fisher, the horse in the central sudan ii its use

Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of AfricanHistory.

http://www.jstor.org

'He Swalloweth the Ground with Fierceness and Rage': The Horse in the Central Sudan II. Its Use Author(s): Humphrey J. Fisher Source: The Journal of African History, Vol. 14, No. 3 (1973), pp. 355-379Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/180536Accessed: 04-04-2015 18:01 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of contentin a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

This content downloaded from 129.79.68.41 on Sat, 04 Apr 2015 18:01:31 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup

http://www.jstor.org/stable/180536

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


Journal of African History, XIV, 3 (1973), pp. 355-379 355 Printed in Great Britain

'HE SWALLOWETH THE GROUND WITH FIERCENESS AND RAGE': THE HORSE IN THE CENTRAL SUDAN

II. ITS USE

BY HUMPHREY J. FISHER *

The view of the horse in the central Sudan which these two articles re-examine is twofold: first, that white conquerors introduced the horse late in the first millennium1; and second, more important, that the horse established the newcomers' military and political ascendancy over wide areas.

... Pastoral tribes from the Sahara, whose culture was essentially Libyan-Berber, were drifting into the western and central Sudan. . . . On more than one occasion their warrior nobility, whose possession of cavalry gave them the means to dominate large areas of the savanna, were able to seize political power and to found important dynasties.2 ... Particularly in Kanem ... the newcomers' cavalry made possible the fusion of the original small kingdoms into larger and more militant states.... The military strength of the Sudanese emperors consisted to a very large extent in their possession of cavalry.3 Here again [in Hausaland] the migrants commenced, as they had done in Bornu, by intermarrying with the inhabitants; their cavalry, hitherto unknown in this territory, was then used to found states....4 It was the horse that gave the Islamic powers of the Sudan a military superiority over the pagans.5

In Part 1,6 I suggested that horses first entered the Sudan very early, before the camel came to dominate the Sahara. These early immigrants may have been the same horses as appear in Saharan rock art; their descendants may perhaps be the small local breeds today scattered across the Sudan almost from the Atlantic to the Nile. These horses, which I

* I am grateful to Dr Murray Last of University College, London, to Dr Robin Law of Stirling University, and to Dr Joseph Smaldone of the United States Naval Academy, who have read, and commented upon, an earlier draft, saving me much embarrassment. Surviving errors and eccentricities are, of course, my own.

1 Y. Urvoy, Histoire de l'Empire du Bornou (Paris, 1949, reprinted Amsterdam, I968), 30. 2 R. Oliver and J. D. Fage, A short history of Africa (Penguin, 1970), 63-4. 3 J. D. Fage, An introduction to the history of West Africa (Cambridge, i962), 35-8. He

adds, '. . . the upkeep of a regular force of trained cavalry was expensive, and could only be afforded by the rulers of great and rich empires'. The argument seems slightly circular, since cavalry allows the creation of great states, which alone can afford cavalry.

4 W. K. R. Hallam, 'The Bayajida legend in Hausa folklore', J. Afr. Hist. vii, I (I966), 53; see also 59.

6 K. M. Panikkar, The Serpent and the Crescent: a History of the Negro Empires of Western Africa (Asia Publishing House, London, i964), 309.

6J. Afr. Hist. XIII, 3 (1972), 367-88.

24 AH XIV



356 HUMPHREY J. FISHER

nicknamed 'southern Sudanic', in themselves apparently contributed little or nothing to state formation. Nomads entering the Sudan, far from themselves introducing the horse, may have been mainly camel people, who on arrival adopted, or enlarged their use of, the horse, finding it already established and better suited to climate and terrain than was the camel: the cattle Fulani, who in the nineteenth century turned to horses after seizing political power, are perhaps an analogy.7 Even the Bayajidda legends, frequently quoted8 to illustrate the introduction of the horse by immigrants, and its stimulus to more elaborate state formation, are ambiguous: it is not clear which animal-horse, donkey, or mule9-if any, it was that Bayajidda introduced; nor whence he introduced it, perhaps from no further afield than Bornu.10 Larger varieties developed in the Sudan, probably through imports of stock. The Mandara horse was outstanding-'really beautiful, larger and more powerful than any thing found in Bornu'll-though the Bornu horse was celebrated too, as was the Tuareg.12 Serious health hazards restricted the contribution of imports.13

If this hypothesis concerning the introduction of the horse, and its role in state formation, is correct, some reconsideration of the horse's part in helping maintain states is in order. Here, while the traditional picture seems broadly correct, some qualifications are necessary, to avoid lionizing the horse, and to remind us of other factors, particularly equipment. This is my purpose in this second article.

The modified picture, here suggested, of the horse's contribution somewhat supports the now popular reaction against the nomad intruder as he'ros civilisateur; I do not, however, wish to venture here upon these broader questions, from which the risk of political preference has not yet been entirely eliminated.14

7See p. 36I below; also J. A. Burdon, Northern Nigeria (London, I909), 70, and M. Last, 'An aspect of the Caliph Muhammad Bello's social policy', Kano Studies, 11 (1966), 59.

8 Urvoy (I968), 30; The Historian in Tropical Africa, eds. J. Vansina et al. (London, I964), 342.

9S. J. Hogben and A. H. M. Kirk-Greene, The Emirates of Northern Nigeria (London, 1966), 147, opt definitely for the donkey.

10 Yet another version is Makada Ibira de Kantche, Traditions historiques du Dawra par ... (Niamey, 1970). Here Bayajidda flees to Hausa from Egypt; but as the royal groom there is named Muriima, a Bornu title for master of the horse, it seems likely that Bornu is meant (for the title, see Part I, 383, n. go, and G. Nachtigal, Sahara und Sudan (reprinted Graz, I967), I, 6i6, 72I). Nothing in this detailed account suggests, except very obliquely, that Bayajidda's horse caused surprise in Hausa.

11 D. Denham and H. Clapperton, Narrative of travels and discoveries (London, 1826), (D)i i i; see also I 7, 130, and F. W. H. Migeod, Through Nigeria to Lake Chad (London, 1924), 88.

12 Barth mentions a Tuareg horse bought for 700,000 cowries, a very high price; Travels and discoveries (London, I857-8), IV, 53. Further north in the Sahara, the Tuat horse was much prized. The sultan of Agades rode one at the Greater Festival; ibid. I, 423 and n.

13 See also F. L. Lambrecht, 'Aspects of evolution and ecology of tsetse flies.. Y. Afr. Hist. v, I (I964), 1-24.

14 Abdullahi Smith criticizes the he'ros civilisateur as congenial to European colonialist historians, and argues for the revisionist hypothesis, of spontaneously generated political forms; 'Some considerations relating to the formation of states in Hausaland', J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, v, 3 (1970), 329-46.



THE HORSE IN THE CENTRAL SUDAN 357

The most obvious contribution of the horse was military. It seems self- evident that in pitched battle on suitable ground,'5 other things being equal, an army with cavalry has an advantage over forces entirely on foot. Of direct, full-scale military confrontation between horse and foot, or between bodies of horse, in the central Sudan, I have found little detailed description before the late nineteenth century, by which time effective firearms were gravely distorting traditional patterns. Guns similarly obscure the picture at Tondibi, one fairly well recorded battle, in 159I, when a small Moroccan force, mainly on foot, defeated the much larger army, including cavalry, of Songhay. Such confrontation, sometimes in grand style, did take place. One of Fresnel's informants, for example, had accompanied the Wadai army, including up to ten or twelve thousand cavalry, mostly iron clad, against Bornu only two years before.'6 It would be absurd to underrate the strength of such forces; but it would be simplistic to suggest that horses in themselves necessarily made a decisive contribution. We have seen in Part I several examples where horses, though present, did nothing of the sort. Other factors must also be evaluated.

One is the size of the horses. It has been suggested that the chariots of Saharan rock art-and of various Middle Eastern powers-were employed because horses were then too small for riding. This is not entirely con- vincing: I know of no horses quite as small or as weak as this in the central Sudan. But the southern Sudanic horse is certainly small, and in Part I the victory, perhaps about I6oo, of the Bulala on large horses over Ali Dinar's men on small ones is mentioned.'7

Small horses, though carrying riders, could not manage heavy equipment and armour also. Well trained horses required only a minimum of trappings for most peaceful purposes. The curious saddlery, described in Part I, by which riders cemented themselves to their ponies' backs by blood, was particularly widespread in the Bauchi area.18 Further north, in the Sahara, saddles were also uncommon. Ibn Battuta mentions the sultan of Takedda riding his horse without a saddle, as was the custom of people there, having instead a gorgeous saddle-cloth.-'

In pitched battle, more was needed. Without firm saddles, and sub- stantial stirrups, heavy weapons were difficult to wield, whether traditional -such as the balamtami, the battle-axe of Bornu, carried at the saddle- bow2-or firearms. Bedouin warriors in Arabia rode camels to battle: but when the enemy came in sight, camels were left to backriders and

I The people of Siwah used donkeys, better suited to rugged mountain passes, on military expeditions; Hornemann's Journal, in Proceedings of the Association for ... Africa (London, i8io, reprinted London, I967), II, 84.

