi, Kunkinna, &c., with a total population 

 of over 18,000, 



3. Kanuri, the ruling people of Bornu, and by far the 

 most important nation in the Chad basin, Nachtigal pro- 

 poses two derivations of the name : first from the Arabic 



J = nur=light, and the Kanuri prefix JT^, implying the 



concrete idea of " the people of light," as the first heralds 

 of Islam in the Pagan lands occupied by them. But this 

 mixture of elements from two radically distinct languages, 

 though perhaps interesting to Mr, J. C. Clough and other 

 advocates of mixed languages, can scarcely be meant 

 seriously. It is as if the first English settlers in the Fiji 

 Archipelago were to announce themselves as the "lumen- 

 bearers," as the first messengers of the " lumen evangelii," 

 or "light of the Gospel,' to the natives of those islands. 

 Second, and much more probably, a corruption of Ka- 

 nemri, implying their Kanem origin, already referred to. 

 Principal Kanuri tribes in Kanem : Bulua, AnjaHbu, 

 Rogodobu, Biradull, Biriwa, Melemia, Forebu, Ngalma 

 Dukko, the Magomi of Fuli, and Dalatoa. These last, 

 though claiming to be considered a Kanuri people, being 

 really descended from slaves of other races subject to 

 them. Principal tribes in Bornu : The Magomi or Ka- 

 nuri proper, the Tura, Manga, Nguma, Kai, Ngallaga, 

 Ngalmaduko, Ngomatibu, Ngasir, &c., with a total popu- 

 lation of about 1,500,00c. 



4. Mosgu or Masa family occupies the region south 

 of the Chad as far as Adamawa, and seems to belong to 

 the same race as the exiinct So and other autochthonous 

 peoples of Bornu either extirpated by, or absorbed in, the 

 Kanembu invaders of that region. Principal tribes : 

 Margi, Mandara, Mekari or Kotoko, Logon, Gamergu, 

 the unsettled Keribina, and the Mosgu or Masa proper, 

 Masa is the name by which they call themselves. They 

 may number altogether about one million. 



5. Yedina, or Buduma and Kuri, are the two native 

 lake tribes, the former dwelling on the great central group of 

 islands, the latter on the Karka, or smaller South-eastern 

 Archipelago. Yedina is the proper name of the first, 

 Buduma being the name by which they are known to the 

 Kanuri, from Bndu=/iay, and the suffix ma singular (for 

 the plural bu), meaning the " hay-people,'' They are 

 fierce and daring pirates ; the terror of the surrounding 

 nations. The Kuri, so called by the Arabs and others, 

 call themselves Kalea or Kaleama, and are undoubtedly 

 zJcin to the Yedina, though the two languages vary not a 

 little. Principal Yedina tribes : Maijoja, Maibulua, Buja, 

 Guria, Margauna, Jillna ; numbering from 15,000 to 

 20,000 altogether. Principal Kuri tribes : Arigna, Media, 

 Kadiwa, Toshea, Karawa, Kalea. 



6. BuLALA and KUKA, kindred tribes, originally from 

 Lake Fitiri, whither most of them seem to have returned. 



Unclassified aboriginal 

 Negio tribes on the west 

 and south-west frontier 

 ^of Bornu, confining west- 

 wards on the Haussa 

 States, and southwards 

 on Adamawa. 



Some of the Bulala have withdrawn to a few of the 

 islands in the lake, but the four following tribes are still 

 in Kanem : Ngijem, Bedde, Sarabu, and TiiTa, all off the 

 south-east shore of the lake. The Kuka are now found 

 only in Gujer, in the same neighbourhood. They jointly 

 number about 5,800. 



7. Dana or Danawa, called by the Arabs Haddad, 

 and by the Dasa or Southern Tibus Azoa, both terms 

 meaning " Smiths," occupy a compact territory at the 

 south-east corner of the lake opposite the Korio group 

 of islands inhabited by the Kanembu. According to 

 their tradition, the Danawa are half-caste Manga Tibus 

 and Bulalas, but they now speak a Kanuri dialect. 



8. Bede, about 12" 30' N. lat., ii°~ 

 E. long. 



9. Ngisem, 12° N. lat., 11° E. long. 



10. Kerrikerri, 11° 30' N. lat, 

 11° E. long. 



11. Babir, n° N, lat., 12° E, Iong,J 



12. Bagirmi, along the eastern or right bank of the 

 Lower Shari, with undefined southern limits, and extend- 

 ing north-eastwards in the direction of Lake Fittri and 

 Waday, Are closely related to the Sara tribes of the 

 Middle Shari, and are also connected with the Jur and Dor 

 dwelling on some of the head waters of the White Nile. 

 Some of the Bagirmi are settled in Bornu, where they 

 are called Karde, possibly through some confusion with 

 their northern neighbours, the Kredas of the Bahr-el- 

 Ghazal, who are Dasa or Southern Tibus akin to the 

 Sakerda further up the bed of that now dried-up stream. 



13. Haussa communities exist in one place only in 

 Bornu, the district round about Gummel, on the 13" 

 parallel and the 10° E. long, north-east of Kano. 



14. Arab Tribes are found both in Kanem and 

 Bornu. The principal Kanem tribes are the Tunjer, 

 Uledsoliman (Wassili), and Mgharba, about 80,000 alto- 

 gether. The principal Bornu tribes are the Auladhamed 

 and Salamat, numbering perhaps 100,000. Many of them 

 have become in some respects assimilated to the sur- 

 rounding Kanuri people, but still hold tenaciously to their 

 Semite speech. " I have met with Arabs settled in Bornu 

 for a series of generations, near the centre of the king- 

 dom, and who were still so little acquainted with the 

 Kanuri language that I was obliged to act as their inter- 

 preter" (Nachtigal). These Bornu Arabs are called Shoa 

 by the Kanuri, and are carefully to be distinguished from 

 those Arabs who occasionally make their appearance in 

 these regions, either as marauders or traders from the 

 Barbary States. 



Though mainly ethnological. Dr. Nachtigal's paper is 

 introduced with a few geographical notes, which, how- 

 ever, present little or no novelty. The lake is described 

 as about 27,000 square kilometres in superficial area, of a 

 triangular shape, open and navigable in its western sec- 

 tion, but along its eastern shores crowded by a large 

 number of islands in many places separated only by narrow 

 channels one from the other. The upper course of its 

 one great affluent, the Shari, still remains to be deter- 

 mined, the writer merely remarking on that point that it 

 flows " in two main streams apparently rising in 

 heathen lands to the south and south-east of Waday, x\ 

 ceives a small portion of the rivers flowing down 

 western slopes of the Marra range, and throughout t 

 whole year discharges a considerable volume of wat 

 into the lake." The Bahr-el-Ghazal, its former nortl 

 easterly outflow, has long been dried up, so that the Ch 

 has now no outlet of any sort, its waters being kept 

 evaporation alone at their present variable levels. 



But nothing could possibly be more thorough and sat 

 factory than Nachtigal's elucidation of the complicai 

 ethnography of this region, which he has disentangled 

 successfully as Stanley has just solved the geographical 

 problems connected with Lake Tanganyika. 



A. H. Keane 



