Muhammad Al-Amin Al-Kanemi - Rule Over Borno

Rule Over Borno

When El-Kanemi rose to power after the Fulani jihad, he did not totally reorganise the Sayfawa kingdom: he only tried to insert his men in the existing framework of the Sayfawa territorial fiefs, the chima chidibe. Cohen argued that the main political organisation of nineteenth century Borno was based on personal relationship and that Al-Kanemi initiated a more formal patron-client relationship.

However, as Last mentioned, we still ignore to what extent Al-Kanemi was dominating the whole territory of Borno after the Fulani jihad. Was he only at the head of a personal principality as Last suggested, or did he totally overthrow the power of the mai? This process which may have been longer than Brenner suggested is not very well documented. Oral history and European explorers’ narratives only retain Al-Kanemi’s irresistible rise to power. In this version of early nineteenth century history, Al-Kanemi assumed power in the 1810s without any competition from mai Dunama IX Lefiami before 1820. El-Kanemi, not just the face of Borno to foreign leaders, became more and more indispensable to the mai. Some in mai Dunama's coterie were believed to have been behind an attempt to kill the Shehu in 1820. At this date, mai Dunama and king Burgomanda of Baguirmi plotted to get rid of El-Kanemi. This foreign intervention in Bornuese politics was a failure and mai Dunama was replaced by mai Ibrahim. El-Kanemi, while still titular subject of the new mai, had his own seals struck as Shehu of all Bornu. The Shehu had constructed in 1814 a power base at the new city of Kukawa. This new city became the de facto capital of Borno.

Sayfawa mais remained titular monarchs after El-Kameni's death in 1837.

In 1846 the last mai, in league with the Ouaddai Empire, precipitated a civil war, resisted by El-Kanemi's son, Umar (1837–1881). It was at that point that Umar became sole ruler, thus ending one of the longest dynastic reigns in African history.