16 M. Fresnel, 'Memoire ... sur le Waday', Bull. de la Soc. de G6ographie (1849), 46. 17 Part 1, 381-2; Sudanese Memoirs, ed. H. R. Palmer (Lagos, I928, reprinted London,

I967), II, 29-30. But the hint of treachery among Ali Dinar's people should not be forgotten. "I Part I, 376-7; see also Migeod (1924), 88.

"I Voyages d'Ibn Battuta, ed. and tr. C. Defr6mery and B. R. Sanguinetti (Paris, 1854, reprinted Paris, I968), IV, 442-3.

20 S. W. Koelle, African Native Literature. . . (London, I854), 266.




gun-bearers-ridaf-who thus formed a kind of heavy cavalry, while the shaykhs mounted their led horses and charged with long lances. Firearms heavier than pistols were not feasible on the loose pads without stirrups which the horses bore.21

Fourteenth-century references to saddles also indirectly support the hypothesis that the horse was not introduced into the Sudan countries by Saharan nomads. The veiled Saharans, according to Ibn Khaldun, had very few horses, but specialized in raising camels, one variety, the nujfib, being particularly suitable for riding; wars were fought on camelback.22 Al- 'Umari adds that, while the people of Mali had camels, they did not know how to ride them with saddles, and used them only as beasts of burden.23 This does not suggest close links between Sahara and Sudan in riding techniques. Al-'Umari also states that the people of Mali used a saddle similar to that of the Arabs, but mounted differently.24 This seems to point to technical improvement introduced from North Africa, very probably during the Muslim era.25

Arab stirrups were used in the central Sudan. Miss Tully describes those of the princes in Tripoli, weighing ten to thirteen pounds, and more than half a yard from toe to heel. 'They are a flat plate under the foot with high edges at the sides, widening considerably at the toe and heel in the shape of a fireshovel.' Both edges cut like razors, and the horses' sides had often to be dressed after riding.26 Barth used Arab stirrups, and reports that both in the forest and in a press of people, I had a full opportunity of testing the valuable properties of the Arab stirrups, which protect the whole leg, and, if skilfully managed, keep every obtruder at a respectful distance; indeed I am almost sure that if, on these my African wander- ings, I had made use of English stirrups I should have lost both my legs.27 You could rest the stock of your gun on such a stirrup, even use it as a battering ram against village fortifications.28

21 C. M. Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta (London, 1923), I, 334. 22 Ibn Khaldoun, Histoire des Berbe'res, tr. Mac Guckin de Slane (Paris, 1927), 11, 105. 23 Ibn Fasll Allah al-'Omari, L'Afrique, moins l'Egypte, tr. Gaudefroy-Demombynes

(Paris, 1927), 66-7. 24 Ibid. 68-9. 25 J. H. Greenberg, 'Arabic Loan-Words in Hausa', Word, III (I947), 89, suggested that

the Hausa term sirdi, or saddle, from the Arabic sirj, had come from early contacts with Arabic speakers. M. Hiskett, 'The historical background to the naturalization of Arabic loan-words in Hausa', Afr. Lang. Stud., VI (I965), 21, thought it might have come into Hausa through Mandingo contacts. Greenberg later, 'Linguistic evidence for the influence of the Kanuri on the Hausa', J. Afr. Hist., I, 2 (i 960), 2I I, favoured a derivation via Kanuri. These varying opinions illustrate the deft touch needed in handling linguistic evidence. Remember also that there is no guarantee that the object accompanied, and did not precede, the introduction of the tern applied (later?) to it.

26 Narrative of a ten years' residence at Tripoli..., from the papers of R. Tully (London, I8I6), 48.

27 Barth (I857-8), III, 129; see also Denham and Clapperton (x826), (C)47, and Nachtigal in the English translation (London, 1971), IV, 344. Barth found stirrups almost European in shape, but of copper, used by horsemen of Agades; (I857-8), I, 395.

28 Olive Macleod, Chiefs and Cities of Central Africa (London and Edinburgh, 1912),

247, a Bomu example; A. H. Ba and J. Daget, L'Empire Peul du Macina (Paris and The Hague, I1962), I, 7I.




The importance of shoeing is clear in Marco Polo's report that merchants exporting horses to Malabar prevented farriers going thither, lest improved care reduce wastage and thus cut import demand.29 On the other hand, where stony ground was rare, as in Bornu and Kanem, special protection for horses' hooves was less urgent, and Nachtigal reports only small numbers of horseshoes imported from Tripoli. In the rocky country of Borku, more care was needed; the Awlad Sulayman used neck hide of the sable antelope, as did Nachtigal himself.30 Even in rough territory, however, such precautions were sometimes neglected: the horses of Hea, or Haha, province in Morocco, so nimble and full of metal that they would climb like cats over steep and craggy mountains, were always unshod.31 Damp, more than rough country, was injurious.32

Putting all these items of equipment together, with others (spurs,33 for example, rendered partly superfluous by the sharp stirrups), the full use of horses required a wide range of ancillary services, as in Leo's Fez:

Next unto the laundresses are those that make trees for saddles; who dwell likewise in great numbers eastwarde.... Upon these adjoin about forty shops of such as work stirrups, spurs, and bridles, so artificially, as I think the like are not to be seen in Europe. Next standeth their street, that first rudely make the said stirrups, bridles, and spurs. From thence you may go into the street of sadlers, which cover the saddles before mentioned threefold with most excellent leather: the best leather they lay uppermost, and the worst beneath, and that with notable workmanship; as may be seen in most places of Italy. And of them there are more than an hundred shops.... Unto these adjoin such as make certaine langols or withs, which the Africans put upon their horses' feet.... Next them are a company of farriers, that shooe mules and horses.... Then follow smiths that make horseshooes ..34

Without such services, the military exploitation of horses was severely handicapped. Imported equipment offered a partial solution: Lander, early in the nineteenth century, mentions bits, stirrups, and brass ornaments entering the Central Sudan through Nupe.35 Better still was to attract artisans. The Tripolitanian, Muhammad, more often cited for the two concubines, one white and one Ethiopian, whom he presented to Sabun of Wadai, also early in the nineteenth century, was a saddler.36 The artisan's role seems hinted at in the early penetration of Islam among the Bariba of northern Dahomey, themselves extensive horse-owners. In the

29 The Book of Ser Marco Polo..., ed. Sir Henry Yule (London, I926), II, 340. 30 Nachtigal (I967), II, 74. 31 Leo Africanus, The History and Description of Africa (London, I896), II, 228-9. 32 L. Palmer, 'Feet and shoeing', In My Opinion, ed. W. E. Lyon (London, I928), 283. 33 Cf. Nachtigal (I967), ii, 607. 34 Leo (I896), II, 436-4I; the sections omitted include other artisans not directly

concerned with horses. Some workmen polished and enamelled stirrups and spurs. 35 R. Lander, Records of Captain Clapperton's Last Expedition (London, 1830), II, 153. 36 Cheykh Mohammed ... el-Tounsy, Voyage au Ouaddy, tr. Perron (Paris, I85I), 248.

The title of the king's stirrup holder in Darfur, melik et-tunis, may indicate a North African connection; Nachtigal (I97I), IV, 336, 412.




good old days of pagan supremacy there, Muslim visitors were kept well secluded; but then the king of Nikki, commanding Bariba warriors and cavalry, consented to receive some 'marabouts' from Sokoto, who furnished him with caparisons and bridles, and repaired arms and equipment, and through these newcomers some local people converted.37 The same importance may lie behind the somewhat puzzling references in Adamawa traditions to the Mahdist adherent Hayatu, who settled for a long time at Yola, buying only bridles, and who, when he left, spent all the lamido's farewell gifts on yet more bridles. He went on to Marwa, famous horse- breeding country, and built up a large following, finally waging war.38 In a Hausa folktale, a wealthy man who had no son appealed to the clerics. They sent him to the forest, there to plait hobbles for horses until he earned enough to buy a slave wife, by whom, after building a house, he would have a son.39 This may have been simply an exercise in humility,40 or perhaps working on equine equipment had some special significance.

The importance of equipment in the central Sudan, though great, did not have such far-reaching consequences as in western Europe where, it has been argued, feudalism rested upon the stirrup, a technological innovation from the East; weaponry, tactics, landholding and society all changing in response to the new device.41 Heavy cavalry of the feudal type did influence Muslim fashions: Spanish Muslims copied heavy armour from the Christians, and western-style tournaments were adopted by Syrian and Egyptian chivalry.42 But in hot, dry climates, lighter cavalry was more effective, as Saladin's defeat of the Crusaders at the Horns of Hattin near Tiberias, in i I87, showed.43 Similarly, heavy cavalry in the Sudan, with quilted armour cumbering mounts and men alike, was relatively rare and ineffectual. Barth, who distinguishes between light and heavy cavalry, describes the latter in Bornu in i851 . In i826, for an attack by Sokoto against Gobir, each governor, and the sultan, supplied six quilted horsemen, who had to be lifted on to their steeds like medieval knights.45 I have found only one reference to exercises resembling European jousts, in Bagirmi, and that in this century!46

Supporting services for the cavalry might include other livestock. We have already seen, in Doughty's description, warriors riding camels to the scene of battle, and then transferring to horses. Led horses mounted only for actual conflict were mentioned in Part I47; in Ethiopia, a led horse

3 P. Marty, Ptudes sur l'Islam au Dahomey (Paris, 1926), i8I; see also 252. 'I R. M. East, Stories of Old Adamawa (Lagos and London, 1934), I f.

