African Warlord

The Rise and Fall of the
Empire of Rabih Fadl Allah

Part Three: The Many People of Rabih's World

by Ian Croxall

Southern Sedentary People
These non Muslim people groupings in this region provided most of the slaves for Rabih’s conquests.

Binga, Goula Kara and Yulu
Found along the Dar Fur borderlands the Binga were subjects of Dar Fur but were pushed south by slave raiding from the Muslim states to the north. The Goula group to the west of the Binga, in southern Dar Fur, were raided by both Wadai and Dar Fur, they paid tribute to both in slaves.

Azande
Fierce tribal warrior peoples living between the Mbomu and Uele rivers. Rabih raided here for several years, both with Zubair and then under Sualyman.

Banda
The Banda were continually displaced by Muslim slave raiding throughout the 19th century. They were targets of Zubair and other Khartoumers, then Rabih and finally Sanusi. They were also harried and attacked by other displaced peoples such as the Kresh who were themselves migrating away from the slaving.

Kresh
The Kresh were forced westwards by the Khartoumers’ raids of the 1870’s. Their new settlements caused pressure in the 1890’s on Sanusi’s region of Dar Kuti which led to a number of raiding and slaving raids from him.

Sara
This group also migrated away from the slaving of Wadai and Dar Fur, only to place themselves at the heart of what was to become Rabih’s and as Sanusi’s slaving grounds

Nduke
Divided into eight sub groups, the Nduke were centered on the region of Dar Kuti, in the 1880’s having also moved from the east to avoid slavers. They built their settlements in thick tetse fly infested forests to discourage Wadain horse mounted slave raiders.

Gbaya
Nomadic Arabs of the Sudanic Region from Lake Chad to the Nile. Most of the Arabs tribes in the region are nomadic, although there are some semi nomadic and sedentary tribes. Arabic remains their language despite several hundred years of migrations and intermixing with their no Arab neighbors. The Arab tribes are collectively known as Shuwa in the central Sudan. The Shuwa Arabs can be differentiated from the Awalad Sulayman and Tunjur with whom they are not related.

Tunjur
are ethnically related to the pre Islamic Nilotic tribes in the Sudan, but they trace their ancestry to the Beni Hilal Arabs of Tunisia. Prior to the 19th century, they had resided in Dar Fur, Wadai and them moved to Kanem. Here they were crushed by the invading Awlad Sulayman.

Awlad Sulayman trace their ancestry to Sulayman, a companion of the Prophet. They are differentiated from the other Arabs. They migrated south to escape invading Turks who were moving into Tripolitania in the mid 19th Century. Their expansion west was stopped by the Tuareg in Niger. In the late 19th century they became devout Senoussi and resisted the French until the 1920’s.

Shuwa
is a collective name for all of the Arab clans, other than the Awlad Sulayman and Tunjur. All of these clans can be divided as to their occupation, either camel herding abbala or cattle breading baggara. They migrated to the region from the 14th to the late 19th century. The are found in an arc stretching from Borno to the Nile Valley, encompassing Kanem, Wadai, Dar Fur and Kordofan. The northern abbala are more pure than the baggara who have interbred with the indigenous peoples. The Shuwa are divided into small clans which form the basis for their relations with each other. The clans bore allegiance to one or another of the regional kingdoms. Most Shuwa followed the Tidjaniya order, while a small number followed the Sanussiya order, as did the Awlad Sulayman.

Salamat Arabs
Found in the region between the Shari and Wadai. Subdivided into a large number of sub clans including: Hilal in Bagirmi, Essala in Kotoko, Awlad Moussa in Wadai and Sherafa in northwestern Wadai.

Beni Hamet, Awlad Rachid
Several clans in southern Bagirmi

Misirié
Nomadic clans in Wadai, divided traditionally into Black Misirié and Red Misirié clans.

Mahamid
This clan are part of the larger Sudanic sub group of the Rizeiqat.

Rizeiqat
These Arabs controlled the trading routes between the Fur highlands and the Nile

Other Arab Groups include
Baggara of Sudan (the modern country of) Clans from Kordofan, Bahr el Ghazal and Dar Fur regions include the clans of the Betahin, Bederia, Dubasiyin, Fezara, Gawamaa, Kawahla, Kerarish, Lahawin, Maalia, Messiria, Rizeiqat, Sherifi, Shuweihat and Tungur

Hassauna
Western Arab clans found mostly in Kanem.

Jalayin
Sedentary pastoralist Arabs along the middle Nile including Jalayin (the clan giving its name to the group), Shayqiyah and Rubtab.

Juhaynah
A nomadic group found in the western arid regions of (the modern country of) Sudan. Includes the Shukriyah, Kababish, and the Baqqarah clans.

The Toubou
These are a fiercely independent tribe found in northern Kanem and eastward in an arc across Tibesti mountains in the Sahara and across northern Wadai. They are the tribes that attacked Joalland as he passed around Lake Chad in Kanem. They remained opposed to the French and fought them until 1920. They are subdivided into a large number of clans, often engaged in blood feuds lasting for generations. They are Muslims and racially possibly related to Berbers.

African Warlord: Central Sudan, 1884 – 1911 Part 3

African Warlord: Central Sudan, 1884 – 1911 Part 2

African Warlord: Central Sudan, 1884 – 1911 Part 1

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