144 CHIEFS & CITIES OF CENTRAL AFRICA 



ambition had played the part of an African Attila. 

 This man, one of the greatest characters known to 

 Central African history, had raised himself by sheer 

 personal force from the status of slave, son of a slave, 

 to the master of tens of thousands of men and vast 

 tracts of land, including finally the great kingdom of 

 Bornu. 



Tradition states that the Mahdi — our enemy of the 

 Egyptian Sudan — once invited Rabeh to visit his court. 

 Rabeh was then in the Bahr el Ghazal, and set out 

 upon this journey, but rumours of treachery reached 

 him, and he turned westwards, conquering as he went. 

 There is proof, however, of some connection between 

 the two men, for Rabeh fought under a banner bear- 

 ing the Mahdi's name, and after his death a seal was 

 found on his body with these words engraved upon it : 

 "Rabeh, Emir of Bornu, in the name of the Mahdi." 



Rabeh began his attack on the Bagirimi by laying 

 siege to the town of ManjafFa, on the Shari river. After 

 a brilliant defence, lasting five months, Gauaronga was 

 forced to evacuate it and to retreat on his capital, Mas- 

 senia. Rabeh did not follow him, but raised the siege 

 and marched on Bornu. He swept the country and 

 then established his headquarters at Dikoa, where 

 the fruit of an avenue of lime-trees that he planted 

 is now appreciated by Europeans. His kingdom ex- 

 tended both south and west of Lake Chad, and for 

 hundreds of miles his name brought terror to all 

 who heard it. On the maps of Northern Nigeria 

 a section of country south of Gashegeur is marked 

 " uninhabited." Before Rabeh's advent it was as 

 thickly populated as other parts, but here he received 

 a temporary check, and his consequent vengeance did 