9 A. J. N. Tremearne, Hausa Superstitions and Customs. . . (London, 1913), 283. 40 Cf. M. Last, The Sokoto Caliphate (London, I967), I22.

41 L. T. White, Medieval Technology and Social Change (Oxford, I962), the first chapter; J. Goody, Technology, Tradition and the State in Africa (London, 197I), 34.

42 White (I962), 35-6. 43 E. Bradford, The Shield and the Sword: the Knights of St. John (London, I972), 37-8. 44 Barth (I857-8), iII, i6-I7. 45 H. Clapperton, Journal of a Second Expedition ... (London, I829), I86-7. 46 Macleod (I 9 7 2), I 70. 4 P. 373 and n. Cf. B. Alexander, 'Lake Chad', J. Afr. Soc. VII (7908), 231-2.



THE HORSE IN THE CENTRAL SUDAN 36I

accompanied the rider's mule.48 Goody suggests the contrary, that horses were often 'just a means of transport to war rather than in war'49; but, apart from resolute leaders dismounting (see p. 363 below) I have found little evidence of this in the central Sudan. The switch to horses as battle began increased speed and manoeuverability; but armies often included a camelry element, which might be thrown even against cavalry, for horses unaccustomed to camels have a strong natural fear of them.50

Food and water supplies for horses on the march were another vital support element. In Part I (p. 384) we mentioned the obligation of various chiefs, including the figidoma, to provide corn for horsetraders travelling north from Bornu. There are several references in the Bornu records to peoples, particularly living southwards towards Mandara, having a duty to supply fodder for the Bornu cavalry.51 The overall economics of horse- keeping is yet another aspect of the general subject needing careful analysis.

It was not only the size, equipment, and support of horses that determined their military impact, but also the spirit of the troops. Islamic fervour might offset cavalry strength. The Almoravids, redoubtable warriors, fought mostly on foot.52 Usuman dan Fodio triumphed, in the main, with relatively ill-equipped zealots against the cavalry of the Hausa kings. The Hausa mocked the equestrian ineptitude of the Fulani, only a few, mostly favourites of Hausa princes, having had horses before the jihad.53 After the Fulani, with twenty horses, defeated the numerous Gobir cavalry at Tabkin Kwotto in i804, Usuman's daughter exulted:

Yunfa fled from bare-legged herdsmen, Who had neither mail nor horseman; We that had been chased like hares Can now live in houses.54

Military factors did enter in: skilled Fulani bowmen wrought havoc even among Hausa heavy cavalry, despite their armour.55 But religion was more important-although it is exactly this that should give us a word of warn- ing, lest disparity in resources between reformers and princes be exagger- ated in order to enhance the significance of religion. Staudinger, for

48 W. C. Harris, The Highlands of _Ethiopia (London, i844), III, 245. 19 Goody (I971), 47. 50 Last (I967), 3I and n. This was one factor in the eleventh-century defeat of the

Spanish Christians at Zallaqa; H. Terrasse, Histoire du Maroc (Casablanca, I949), I, 234. 51 Sudanese Memoirs, II, io6, and III, 29-30; see also R. Cohen, The Kanuri of Bornu

(New York, I967), 50, 6is, 67, 89, 93. 52 El-Bekri, Description de l'Afrique Septentrionale, ed. de Slane (Algiers and Paris, I9I3,

reprinted Paris, I965), 3I4, Arabic i66; P. F. Farias, 'The Almoravids .. .', Bull. I.F.A.N. xxix (B, 3-4) (I967), 794-878. Contrast Goody (I97I), 69, who sees Almoravid cavalry dominating trans-Saharan routes.

53 E. R. Flegel, Lose Bldtter aus dem Tagebuche ... (Hamburg, I885), 34. 54 M. Crowder, The Story of Nigeria (London, I966), 98, 350. 5" Hogben and Kirk-Greene (I966), I97.




example, opposes Flegel (see n. 53), and claims that many more horses were available to the Fulani.56

Again, discipline and tactics might outweigh cavalry advantages. At Tabkin Kwotto, the Fulani had been impelled willy-nilly to adopt the square,57 the same formation which the British used to good effect in West Africa and elsewhere.58 A horse's speed was qualified by his noise: hooves might be heard by putting an ear to the ground-whence, as I suppose, the English proverb-well before the sound carried through the air. In areas of recurrent danger from cavalry attack, thorn hedges, stock- ades, walls, ditches and other devices were developed. It is perhaps significant that the two themes, of cavalry power and walled towns, march hand in hand through early Hausa history: the balance of the two may explain why Hausaland, despite the early employment of horses and the favourable terrain, evolved no unitary empire as Mali, Songhay, or Bornu.

The military effectiveness of horses lay not in cavalry alone, but in the intelligent combination of infantry and cavalry. Denham observed of Bornu:

the infantry here . . . most commonly decide the fortune of war; and the sheikh's former successes may be greatly, if not entirely, attributed to the courageous efforts of the Kanem spearmen, in leading the Bornou horse into the battle, who, without such a covering attack, would never be brought to face the arrows of their enemies.59

In other areas also, for example in Nupe, and among the Mossi, it was the custom for the infantry to open the engagement, and for the cavalry to be used as a follow-up. 60 Should the tide of battle already have begun to turn, the follow-up might alter accordingly: were the infantry successful, the cavalry might pursue to make captives and slaves; were the infantry thrown back, the cavalry might lead the retreat.

The Psalmist notwithstanding, a horse was certainly not counted a vain thing to save a man. That even the mai of Bornu might so decamp seems not to have been sufficiently embarrassing to exclude mention of it in his praise songs:

Sultan, even if you are mounted on your bay horse called 'Kite Kiteram', Birni Njimi is a long way off if you want to run away.61

After a victory of Alooma of Bornu over the Bulala, ' . . . of those who were on foot or mounted on camels, many were killed. Only those mounted on horses escaped.'62 Kutumbi, a seventeenth-century ruler of Kano, escaped

56 P. Staudinger, Im Herzen der Haussa-Ldnder (Berlin, I889), 538; see also U.

BraukSimper, Der Einfluss des Islam auf die Geschichte ... Adamaues ... (Wiesbaden, I970), 22.

57 H. A. S. Johnston, The Fulani Empire of Sokoto (London, I967), 45-6. 58 M. Crowder, ed., West African Resistance (London, I97I), 290.

59 Denham and Clapperton (I826), (D)I74. 60 M. J. Echenberg, 'Late nineteenth-century military technology in Upper Volta',

J. Afr. Hist. XII, 2 (197I), 243; S. F. Nadel, A Black Byzantium (London, I951), III. 61 J. R. Patterson, Kanuri Songs (Lagos, I926), 3. 62 Sudanese Memoirs, I, 32.




on horseback with a few companions after a dawn raid surprised his camp; it had been his prudent habit, when going to war or prayer, to have a hundred spare horses in his train63-a practice dating back to Rumfa's time, about I500.64 Abdullahi dan Fodio describes Sarkin Gobir's flight from Tabkin Kwotto:

And Yunfa fled headlong, Running before his horsemen, who fled in disorder. His clinging to the mane of his charger Saved him from the death decreed.... His horsemen were (like) brides in garments of silk, Sticking to their horses like tick(s).65

In Darfur, the Anglo-Egyptian governor Slatin once surprised the camp of the Mahdist general Madibbo, capturing even his copper drums; but Madibbo, riding bareback, escaped. When Slatin later surrendered, he received Madibbo's favourite horse, and gave back the drums in exchange. 66

Examples might be multiplied.67 The spare horses often remarked among a warrior's equipage were

designed in part to ensure his safe and speedy departure in case of need. When Abderrahman, brother of Shaykh "Umar of Bornu, was over- thrown after temporarily usurping supreme authority in i853-4, he had one horse killed under him. He was at once brought the horse of one of his slaves, but refused such a dishonourable mount. Then another brother gave his own horse to enable Abderrahman to flee-unsuccessfully, as it turned out.68 Denham observed the sultan of Mandara setting out on a raid, with thirty of his sons; all were mounted, each son having five or six spare horses, and the sultan at least twelve.69

To go into battle with one horse only, or even on foot, was an indication of the leader's resolve to fight to the finish. Slatin makes this point explicitly:

On the first shots being fired, I had at once jumped off my horse, which is always understood in the Sudan to mean that, abandoning his chance of flight in case of a reverse, the commander has determined to conquer or die with his troops....70

In i824, at the battle of Angala, in which Bornu overcame Bagirmi, the Shaykh of Bornu, al-Kanemi, employed the same symbolic action:

83 Kano Chronicle, in ibid. iII, II9. 84 Hogben and Kirk-Greene (1966), 192. 6 'Abdullah ibn Muhammad, Tazyin al-waraqdt, ed. and tr. M. Hiskett (Ibadan, I963),

" I 3. 68 R. C. Slatin, Fire and Sword in the Sudan (London, I896), 247, 267. 67 See Gueladio's dramatic escape from the Masina theocrats, though on a field of

prayer, not of battle; Ba and Daget (I962), I, 123-4. 68 A. Schultze, The Sultanate of Bornu, tr. P. A. Benton (I9I3, reprinted London,

I968), 270-I. 89 Denham and Clapperton (i826), (D)130. 70 Slatin (1896), I97.




