African Kingdoms

Zobeir Dynasty (Ouaddai-Chari & Bornu) (Africa)
AD 1890 - 1901

Central African States All African States All Modern States Early Africa (Intro) Egypt

The pre-history of Africa covers a long and uncertain stretch of unrecorded history. Much of this involves a great deal of uncertainty which can only be understood through archaeology. Even the more recent prehistory is shrouded in uncertainty, requiring analysis and archaeology to help define it.

Central Africa was poorly defined as a region until the creation of colonial-era territories. A collection of sultanates emerged in the eighteenth century, across the area which today is partially covered by Central African Republic (or CAR) and Chad to its north. The sultans here ruled large conquered populations in the north and east of CAR, usually as dependencies of larger sultanates to the north.

The Zobeir formed a short-lived dynasty in territory to the east of Lake Chad, much of which had only recently belonged to the fading Bornu empire. A Sudanese slave trader and warlord called Rabah or Rabih az-Zubayr served as the lieutenant of the notorious Sebehr Rahma, the 'Slaver King' who provided British Governor-General Charles George Gordon with some opposition in Sudan in the 1870s.

Rabih az-Zubayr ibn Fadl Allah, to give him his full name, had been born around 1842 to an Arabic tribe in Halfaya Al-Muluk, a suburb of Khartoum. His first military service came with the irregular Egyptian cavalry in the Egyptian–Ethiopian war of the early 1870s, during which he was wounded. For a short time he left the army in the 1860s, becoming the principal lieutenant of the Sudanese slaveholder, Sebehr Rahma.

Rahma's son, Suleyman, led a revolt against the British in 1878, but he was defeated by a native governor and surrendered in 1879. By that time Rabih az-Zubayr had already retreated southwards, having suffered heavy losses to his own forces. With a command which totalled about fourteen hundred men he spent the next few years carving out a brutal and violent domain in territory between the Nile basin and the River Ubangi, largely in the lands of Dar Benda and Kreich.

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information by Richard A Bradshaw & Juan Fandos-Rius, from Ba Karim: An Account of Rabeh's Wars, Michael Horowitz (African Historical Studies 3, 1970), from La vie du sultan Rabah, Gaston Dujarric (Paris, 1902), from Monographie du Dar-Kouti-Oriental, Edmond A J Boucher (Typescript, 1934, copied and updated from the original by Pierre Claustre), from Dar al-Kuti and the Last Years of the Trans-Saharan Slave Trade, Denis D Cordell (The University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), from Un ancien royaume Bandia du Haut-Oubangui, Eric de Dampierre (Plon, Paris, 1967), from Central African Republic, Pierre Kalck (Praeger Publishers, 1971), from Historical Dictionary of the Central African Republic, Pierre Kalck( Third Edition, Scarecrow Press, 2005), from The New Atlas of African History, G S P Freeman-Grenville (Rex Collins, London, 1991), from Times Atlas of World History (Maplewood, 1979), and from External Links: Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Central African Republic (World Statesmen).)

1890 - 1893

Having set himself up in the minor territory of Ouaddai-Chari, Rabih az-Zubayr leads attacks on a number of local regions, including Dar Runga, Kreich, and Goula, and then Banda Ngao. With the colonial French showing an interest in the region, an expedition of theirs is attacked in 1891.

Bangui lies on the northern banks of the River Ubangi shown here, which serves in part to divide the modern states of Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of the Congo, but in the eighteenth century was the home of several clan states

The expedition's French leader is killed and the weapons are collected to rearm Rabih's own forces. The Bagirmi sultanate to the south-east of Lake Chad is attacked in 1892. The capital is besieged and in 1893 is completely destroyed. By this time Rabih already has what he assumes is a puppet sultan in Dar al-Kuti.

Also in 1893, Rabih turns his attentions towards the fading Bornu empire. He makes short work of capturing the minor sultanate of Karnak Logone on the empire's eastern border, which catches the attention of the Bornu emperor, Hashimi.

He sends fifteen thousand men to confront Rabih but they are routed not once but twice. Hashimi, instantly broken, flees to the north of the empire where he is assassinated under the orders of his nephew, Kyari. But then Kyari himself is defeated (in 1894) and Rabih has the diminished empire for himself.

Central Africa in 1897 was a land of uncertain, shifting borders, with small states expanding to incorporate previously stateless tribal societies (click or tap on map to view full sized)

1893 - 1900

Sudanese warlord who captured the Bornu empire. Killed.

1900

Rabih has spent seven years rebuilding the Bornu empire in his image, re-equipping the army and founding new forts. However, his troops are still primitively armed by Europeans standards. Talks with the French lead to the explorer Ferdinand de Béhagle being arrested and hanged, and the commander of a French unit being killed in action.

In response, three French columns are sent against Rabih. On 22 April 1900, his forces are overwhelmed and Rabih is killed during an attempted escape. His territory is incorporated into the French Chad military territory.

Rabih az-Zubayr, perhaps a typical South Sudanese warlord of any period right down to the modern age, captured an empire but couldn't keep it in the face of French superiority - instead he ended up on the end of the spear of a French native soldier

1901

Son. Defeated and killed by the French.

1901 - 1960

Fad el Allah attempts to hold together his late father's splintering forces, but he himself is quickly defeated and killed. Chad is taken by France while Borno goes to Great Britain to be incorporated into the Northern Nigeria Protectorate, neighbouring the Southern Nigerian Protectorate and its defeated Benin empire territory (merged in 1914 to form the beginnings of modern Nigeria).

In 1903 the French also gain Ouaddai-Chari, adding it to 'French Equatorial Africa'. French control of Chad is fully secured by 1920 as part of French Equatorial Africa, and this remains in place until 11 August 1960, when a republic of Chad gains independence.