Borno Emirate
Borno Emirate
Borno, Bornu | |
|---|---|
  Borno Emirate | |
| Coordinates: 11°50′N 13°09′E / 11.833°N 13.150°E | |
| Country |  Nigeria |
| State | Borno State |
| Founded | 1902 |
| Seat | Monguno (1902–1903) Kukawa (1903–1907) Maiduguri (1907–present) |
| Government | |
| • Shehu | Abubakar ibn Umar Garba el-Kanemi |
The Borno Emirate,[1] also known as the Borno Sultanate[1] or Bornu Emirate,[2] is a traditional state located in Borno State, Nigeria. The emirate is a remnant of the regime of the old Kanem–Bornu Empire, ruled by dynasts of the final Bornoan ruling dynasty (the al-Kanemi dynasty). The rulers of the Borno Emirate serve as ceremonial leaders, preserving political and cultural continuity with the old empire.[3] They have continued to be styled as the shehus of Borno, continuing an imperial line established by Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi in the early 19th century.
The Borno Emirate encompasses fifteen Local Government Areas (Abadam, Chibok, Gubio, Guzamala, Jere, Kaga, Konduga, Kukawa, Mafa, Magumeri, Maiduguri, Marte, Mobbar, Monguno, and Nganzai).[4]
Background
The al-Kanemi dynasty traces its rule to the early 19th century, when Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi (r. 1814–1837) and his son Umar Kura (r. 1837–1881) supplanted the previous ruling lineage of the Kanem–Bornu Empire, the mais of the Sayfawa dynasty.[5][6]
In 1893–1894, the empire was conquered by the Sudanese warlord Rabih az-Zubayr, who destroyed the al-Kanemi capital of Kukawa[7] and instead selected Dikwa as his seat.[6] Rabih was defeated by joint Bornoan and French forces in 1900, whereafter the French installed the al-Kanemi dynasty Sanda Kura as shehu at Dikwa.[8] Sanda Kura proved dissatisfactory to the French colonial authorities and was soon replaced with his brother Abubakar Garbai.[8]
In 1902, Abubakar Garbai accepted becoming the figurehead ruler of British Borno and left Dikwa, whereafter the entire former empire fell under colonial control.[8] Garbai and his successors came to govern the traditional state that is today known as the Borno Emirate,[9] ruling from Maiduguri since 1907.[7][10] Garbai left Dikwa in the hands of his relative Sanda Mandarama,[8] whose successors governed the Dikwa Emirate.[9]
Rulers
| No. | Name | Tenure | Succession, notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15[a] | Abu Bakr ibn Ibrahim Kura al-Kanemi (Abubakar Garbai) | 1902–1922 | Last sovereign of the Kanem–Bornu Empire before 1902 |
| 16 | Umar Sanda ibn Ibrahim Kura al-Kanemi (Sanda Kura) | 1922–1937 | Brother of Abubakar Garbai, previously sovereign shehu in 1900 |
| 17 | Umar ibn Muhammad al-Kanemi (Sanda Kyarimi) | 1937–1968 | Son of Kyari (shehu of Borno 1893–1894) |
| 18 | Umar ibn Abubakar Garbai al-Kanemi | 1968–1974 | Son of Abubakar Garbai |
| 19 | Mustafa ibn Umar el-Kanemi | 1975–2009 | Son of Sanda Kyarimi |
| 20 | Abubakar ibn Umar Garba el-Kanemi | 2009–present | Son of Umar ibn Abubakar Garbai al-Kanemi |
Notes
- ^ The numbering of the shehus of Borno continues the enumeration of the shehus who ruled the Kanem–Bornu Empire. See the List of shehus of Bornu for details.
References
- ^ a b "Borno Emirate – Nigerian Emirates". Retrieved 24 July 2025.
- ^ Cohen, Ronald (1971). "From empire to colony: Bornu in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries". Colonialism in Africa 1870–1960: Volume Three: Profiles of Change: African Society and Colonial Rule. Cambridge University Press. p. 74. LCCN 75-77289.
- ^ Mulugeta, Daniel; Wando, Abdul-Hafiz (2025). "Grassroots Pan-Africanism: Border Lives and Transnational Belonging in the Lake Chad Basin". Journal of Borderlands Studies. 0 (0): 8. doi:10.1080/08865655.2025.2504891. ISSN 0886-5655.
- ^ Nigeria (2000). Nigeria: a people united, a future assured. Vol. 2, State Surveys (Millennium ed.). Abuja, Nigeria: Federal Ministry of Information. p. 106. ISBN 9780104089.
- ^ Brenner, Louis (2012). "Kanemi, Muhammad al-". Dictionary of African Biography. Oxford University Press. p. 289. ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5.
- ^ a b Lavers, John E. (1993). "The al-Kanimiyyin Shehus: a working chronology". Berichte des Sonderforschungsbereichs. 268 (2): 179–186.
- ^ a b Hiribarren, Vincent (2017). A History of Borno: Trans-Saharan African Empire to Failing Nigerian State. C. Hurst & Co. pp. 51, 105–106, 175. ISBN 9781849044745.
- ^ a b c d Tukur, Mahmud Modibbo (2016). "An Exceptional Situation in Borno". British Colonisation of Northern Nigeria, 1897–1914. Amalion Publishing. ISBN 978-2-35926-046-5.
- ^ a b Gronenborn, Detlef (2001). "Kanem-Borno: A Brief Summary of the History and Archaeology of an Empire of the Central bilad al-sudan". West Africa During the Atlantic Slave Trade: Archaeological Perspectives. Bloomsbury. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-4742-9104-0.
- ^ Saidu, Amina Ramat; Kullima, Shettima Bukar; Ribadu, Hamza Tukur (2021). "The Role of the British Occupation of Borno and Socio-Political Transformation" (PDF). Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science. 9 (4): 31–42. ISSN 2321-9467.