It is said that, on the morning of the battle, the sheikh appeared at the door of his tent, with the English double-barrelled gun in his hand, and his English sword slung over his shoulders, clothed in the dress of a simple trooper, saying it was his intention to fight on foot, at the head of his Kanemboos;-that he expected all the Arabs to follow his example, and encourage the slaves, who were but young in the use of the firelock: that if it pleased God to grant their enemies the victory, flight was out of the question; they had nothing left but to die before their wives and children were torn from them, and escape so appalling a sight.7'

Something of the same gesture may lie behind the single horse of the king of Kaniaga, despite the numerous horses available in his army.72

It would be cynical to regard spare horses as necessarily a sign of timid- ity. Many Sudanese champions echoed the cry of Richard III, 'Give me another horse!' Ahmad Shata, vizier of Darfur, hoping for honourable death in battle against Zubayr, had one horse shot under him, mounted another, and was killed.73 In a succession dispute in the Kano emirate, one redoubtable claimant had four horses killed under him before he was taken.74 On the raid in which the Mandara sultan and his thirty sons participated, one Bornu commander mounted three horses in succession, two dying by poisoned arrows. Horses, being larger, were more vulnerable than men: in several clashes during the occupation of Hausaland the British had horses killed but no men.76 The habit of keeping spares may help explain the considerable booty sometimes taken in horses. Spoil seized from al-Kanemi's army in i827 included over two hundred horses, and al-Hajj 'Umar captured a like number from Segu.77 Mixed booty of horses and slaves confirms again the presence of horses outside the main states: after a successful raid, a Bornu kashella received ioo slaves, 50 cows, so donkeys and 8o horses. 78

Slaving was a main purpose of much violence, from war to kidnapping, and horses were of special value in overtaking fugitives. Mandingo warriors in the Liberian hinterland offered a standard choice:

These unrelenting cavaliers are said to put a very simple alternative to a poor foot soldier who can neither further fight nor fly: they hail him with 'Stand and you are a slave; run and you are a corpse.'79

71 Denham and Clapperton (i826), (D)25o. 72 Part I, 374-5. 73 Slatin (I896), 51-2.

74 Histoire du Sokoto, in Tedzkiret en-nisidn, ed. and tr. 0. Houdas (1913-4, reprinted Paris, i966), 353-5.

7r Denham and Clapperton (I826), (D)133. 76 R. A. Adeleye, Power and Diplomacy in Northern Nigeria (London, i97i), 273, 279. 77 Clapperton (I829), 252; M. A. Tyam, La Vie d'El Hadj Omar, ed. and tr. H. Gaden

(Paris, 1935), 144. 78 R. Prietze, 'Bornulieder', M.S.O.S. zu Berlin, Afr. Stud. (1914), 207. A tenth-

century author reports Kanem tree-dwellings, presumably a defensive measure and very likely against slavers, the trees at the same time shading the residents' horses; Sharaf al- Zamdn Tahir Marvazi on China, the Turks and India, ed. and tr. V. Minorsky (London, 1I942), 54.

79 B. Anderson, 3ourneys to Musadu (London, 197I), 2nd narrative, 30.




We have an account of a Kano slave raid taking horses nine days into dense forest, even though a road had frequently to be cut for the animals through the bush.80 Such activity was not the exclusive privilege of Muslim states; in the following curious passage, the freed slave Doguru speaks of his experience among the Bedde, whom we noticed in Part I (p. 376) as one of many local Sudanese groups possessing horses:

They give their horses charm-water. When they go anywhere, and some one sees them, and hides himself, their horses, on seeing that spot, stand still, and if their masters spur them, they do not go on; so the master knows that his horse sees something: the horse sees the spot where some one has hid himself, but the horse's master does not see it. Then the owner of the horse calls into the open air, 'Thou who hast hid thyself here, arise and come forth! if thou do not come forth, I will kill thee.' The man who has hid himself, on hearing death threatened, comes forth and says, 'Father Bode, do not kill me!' Then the Bode seizes and ties him, and puts him in front, and all the Bodes start again. Their horses show them the place where a man has hid himself; I have seen it: no one has told it me, but I myself have witnessed it. We and they were together....81

In a circular relationship, newly captured slaves, and others, were frequently exchanged for more horses. The first askiya of Songhay, in the early sixteenth century, bartered the children of three servile tribes for horses.82 Examples abound: various prominent personalities had, earlier in their careers, formed part of such exchanges. Ngolo, to become king of the Bambara of Segu later in the nineteenth century, had once been one of 240 slaves sent by the Bambara to Jenne, in exchange for horses.83 Bishop Crowther, as a boy, had been bartered by a chief, who had taken him as spoil, for a horse, but the chief took back his slave when the horse proved unsuitable.84

Leo reports that the ruler of Bornu used to give fifteen or twenty slaves for an imported horse.85 By the nineteenth century, the price of horses in terms of slaves had fallen considerably in the central Sudan. Barth observed, in Sokoto in I853, that a slave and a horse were of roughly equal value86; this seems unusual, although Crowther was apparently assessed in this way. Whether sufficient detail survives in the sources to allow us ever to calculate overall price patterns is uncertain. Clearly many variables enter in. Quality horses were vastly more expensive than southern

8O W. W. Reade, Savage Africa (London, I864), 480, citing F. de Castelnau, Renseigne- ments sur l'Afrique centrale; the information was originally gleaned from Hausa slaves in Latin America.

I" Koelle (i854), 2I2.

82 Mahmoud Kati, Tarikh el-fettach (Paris, 1913-4, reprinted Paris, I964), I09, Arabic 56.

83 C. Monteil, Les Bambara du Segou et du Kaarta (Paris, 1924), 47. "4 Africa Remembered, ed. Philip D. Curtin (Madison, Wisconsin, I968), 304-5. 86 Leo (I896), iII, 833-4; see also B. Lembezat, Les populations paiennes du Nord-

Cameroun et de l'Adamaoua (Paris, I96I), 156-7. 86 Barth (I857-8), IV, i8o; for a fuller discussion of slaves in the arms trade, chiefly for

horses, see A. G. B. and H. J. Fisher, Slavery and Muslim Society in Africa (London, 1970), 68-71.




Sudanic ponies, and within such general categories the virtues of the indi- vidual horse (or slave) weighed heavily. Legends no doubt overstate this. When, in Shuwa sagas, Abu Zayd the Hilali offers Mallam al-Tiftif (whom he later killed) wealth past reckoning, 99 slaves of six spans, 99 of five, and 99 old women with heads white as cotton, all for one white mare, we may suspect exaggeration.87 But figures given by Doughty in Arabia in the nineteenth century, where among the beduin a best broodmare of pure blood was worth twelve or more stout Negro lads bought of the returning pilgrimage caravan, reflect the importance of good mares more realisti- cally. 88

Beyond these generally commercial considerations, slaves and horses were linked in various other contexts. In the discussion of exchange which closes this article, horses and slaves are often parallel items. Islamic law classed them together for certain purposes: it was, for example, illegal to sell a runaway slave or a runaway animal.89 Perhaps following from this, the Kanuri term gawui may mean, of animals, 'stray', 'solitary', and of slaves, 'runaway'.90 Proverbs and poems join, or contrast, the two. The Hausa say, a horseman wants his property to run, not so the slave owner.91 The pipedream of a Tunisian bedouin poet is for a fine horse, a handy young slave boy, and a greyhound.92 And, in a somewhat macabre folktale, the chief and headmen of a Hausa village command their sons to slaughter warhorses and beautiful slave maidens.93

Both flight and slaving, as headings of the military use of horses, reflect the importance of people, rather than of territory. To get away alive was more important than to defend a particular piece of ground; and it was of far more use to capture people than land. Booty was a main source of state revenue, and human booty was particularly valuable.94 But captives had more than a commercial value: many were prospective farming and labour- ing citizens, taxable and draftable. The measure of a state's power in the central Sudan was the number of its controlled population: a vast area without people to till and defend it was of little profit. Underpopulation, as for Australia today, was a critical problem.

So much for the military use of horses. Another employment of clear significance for good government is in communications. I-fere, to my surprise, I can recall little mention of urgent messages sent by horse, no

87 J. R. Patterson, Stories of Abu Zeid the Hilali (London, 1930), 24, Arabic 3; see also 66-7.

88 Doughty (1923), I, 208, 553. 89 Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani, La Risdla ., ed. L. Bercher (Algiers, 1945), 209, 215. 90 P. A. Benton, Kanuri Readings (London, 191 I), 93. 91 C. E. J. Whitting, Hausa and Fulani proverbs (Lagos, 1940), 24; cf. G. Merrick,

Hausa proverbs (London, 1905), 49. 92 H. Stumme, Tripolitanisch-tunisische Beduinenlieder (Leipzig, I894), 76; A. Wagnon,

Chants des bedouins de Tripoli et de la Tunisie (Paris, I894), I5. 93 R. S. Rattray, Hausa Folk-lore ... (Oxford, 1913), I, 284 ff.; see also Part I, 368, n. 5. " Goody (1971), 35-6. An interesting study might be made of the influence, in black

Africa, of Islamic regulations concerning booty.




