Historical Background
The history of the people of the Lake Chad region is explainable in the context of the emergence and decline of two dynasties in Kanem empire, namely the Duguwa or the Zaghawa and the Sayfuwa . Early Arab geographers also used the name Zaghawa to refer to the territory of Kanem. The emergence of the empire dates back to early seventh century, a period that coincided with the expedition into the Fezzan and Kawar by Uqba b. Nafi and the growth of trans-Saharan trade (Lange 1993).
The Duguwa was made up of the Bulala, the Ngazar, the Dagra, the Bolewa, the Ngizim and the Hausa people. The dynasty declined around 1068 and some of its members survive in Kanem as blacksmiths and minor rulers. The Sayfuwa comprised a heterogeneous group with the Kanuri as the leading ethnic group. A Berber called Hummay, with the support of the Umayyads, founded the dynasty. The descendants of Hummay traced their origin to the legendary hero, Sayf b. Dhi Yazan (Lange 1993).
Although the exact person of Sayf is still controversial, modern historians tend to agree that he descended from the line of Himyarite kings. Epical narratives also surround his origin. In both Egyptian and Kanembu traditions, he was portrayed as an abandoned child. According to the Egyptian tradition, the gazelle functioned as his wet-nurse, while the lion is mentioned in the Kanembu tradition. Furthermore, the Egyptian version shows that a hunter discovered him and he was later trained to become a warrior, possessed with considerable magical powers. The Kanembu say a smith, from whom he learnt the trade, found him. Both traditions portray him as a man who possessed superhuman powers and ascended the throne by fighting (Jäger 2000: 102-106).
The Sayfuwa withdrew from Kanem into Borno during the era of Mai Umar b. Idris (1376 and 1381), as a result of incessant war with the Bulala over the destruction of the sacred cult called mune. They established a new capital at Gazargamo during the reign of Mai Ali Gaji (1455-1487), (Lange 1993). They ruled Kanem-Borno, “the major state of Central Sudan throughout the medieval period” (Lange 1993: 261), for nearly one thousand years. The Sayfuwa is described as one of the longest dynasties in Africa (Alkali 1978).
Today, Kanuri as an ethnic group consists of subgroups spread over Nigeria, Niger and Chad. They are also found in considerable numbers in Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt (Wente-Lukas 1985). They are also found in Zaire and Saudi Arabia (Sheriff 1999). The subgroups are divided into six dialects: Bilma, Dagra, Manga, Mowar, Suwurti and Yerwa (Bulakarima 1997: 67).
Kanuri as a language is the most widely spread in the Lake Chad region, with speakers in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria (Cyffer 1997: 17). In Borno and Yobe States of Nigeria alone there are over two million people speaking Kanuri as their first language.
Environmental Background
It has been ascertained that the years between 800 A.D. to 1400 A.D., which had coincided with the life span of Kanem empire, was a period of persistent high water stands in the Lake Chad. It was no wonder then that Kanem had historically “afforded refuge to pastoral and hunter populations of more northerly regions” of the Lake Chad Area (Conte 1991: 227-8). However, the lake had significantly decreased in the mid-fifteenth and late sixteenth centuries. This was followed by an interval when the lake’s water level stayed exceptionally high. At the end of this period the lake dramatically receded, arising partially from the drought conditions in the Tibesti. As a result of this, there was southward movement of Teda Daza pastoralists into the Bahr el-Gazal. For centuries this area “represented a migratory corridor, providing water resources, arable land and trees to pastoralists, agriculturists, hunters and metallurgists alike” (Conte 1991: 230). That condition of flora and fauna “allowed the development of an historically most singular set of relationships and inter-dependencies linking the herders, hunters, and smiths of Kanem” (ibid). The “Sau” myth itself seemed “a reflection of the progressive subordination of the cultures of the Chad Basin in which hunters and agro-pastoralists were ritually and economically bound together ” (Conte 1991: 227).
As for the flora and fauna, even in the nineteenth century, nature’s bounty flourished in Borno (Koelle 1854), with a multitude of game roaming about freely (Lockhart 1996: 236).

(This contribution is an excerpt from Ph.D Thesis of the author submitted on Kanuri Hunters' Songs, Maiduguri 2004).
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