Arabic-speaking groups of different origin constitute one of the most important ethnic clusters of the Chad Basin. In this region, it became common since the 19th century to call them collectively Shuwa. In their own traditions they favour the etymology of this name as derived from the Kanuri word sháwa (beautiful, handsome). According to one of the numerous other hypotheses, however, it is rooted in the Arabic word shiwa (sheep), because this animal had obviously played a leading role in their economy before it was replaced by cattle after their immigration into the Chad Basin.
The first Arabs seem to have reached the territory of Kanem-Borno at the beginning of the second millennium from northern Africa as merchants on the trans-Sahara trade routes and they acted as the earliest agents of Islamization. Groups of Arabic camel nomads migrated as far as the north-eastern peripheries of the Chad Basin from the late 14th century onwards. In the savannah regions they gradually adopted cattle-breeding together with the cultivation of millet varieties thus developing a special type of agropastoralism, which was later considered as typical for the Shuwa. A considerable immigration of Arabic agropastoralists, the ancestors of the Salamat, from the regions east of the Shari river into Borno occurred from the 18th century onwards. Another influx of Arabs, the Khawalme groups, followed as supporters of Muhammad al-Kanemi to defend Borno against the expanding empire of the Sokoto Fulbe. Salamat and Khawalme who are still distinguishable as two different clusters of clans, which constitute the bulk of the present Shuwa Arab population in Borno. New waves of Arabic immigrants moved into the Chad Basin as refugees from the Fezzan region of Libya in the 1840s and the late 1920s and as followers of the conqueror Rabeh Fadl Allah from the Sudan in the 1890s. Since the establishment of European colonialism in the early 20th century there has been a further numerically less important, but steady influx of Arabic-speaking groups from Cameroon and Chad into Nigerian Borno.
Most Arabs in the Chad Basin are now addressed with the collective name Shuwa. The number of Arabic-speaking people amounts to c. one million in Nigeria. Approximately three more million live in Cameroon, Chad and Niger, but exact numbers are difficult to assess, because Arabic is lingua franca in parts of their territories and the boundaries between native and assimilated speakers of the language are sometimes difficult to be drawn.
In Borno State most of the Shuwa Arabs live side by side with Kanuri, Kotoko, Yedina and other groups. They mostly inhabit villages of their own, but sometimes they share quarters of settlements with their neighbouring ethnic groups. Particularly in the region of Kala-Balge they constitute the majority of the population, but most of the Shuwa in Borno master Kanuri as second language. Although intermarriages occur, they are relatively small in number. Politically, the Shuwa have mostly been subordinate to the rulers of the Borno emirate and its regional subdivisions usually with their own headmen (bulama or shaikh) at the village level. They are still comparatively rich in cattle and consider agropastoralism as their typical economic strategy, which demands seasonal transhumance between dry season and rainy season habitats. With growing density of population, however, sedentary agriculture is increasing in importance. The Shuwa largely copied much of their agricultural know-how, including the system of cultivation of a dwarf sorghum variety (masakwa), from the autochthonous peasants of the Chad Basin. They usually buy textile and pottery products from Kanuri craftsmen, but metal objects have traditionally been provided in the whole region by Shuwa smiths.
Because of their common settlement in the same area and close economic as well as socio-political contacts over centuries, the relations of the Shuwa with the Kanuri are characterized by mutual respect and a sense of pragmatic cooperation. Certain prejudices exist on both sides, but a peaceful coexistence has so far never been challenged.
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