Sudanese dash from Ghent to Aix, no black John Gilpin. There are celebrated rides, such as the escape of Ali Kolon, later first sonni of Songhay, from Mali, but these are closer to flight than to despatches.95 My un- familiarity with the sources must be partly to blame. Express horsemen- one arrived at midnight at Kano, to tell people there, depressed by cloudy skies, that the moon ending Ramadan had been seen96 -were surely not unusual. Many remarkable stories adorn the camel in this respect. Horses were also important in tax-collecting, particularly for cattle taxes from nomads,97 and in quest of alms-hence the significance of horses given to clerics.

Horses made a modest contribution as pack animals. Camels dominated the desert routes. Horses might accompany the camel caravans; probably the riding beasts of wealthy travellers, they nevertheless demonstrate the continuing suitability of the horse for desert transport. Camels penetrated into the Sudan countries as far as climate and terrain allowed. Oxen were often used, particularly in Bornu.98 The first residence of the sultans of Air had to be moved, for pack-oxen carrying grain thither suffered too much en route.99 Donkeys were also much favoured. A donkey-load of salt may have been a standard unit in eleventh-century Ghana.100 Denham remarks on the particularly fine breed of donkeys in Mandara, perhaps the same which Schultze describes as characteristic of southwestern Bornu.'0' Doughty, in Arabia, found the donkey, which sweats little, hardly less a beast of the wilderness than the camel; Speke reports that the Somali watered their camels twice a month, and their donkeys four times, com- pared with ponies needing water every forty-eight hours. Arkell discusses the feasibility of donkey transport on the Forty Days' Road south from Egypt, comparing Harkhuf's donkey caravans in ancient times.102 In a combination of carriers, Clapperton saw oxen, donkeys, mules, slaves and free porters in Hausa caravans to Gonja, and horses too, though not I think carrying loads.'03 Mules were apparently not bred in Bornu.104 Further east, caravans of donkeys and oxen are mentioned carrying goods south from Wadai into Dar Kuti.'05 A pilgrimage vignette given by Barth

95 Part I, p. 378. 6 Denham and Clapperton (i826), (C)127. Nachtigal records his anxiety lest a message,

unfriendly to him, be sent by horseback from Logon to Bagirmi, two days' easy ride; (i967), II, 525-6.

97 Cohen (i967), 100, 104.

98 Denham and Clapperton (i826), (D)32I. 99 Y. Urvoy, 'Chroniques d'Agad's', J. Soc. Africanistes, iv (I934), 54. 100 El-Bekri (i965), 330-I, Arabic 176. The Arabic gives himdr al-mili, the donkey of

salt; but the next line refers to ziml an-nuhzds, the load of copper. The Arabic words for donkey and load are similar, and possibly one has been confused with the other.

101 Denham and Clapperton (i826), (D)32I; Schultze (I968), i66. 102 Doughty (1923), I, 28i, 428; J. H. Speke, What Led to the Discovery... (London,

1864), 73; A. J. Arkell, A History of the Sudan (London, 1955), 42-5. 103 Clapperton (I829), 68, I09-I0. 104 Schultze (i968), i66. 105 Grech, 'Ittude sur le Dar Kouti en temps de Snoussi', Bull. de la Soc. des Recherches

congolaises, iv (1924), 38-9.




illustrates the various animals. On his way to Adamawa, Barth met a party of pilgrim traders returning home to Masina, on the upper Niger. The chief among them had a pack-ox laden with salt which he hoped to sell in Adamawa, and was riding a camel, which alas, died in Adamawa during the rains. Two others were mounted on fine donkeys, which they had brought with them from Darfur.'06

Nevertheless horses were used. Nachtigal mentions packhorses belonging to traders from Kuka, on expeditions to Adamawa, Bagirmi, Kano, Zinder and elsewhere; and packhorses accompanied him on his return journey from Bagirmi.107 He gives the price of an inferior Bornu pack- horse, in the Kuka market, as between four and ten Maria Theresa dollars, the same as for a dwarf horse from the southern pagan countries.'08 In I894, a German officer returning from Kete, in modern Ghana, met a Hausa caravan of 300 people, from Sokoto, with humped cattle, sixty or more donkeys, and laden horses.'09 Goody's repeated assertion that horses never carried goods is, I suspect, another instance of noble horsemanship witching the world, even its academics."10

Hunting, apart from the prime occupation of slaving already discussed, was also a function of horses, though apparently much more in North Africa than in the Sudan. Ostriches were a popular prey. Horse trappings were specially lightened for ostrich hunting.1"

As for straight agricultural work, I know of no references to this in the central Sudan, although it was common in North Africa: Leo, for example, speaks of ploughing with horses and camels throughout Numidia."2 In the absence of plough and wheel, there was not much the horses in the Sudan could do. Goody, in his Technology, tradition, and the state in Africa, discusses the effects of this absence most interestingly, but the question why remains unanswered. Religion crossed the desert, the Arabic language, literacy, firearms and other weapons, novelties past counting: why were the wheel and the plough never adopted? In recent years, the plough has been widely taken up by peasant farmers, for example in Hausa and Senegambia"13; it is drawn by oxen. Have development experts ever considered that horses, superior draft animals, might be more helpful than tractors to the small African farmer? Horse manure was, and is, valued as fertilizer, and also as an ingredient in Hausa bricks and cement.114

108 Barth (I857-8), II, 366-7, 471. 107 Nachtigal (I967), I, 673, and II, 736; compare II, 391, where they are cited after oxen

and donkeys. 108 Nachtigal (I967), I, 693. 109 J. Lippert, 'Uber die Bedeutung der Haussanation . . .', Mitt. des Sem. fuir Orien-

talische Sprachen zu Berlin (1907), 202. 1 Goody (I97I), 48, 66.

1 E. Daumas, The Ways of the Desert (Austin and London, 197I), 50 ff. 112 Leo (I896), III, 777. 11 Polly Hill, Rural Hausa (Cambridge, 1972), 307-9. 114 F. W. Taylor and A. G. G. Webb, Labarun al'adun Hausawa (London, 1932), 173,

I 85-7.




In the Muslim Sudan at least, horses were rarely eaten. Maliki law forbids the eating of horses and mules, though wild donkeys are allowed.'15 Inadequate observance of these regulations was a complaint against Pagans or careless Muslims. Ibn Battuta condemned the Mali habit of eating carrion, dogs, and asses.116 The Musgo delegates who in I823 brought presents to the Sultan of Mandara ate a horse which died during the night of their visit. Denham said that this proved they were not Christians, as his Arab colleague had claimed, but the Arab retorted that Christians ate pig, which was worse."7 A ban on eating horsemeat was one of the reforms imposed by al-Hajj 'Umar on the Bambara in the nineteenth century."l8 In Liberia, the Loma eat all but the head of a horse, this being given human burial."19 A strange passage from Koelle, concerning Bornu, tells of the formal eating of a dead horse by the king of the eagles, and his companions.'20 Contrariwise, vultures refused, out of respect, to eat the horse upon which a Somali saint had ridden, the horse itself having died of grief at parting from the man of God.'2' We may contrast the unsavoury repute of horsemeat with the esteem in which camel was held.

Thus far we have not mentioned what was clearly one of the most important employments of horses, in festivals and celebrations. These might be family affairs-in Kuka, for example, and among the Arma of Songhay, a bride was taken to her bridegroom's house on horseback'22-or perhaps a school celebration. Leo's account is of Fez:

Afterward so soon as any boy hath perfectly learned the whole Alcoran, his father inviteth all his son's schoolfellows unto a great banquet: and his son in costly apparel rides through the street upon a gallant horse, which horse and apparel the governor of the royal citadel is bound to lend him. The rest of his school-fellows being mounted likewise on horse-back accompany him to the banqueting house....123

In Wadai, the successful scholar was also paraded on horseback, ban- queted, and might choose his bride from all the lasses of the village.'24

The main occasions for mass deployment of horses in celebration seem to have been arrivals-particularly when the visitors were important, or were saluting a great man-and Fridays and other Muslim holy days. The

115 Ibn Abl Zayd (I945), 299.

116 Ibn Battfita (I968), IV, 423-4; his own camel was eaten, though it is not clear whether it had been properly slaughtered or not (IV, 429-30).

117 Denham and Clapperton (i826), (D)II8-9; see also Part I, 377, n. 53. 118 M. Delafosse, Haut-S6n6gal-Niger (Paris, 1912), II, 3I8. 119 G. Schwab, Tribes of the Liberian hinterland (Cambridge, Mass., I947), 95. 120 Koelle (I854), 204-5. 121 B. W. Andrzejewski, 'Allusive diction in Galla hymns.. .', Af. Lang. Studies, xiii

(2972), II, 15. 122 Nachtigal (I967), I, 739; P. Marty, ARtudes sur l'Islam et les Tribus du Soudan (Paris,

I920), II, II8. Cf. Taylor and Webb (I932), 13, for a Hausa variation. Camels were also used; Denham and Clapperton (I826), xxvii.

