Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 80
Before we explore such possible trade relations, we are going to present Leo Africanus, who
in the early 16th century describes the regional dichotomy of mountains and plains, and who
is the one who introduces the word 'Montanari' for montagnards. His description of the
lifestyle of montagnards highlights for the first time the prejudice of the montagnards as being
'primitive' from the perspective of the inhabitants of the plains, and he gives us information
about their socio-economic way of life. Like Fra Mauro (1450), almost a hundred years
before, he mentions the Wandala but not Kirawa, and we can only assume he is talking about
the Gwoza hills. It is only about 50 years later that Ibn Furtu (1576) and Anania (1582) speak
of a hill area near Kirawa. It is Anania in particular, who discusses Kirawa as a centre of early
trade in iron, while Leo speaks about slaves being exported in exchange for horses from
Tripoli. Horses played an important role in the history of slave hunting, but presumably more
along the foothills and plains than in the hills.
We are going to connect the more arid and humid phases of climate change with our early
written sources, and show the limits of how much it is possible to know about that early phase
of trade relations. Before we address our oral sources from Dghweɗe regarding the issue of
slave raiding in the hills, we summarise our key sources of contemporaneity between the
Wandala and Kirawa, the DGB sites and the Gwoza hills in between. By doing so we
concentrate in particular on the second period of aridity of the 16th century. We will suggest
that during this phase Ghwa'a might already have existed, while Korana Basa most likely
developed as a result of the sharply rising Lake Chad water levels during the 17th century,
which might have also led to the end of the ritual importance of the DGB sites.
We subsequently demonstrate how we use archive materials from German colonial times to
find a historical transition from the early colonial period into late pre-colonial times. We show
that this can be done by looking at the history of place names. This leads us to discuss tribute
arrangements, and we connect them to the vulnerability of the hills to slave raiding, by
presenting them in the historical context of the expansion of the Wandala state during the 18th
century. This is the time when the capital had already moved to Doulo and the Wandala had
become an Islamic dynasty. It is the same period as is presented by the legendary background
of the Wandala of Kirawa in the Wandala Chronicles, and we compare some of its narrative
aspects with our Dghweɗe legendary accounts. Concerning oral historical traditions about
tribute arrangements and slave raiding in the hills, we conclude that the Dghweɗe oral
memories belong oral-historically to the same late pre-colonial period.
The role of Kirawa in early written sources
The first mention of Kirawa is by Ibn Furtu in 1576 (Lange 1987), who describes how Idris
Alauma, Sultan of Borno, sent troops to the 'large' town of Kirawa to dispose of the 'usurper'
and 'pagan' ruler of Wandala. This ruler was an uncle of the prince of Wandala, who had
taken refuge at the Sultan's court. The uncle, who had 'robbed' the prince of his kingdom,
retreated to the 'large rocky mountain' to the west of Kirawa (see Plate 9a), but who
surrendered following its siege due to lack of food and water. As a result, he gave himself up
to the Sultan, who reinstated the prince and son of the original ruler of Wandala. We can be
fairly certain that the 'large rocky mountain' Ibn Furtu is referring to was the foothill next to
Kirawa town and not the significantly higher Zelidva spur which has permanent water on top
(see Plate 5b). A successful siege would have been very difficult if not impossible.
The second mention of Kirawa is by the Italian Giovanni Lorenzo Anania (Lange & Berthoud
1972), who wrote in 1582 AD that the main city of the 'Madra' (Mandara) was 'Craua'
(Kirawa), where 'we also find a big mountain rather rich in iron minerals'. Anania never
visited Africa but relied solely on the reports of others. He also mentions other places in the
wider region, and talks about trade relations which must have existed at that time, most likely
via Tripoli where his main source had once lived (ibid). Venice was already a leading
international trading city before Anania's time, and he also relied on other earlier sources, in
particular on Leo Africanus, a Christianised Moor, who while still a Muslim had visited the
78