123 Leo (I896), II, 456. 124 Nachtigal (I97I), IV, i89.




leading men of Zawila rode out to meet Hornemann's caravan as it ap- proached, and later, near Murzuk, hosts and guests together pranced and curvetted their horses.125 Clapperton says of his arrival at Sansan, in I823, on the way from Hausa to Bornu:

Our horsemen skirmished a little in front of the caravan before entering the town, and then galloped up in pairs to the governor's door, firing off their muskets. This is the common compliment paid by kafilas [caravans] in such cases.126

Denham, at Delow towards Mandara, mentions disadvantages of the custom:

As is usual on approaching or visiting a great man, we galloped up to the skiffa at full speed, almost entering the gates. This is a perilous sort of salutation, but nothing must stop you; and it is seldom made except at the expense of one or more lives. On this occasion, a man and a horse, which stood in our way, were ridden over in an instant, the horse's leg broke, and the man killed on the spot.127

Similarly, horsemen often welcomed new arrivals by galloping up to them and suddenly stopping.128

On Fridays and festivals, equestrian exercises might include races-in Bariba, pagans as well as Muslims joined in the Friday festivities, and the small local horses sometimes outran the larger Bornu breed129-mock battles or skirmishes, sudden charges and halts. Miss Tully gives an interesting description from Tripoli; Slatin witnessed the like at the Mahdi's camp, Hornemann at Murzuk, Denham at Kuka, and Barth also, Zintgraff at Donga in Cameroon, Laing at Falaba.130 Colonel Bulder, of Pickwick, was, mutatis mutandis, a familiar figure in the Sudan,

in full military uniform, on horseback, galloping first to one place and then to another, and backing his horse among the people, and prancing, and curvetting, and shouting in a most alarming manner, and making himself very hoarse in the voice, and very red in the face, without any assignable cause or reason whatever.

The 1972 BBC television series on the British Empire showed that such horsemanship retains dramatic appeal even today.131

These displays are of practical historical significance. Pomp and circum- stance are often useful trappings of the state. Second, the universal esteem for horses presumably stimulated trade and exchange in these, with corresponding benefits to the economic life of the countries concerned. Third, the displays might serve as military propaganda, as when Bornu

125 Hornemann (I967), II, I23, I3I. 126 Denham and Clapperton (I826), (C)I5. 127 Ibid. (D)iI2. 128 Ibid. (C)I9, 35-6, 77; examples are legion. 129 Clapperton (I829), 72-3. 130 Tully (i8i6), 47-8; Slatin (I896), 284, 53I; Hornemann (I967), II, I35-6; Denham

and Clapperton (I826), (D)2I3; Barth (I857-8), iii, I7; E. Zintgraff, Nord-Kamerun (Berlin, I895), 272-4; A. G. Laing, Travels in ... Western Africa (London, I825), 246-7.

131 A. J. N. Tremearne, The Ban of the Bori (London, I9I4), 65, mentions that horses in Bornu were sometimes dressed in trousers for state processions; this may be a distorted reference to quilted armour.




troops receiving a Tripoli caravan pressed so close as to give the compliment of welcome the appearance of contempt for the visitors' weakness.132 Fourth, they trained both animals and riders in agility and control, essential for light cavalry. In another respect festivals were excellent, though probably unintended, training: they accustomed horses to noise, particularly of gunfire, a standard festal element. A horse without such training was a liability, not an asset, in battle. Slatin once paid a considerable price for a fine horse, formerly an officer's and used to firing.133 Several nineteenth- century battles may have been determined when the sound of firearms caused horses to panic.134 Noisy festivals prevented such reverses from becoming more frequent than they were, although of course celebrations were still far removed from fighting conditions, and Abdullahi dan Fodio complained of 'horses that gallop in the towns, not on the battlefields."135

A further point about festival riding is the importance of harness, especially bits, stirrups, spurs and saddles-all things, as we have seen, of the greatest significance for the military effectiveness of horses. Many observers, particularly in more recent times, have commented bitterly on the cruel heavy Sudanese bits, from which the horses' mouths bled pro- fusely.'36 A hot bit, runs a Hausa proverb, is the cure for a stubborn horse.137 Without such equipment, some of the manoeuvres would have been impossible.

Horse trappings provided an attractive opportunity for luxury crafts- manship: royal extravagance in this is well documented in North Africa.'38 Leo's account of the complete gold harness of the ruler of Bornu, more directly relevant for our area, is difficult to interpret. His recent French editors played down the significance of the gold, pointing out that very thin copper plates are used to cover such harness even today in Bornu, and that therefore not much gold would have been needed.139 But Leo says that the harness was completely of gold, as were the king's dishes and bowls, even the chains of his dogs. McCall, at the furthest pole from the cautious

132 K. Folayan, 'Tripoli-Bornu political relations, I8I7-I825', J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, v, 4 (I97I), 472.

133 Slatin (i896), 64-5. 134 J. P. Smaldone, 'Firearms in the Central Sudan: a revaluation', Y. Afr. Hist. XIII, 4

(I972), 594. From one source he cites, however, C. G. B. Gidley, 'Mantanfas: a study in oral tradition', Afr. Lang. Stud. vi (I965), 32-5I, it appears that cannon, almost un- precedented, had this effect, and not simply any noisy firearm. Guns and horses might be complementary: Barth (I857-8), III, 63-4, says of a massacre of the Awlad Sulayman in i850, that their guns were useful in a skirmish of horsemen, who could withdraw after firing, but of little use in close combat.

135 Abdullah b. Muhammad (I963), 122. 136 E.g. B. Alexander, From the Niger to the Nile (London, I908), II, 122-3, who noticed

also the bad effects of hard saddles; and Migeod (I924), 88. 137 Rattray (19I3), II, 256. 138 E.g. al-'Omarl (I927), 2II f.; Leo (I896), II, 484; Tully (i8i6), 39, 48, 7I; Denham

and Clapperton (I826), xiv; W. B. Harris, Tafilet... (Edinburgh and London, I895), 255-7.

139 Jean-Leon I'Africain, Description de l'Afrique, ed. and tr. A. Epaulard et at. (Paris, 1956), 48I.

25 AH XIV




French approach, cites Leo for the possible importance of Kanem as an exporter of gold to North Africa.140 This seems too speculative. I prefer to reserve judgment, suspecting that Leo's memory may have played him false in thus gilding the court of Bornu.

Beneath the ranks of royalty, those with sufficient means might satisfy, within limits, their taste for ornament. Clapperton was in danger from a matrimonially inclined Arab widow in Borgu:

She rode a-straddle on a fine horse, whose trappings were of the first order for this country. The head of the horse was ornamented with brass plates, the neck with brass bells, and charms sewed in various coloured leather, such as red, green, and yellow; a scarlet breast-piece, with a bright plate in the centre; scarlet saddle-cloth, trimmed with lace.'4'

Boyd Alexander, a little cynically, suggests that these trappings helped give prominent men a good appearance, hiding the bad points of their animals.'42 Some Europeans succumbed to a like vanity: Stanley, setting out in I887 to rescue Emin Pasha, rode astride a fine henna-stained mule, its silver-plated trappings shining in the sun, and a tall African soldier carrying a yacht flag before.143

In some, perhaps many, areas, sumptuary laws somewhat restricted the rights of subjects in this respect. In nineteenth-century Wadai, no official, even the highest, might wear silk on himself or on his horse; he could not have a cloth-covered saddle, still less one decorated with gold or silver, these metals being forbidden also for his stirrups. The most that was allowed was a saddle covered with red leather.'" In Ngasrgamu, the capital of old Bornu, twenty Magumi chiefs were specially privileged to cover their saddles, divided into five groups, each with a different style.'45 A Hausa proverb states: 'Silver stirrups even at the chief's courtyard, it is the chief's son who has them'. Rattray interprets this: There are plenty of rich and powerful people about, but none have the privilege of silver stirrups.'46 These restrictions may stem in part from religious law: silver, for example, in the Maliki rite may be used to embellish a ring, sabre, or Quran, but not a bridle, saddle, or a poignard.'47 But in most cases pre- servation of the unique perquisites of rulers was more immediately re- sponsible than considerations of law. In the western Sudan, Goody suggests that horses themselves were reserved, by their expense, to the nobility.'48

140 Aspects of West African Islam, eds. D. F. McCall and N. R. Bennett (Boston, I97I), 28.

141 Clapperton (I829), II3; see also I25, and Slatin (I896), 47, etc. 142 From the Niger to the Nile, II, 123. 143 H. Ward, Five Years with the Congo Cannibals (London, I890), 33; for henna on

horses, see Nachtigal (I967), I, I29.

144 el-Tounsy (i85I), 37I; see also 56, 57, 6i. He gives abundant details on saddles, etc.-see 340, 342-3, 355.

145 Sudanese Memoirs, III, 30.

146Rattray (19I3), II, 268. 147 Ibn Abi Zayd (I945), 305-7. 148 Goody (I97I), 48.




In the central Sudan a horse, if you were not particular about appearance and quality, seems to have been comparatively cheaper; that sumptuary regulations fastened more on harness than on the animal may point again to the central significance (underlined in our military and festival considerations) of equipment.

Social and religious factors considerably influenced the choice of mount. Donkeys were generally, though not invariably, beneath the dignity of self-respecting men. Belon, visiting Cairo in 1547, found horses reserved for great gentlemen and soldiers, other people going on donkeys, as did most women.149 The Somali believed that even the best woman in the land should ride only a donkey, not a horse.150 Among the Zaghawa, chiefs and notables rode horses, women and smiths rode donkeys.'51 Several Zaghawa clans have taboos against riding donkeys: one explanation is that the original Zaghawa invaders came, on donkeys only, from a land without horses and camels, and when they found themselves among these animals in plenty, they swore to ride donkeys no more.'52 This is only a legend, and even if true may relate to only a fraction of the Zaghawa: yet it is a curious commentary on the Zaghawan introduction of the horse into the Sudan. In seventeenth-century Kano, a disgraced official, put on a donkey and driven by girls round the town, died of chagrin.'53 In Wadai almost no one rode a donkey, and emphatically not in the capital.'54 In a Bornu song, a suitor who offered his beloved a donkey received a dusty answer, and had to offer her the horse of her choice to make amends.155

Such prejudice against the unoffending donkey was not universal in the Muslim world. Indeed the donkey, among puritanical Muslims, might be positively desirable. It may have been reserved, in the popular Arabian mind, for judges even before Islam.'56 Early Muslim traditions make the same point: 'Umar bin al-Khattab, the caliph, rode a donkey, and forbade horses to his administrators: Sultan Bello of Sokoto quoted these in our area.'57 In the early centuries of North African Islam, various anecdotes present the donkey as the judge's proper mount, though complaints about ostentation followed.'58 The son of Ubayd Allah, the Fatimid mahdi, after his father's death never, save twice, mounted a horse again.'59 More recently,

149 P. Belon, Voyage en Egypte (Cairo, 1970), io6b. On the other hand, donkeys helped conceal superfluous wealth from an inquisitive government; E. W. Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (Everymans), 142-3.

150 D. Jardine, The Mad Mullah of Somaliland (London, 1923), 304 n. 151 M.-J. Tubiana, Survivances preislamiques en pays zaghawa (Paris, I964), I2. 152 Ibid. 64-5; see also J. Chapelle, Nomades noirs du Sahara (Paris, I957), 362-3. 153 Sudanese Memoirs, III, 120. 154 El-Tounsy (I851), 343. 155 Prietze (1914), 212-I3.

156 E. Tyan, Histoire de l'organisation judiciaire en pays d'Islam (Paris, I938-43), I, 30 if., 53-4.

157 McCall and Bennett (197I), 83-4. 158 J. F. P. Hopkins, Medieval Muslim Government in Barbary... (London, 1958),s IT9;

cf. perhaps, the judge's mule in al-'Omari (1927), 215-I6. 159 Ibn Khaldoun (I927), II, 528.




the Mahdi in the eastern Sudan exhorted his followers to go on foot or by donkey, using horses only for war.160 Did Richardson know of these pious overtones as, committed crusader against the slave trade, he left Tripoli on his last, fatal journey, mounted on a donkey, following his guide who rode a horse?161 A specific objection to horses, when ridden in town, is that the riders may be able to see over the walls of compounds where dwell secluded women. The reformers in Hausaland made this point, as do the puritan Yan Koble of Niger.162

Various factors complicated the choice between mares and stallions. Some felt the former more fitting for religious men. Shehu Ahmadu, the frugal theocrat of Masina early in the nineteenth century, had only a mare to ride.163 Abdullahi dan Fodio, coming to his celebrated meeting of recon- ciliation with his nephew Bello, was-as always-on a mare, as befitting a mallam, while Bello rode a warhorse.164 In some areas stallions were a government monopoly: in Adamawa, any commoner having one gave it to the lamido; in Bagirmi, all stallions of the nomads belonged to the government; in Wadai all stallions save those necessary for breeding were the king's.165 On the other hand, some Arabs believed that the female, whether horse, camel, or mule, had greater endurance.166 Mares, less likely to neigh, might be favoured for surprise raids; for this reason, and for breeding, they were highly prized in Hausa, and seldom sold.167 Their quietness made them more vulnerable to theft.168

In some special cases camels were preferred. Leo tells of the king of Timbuktu, i.e. the ruler of Songhay, that

when he travelleth any whither he rideth upon a camel, which is led by some of his noblemen; and so he doth likewise when he goeth to warfare, and all his soldiers ride upon horses.'69

El-Tounsy, far to the east, heard that Usuman dan Fodio rode a camel, saddled with a sheepskin, at his first battle, while his troops rode horses.170 This may be a myth, although on his hijra his books were carried by camel,17' but Abdullahi dan Fodio, raiding across the Niger, rode a camel,

160 B. T. Wilson, 'A forgotten battle', Royal Engineersj. LXVII (i) (March 1953), I1-15. 161 J. Richardson, Narrative of a Mission ... (London, I853), I, 14. 162 M. Hiskett, The Sword of Truth: the life and times of the Shehu Usman dan Folio

(New York, I973), I49; J. C. Froelich, Les musulmans d'Afrique noire (Paris, I962), 209. 163 Ba and Daget (I962), I, 53. 164 Hogben and Kirk-Greene (I966), 392-3. 165 East (I934), 41; Nachtigal (I967), II, 671; Nachtigal (I97I), IV, I82. 166F. W. Taylor, A Practical Hausa Grammar (Oxford, 1923), 104; see also Doughty

(1923), I, 309. 167 Denham and Clapperton (I826), (C)44. 168 Daumas (1971), 22.

169 Leo (I896), in, 824-5. Cf. the Sultan of Dhafar, who left his palace in a camel litter, descending outside the town to mount a horse; none might accost or look at him on the way; Ibn Battcuta (I968), II, 213.

170 El-Tounsy (I851), 292. 171 Last (I967), I6 n.




his men going on foot or by horse.172 A camel might carry the state drums: a trusted servant, accompanying the shaykh of Bornu on expedition in 1823, is ' . . . mounted on a swift maherhy, and fantastically dressed with a straw hat and ostrich feathers, [and] carries his timbrel or drum, which it is the greatest misfortune and disgrace to lose in action'.173 In Bornu also a huge sword, part of the royal regalia and said to derive from the first Muslim war, was carried into battle by camel, its presence ensuring victory.'74 A favoured wife or concubine might ride a camel, while her master went by horse.'75

Horses changed hands in many contexts, reminding us of the sub- structure of local trade and exchange, based largely on local sources of supply, which has lain relatively unnoticed in the shadow of the more limited, though more dramatic, long-distance trade, particularly across the Sahara. Horses appear often as tribute, or as special tokens of loyalty or friendship.'76 Sokoto records refer often to such gifts of slaves and kola, but more to horses and cloth.'77 Clapperton, in I824, accompanied a messenger for Sokoto ' . . . with two loaded camels and a handsome led horse of Tuarick breed, sent as the weekly present or tribute from Kano to the sultan'.'78 The lamido of Adamawa received tribute in horses (particularly from the Marwa and Mandara regions), cattle, and slaves.'79 When their emir died, the people of Missau sent his horse, sword, and one of his concubines to Sokoto.180 The Musgo people in I823, fearing a slave raid, sent to Mandara some 200 slaves and fifty or more horses.'8' Zaria gave the British, as relations worsened between them in I902, twelve excellent palace horses as a peace offering, but in vain.'82 Dignitaries exchanged horses: the governor of Tripoli sent one to the shaykh of Bornu in i870.183 Fines or compensation were sometimes payable in horses: one explanation for Wadai's attack on Bagirmi in I870 cites Bagirmi's refusal to return a kidnapped woman and to pay twelve horses as damages.'84

Some horses passed back from overlord to liegeman. The Sultan of Darfur, receiving tribute from Kobe, would give in return horses and clothing, of less value.'85 The Sultan of Air gave the five privileged tribes

172 cAbdullah b. Muhammad (I963), 125. 173 Denham and Clapperton (I826),(D)i62-3; see also Tubiana (I964),37,93-4, i82 and

n, and P. M. Holt, The Mahdist State in the Sudan (Oxford, 1958), 49. For drums on horses in North Africa, see Leo (I896), II, 482, and Tully (I8I6), 38.

174 Koelle (I854), 3I6. 175 Makada Ibira (1970),53 ff.; Denham and Clapperton (I826), 67. 176 E.g. Slatin (I896), 70-I, 274, 276; Tubiana (I964), 34, 82. 177 H. F. Backwell, The Occupation of Hausaland (Lagos, I927, reprinted London, I969),

passim. 178 Denham and Clapperton (I826), (C)67; see also Clapperton (I829), 2I5-i6. 179 Barth (I857-8), II, 503; C. V. Boyle, 'Historical notes on the Yola Fulanis', Y. Afr.

Soc. x (i9io-Ii), 82. 180 Adeleye (197), 87 n.; see also 86, 87. 181 Denham and Clapperton (I826), (D)II8-I9; see p. I 5 above. 182 Adeleye (197I), 247. 183 Nachtigal (I967), I, 58i; see also 486, and II, 483. 184 G. Trenga, Le Bura-Mabanga du Ouadai ... (Paris, I947), I47 ff. 185 Tubiana (I964), 34, see also go.




there some of the horses paid him in taxes by passing caravans. The balance of power in Air required this, the tribes having conquered the region and installed the sultan; but he had consulted Islamic scholars about the transaction, and was assured that men guarding the routes might properly be paid in cloth and horses.'86 In the eastern Sudan, the Khalifa Abdullahi's horse tax, payable in kind, supplied his favoured tribe, the Ta'aisha, with mounts.187 A variation comes from Sonni Ali's conquest of Jenne late in the fifteenth century: he sent a horse for the defeated sultan's mother, whom he wished to marry; when she came, he returned the horse as a gift, with its harness, which was thereafter preserved in Jenne.188 A superior's greed might arouse legitimate complaint. The ruler of Kantche, in Hausa- land, had sent his son to Daura, on the Prophet's birthday, and the Daura ruler had asked for the son's horse, an outstanding animal. Such a request could not, of course, be refused. But next year the Kantche delegation went instead to Katsina, where the son was given three horses, together with their grooms and harness. Thereafter Kantche continued loyal to Katsina.189 Al-Hajj Bashir, vizier of Bornu in Barth's time, antagonized the great men of the realm by sometimes obliging them to cede to him a particularly handsome female slave or fine horse.190

To refuse to pay tribute was an evident sign of disaffection: so was the refusal to accept such gifts. When in 1903 a letter from Sokoto arrived in Ilorin, asking the emir there to act against the British, he was in a quandary, between his proper allegiance to Sokoto and his necessary allegiance to the British, who already controlled Ilorin. He sent the messenger to the British resident, and rejected the horse which, as a gift from Sokoto, had accompanied the letter.191

Horses were popular as alms. Leo recalled how the champion poet of Fez received on the Prophet's birthday an excellent horse, a woman slave, and the king's own robes: 'but an hundred and thirty years are expired since this custom, together with the majesty of the Fessan kingdom, decayed."92 He did once, for reciting his uncle's poetry, receive 50 ducats and a good horse, and ioo ducats and three slaves for his uncle.193 In Songhay about the same time, the askiya, after hearing a cleric comment on the Quran (III. 92), gave him a purebred horse and a first rate garment.194 When in 1767 the forces of Air were defeated in an attack on Gobir, the disappointed ruler consulted his clerics. They blamed his own avarice, so he gave their leader a horse and a million cowries, with presents to the others. They in

186 Urvoy (I934), I55. 187 Slatin (I896), 533. In Ali Dinar's Darfur, a little later, an animal tax was a main

source of revenue, but horses and donkeys were exempt; A. B. Theobald, Ali Dinar: Last Sultan of Darfur (London, I965), 2I5.

188 Abderrahman ... es-Sadi, Tarikh es-Soudan (Paris, I900), 27. 189 Makada Ibira (1970), 67 ff. 190 Barth (i857-8), II, 294. 191 Adeleye (I97I), 225. 192 Leo (I896), II, 455. 193 Leo (I896), II, 307. 194 Kati (I964), 2Io-Ii, Arabic II5.




return prepared charms, and the next Air expedition overcame and be- headed the Gobir ruler.195 A little later the mai of Bornu, alarmed by the continuing Fulani threat, solicited anew the aid of the cleric al-Kanemi, giving him one hundred each of horses, slaves, camels and oxen, with additional gifts.'96 A sharif visiting the Sokoto empire in the mid-nineteenth century was given 250 slaves and five or ten horses. The account is somewhat comical, though the episode apparently had complicated and important political repercussions.197 El-Tounsy, entering Wadai, received from the ruler two concubines, two female domestics, a young camel for slaughter, and a horse led by a slave of seven spans.'98 Surely many cases of such generosity have lost nothing in the telling: it is scarcely credible that Wari, wicked ruler of Katsina, should have given to a cleric, in exchange for an elixir of eternal life, one hundred each of slaves, slave girls, horses, tobes, bulls, cows, together with other gifts past numbering.199 But equally surely horses, in more moderate numbers, were a significant factor in the pattern of almsgiving, encouraging clerical mobility and helping finance the religious establishment of Islam. That all the instances of alms just cited were to clerics, though partly explicable by the fact that clerics wrote the records and had every reason to cite good examples for their own patrons, does nevertheless illustrate the role of alms in main- taining and furthering Islam in black Africa.

Such gifts, contributing thus both to state and church, might also be used as bribes to subvert proper government. When Sabun of Wadai prepared his devastating raid on Bagirmi early in the nineteenth century, his un- willing dignitaries promised an official ioo choice horses, ioo camels and ioo slaves if he could persuade Sabun to desist; he failed.200 The chief of Cebowa, in Adamawa, having secured the succession through lavish 'dashes' of slaves, persuaded the lamido to overlook his irregular slaving by presenting him with ioo well-dressed slaves and ioo horses.201

In conclusion, let me reiterate the qualifications offered in Part I: this is a narrow survey, confined mainly to the central Sudan; and even there it is impressionistic-like Lord Ronald, I have flung myself on my horse and ridden madly off in all directions. The central Sudanese material alone would suffice for a challenging doctoral thesis. Yet I may offer two general observations. The first, that the horse per se was more common, and less remarkable, than is sometimes suggested. In Part I we saw many unlikely peoples possessing horses; in Part II horses appear in workaday situations, passing from hand to hand as alms or tribute with no more dignity than slaves, sometimes like slaves reduced to bearing burdens, even suffering the

195 H. R. Palmer, 'Notes on some Asben records', J. Afr. Soc. Ix (1909-10), 395-6. 196 Schultze (I968), 252-3.

197 Tedzkiret en-Nisidn, ed. 0. Houdas (Paris, I966), the History of Sokoto fragment, 35I 3 198 El-Tounsy (I85I), 65. 199 Rattray (I913), I, 28. 200 El-Tounsy (I851), 133-5. 201 East (I934), 107 ff.




indignity of being eaten. Their moments of glory come in ceremony and circuses. Even among Muslims, horse owners par excellence, the very pious harbour doubts about horses. In warfare, horses flee before strongly motivated infantry; more often than not their main function is to round up defenceless captives or to carry their timid riders, like the Duke of Plaza Toro, well to the fore in departing the field. Heretofore, the merest whinny has set the typewriters of historians thundering like hooves upon the plain. A recent authority quotes al-Bakri's estimate that the Ghana army com- prised 200,000 soldiers, more than a fifth armed with bows. Al-Bakri continues, the horses of Ghana are very small. 'The mention of horses in this context indicates that Ghana's army was organized around its cavalry'-thus our commentator. In fact, al-Bakri goes on at once to dis- cuss ebony, and harvest. Does the mention of horses in this context mean that Ghana's forestry and agriculture were organized around horsepower?202

This overstates the case, of course. A quality warhorse was a valuable asset; but let us remember the wide variation between a mount fit for Lady Godiva and another at which Steptoe and Son would look down their noses. Harness greatly enhanced the effectiveness of a good horse: the importance of equipment-stirrups, firm saddles, bits, bridles-is my second general conclusion. It emerges from the military evidence, again from the festivals, and is perhaps reflected in sumptuary regulations. It was not the horse itself which, in the central Sudan, swallowed the ground, but the men who, as in the vision of Jeremiah against Egypt, arose and harnessed their horses.203

SUMMARY

Horses in themselves have little or no necessary military significance: in Part I of this article we saw how various quite unwarlike peoples possessed them. Of fundamental significance, in transforming horses into war-horses, was good harness and equipment, and to carry this larger animals were preferable. Even against well-equipped cavalry, mainly infantry forces might prevail, if they were, like the Almoravids and the adherents of Usuman dan Fodio, sufficiently inspired. An important advantage of a horse, or better still several horses, was in providing a means of speedy escape. Horses were also valuable in slaving, a profitable occupation not only in the economic terms of human booty, some of whom might be sold for more horses, but also in demographic terms, a sort of compulsory immigration scheme. The use of horses in communications, as packanimals, in hunting, and for food, is discussed, though none was of outstanding significance in the Central Sudan. The employment of horses in agriculture seems to have been entirely lacking. Perhaps the most widespread use of horses was in festivals and celebrations; these displays of horsemanship, whether intentionally or not, helped train horses and riders. Good equipment was again

202 McCall and Bennett (I97I), 13; el-Bekri (I965), 332, Arabic 177. 203 Job 39:24; Jeremiah 46:4.




vital, and sumptuary restrictions seem to have been directed more against overweening ostentation in this, than in the possession of horses. While horses were very widely esteemed, the most scrupulous among Muslims felt a certain hesitation about the propriety of riding a horse. Horses were found as a form of tribute, alms, bribes, and gifts of various kinds. In conclusion, the horse per se was more common, and less remarkable, in the Central Sudan than is sometimes suggested; it was the equipment of horses which made them effective weapons of war and statecraft.



fisher, the horse in the central sudan ii its use

Documents

use authors

utcyour use

terms conditions of

jstor terms

jstor archive

newcomers cavalry

possession of cavalry

utcall use subject