During Omar’s reign, which lasted about fifty years, Bornu was visited by many Europeans, who reached it via Tripoli and the Sahara. The first to enter the country were Walter Oudney, Hugh Clapperton and Dixon Denham (1823). They were followed in 1851-1855 by Heinrich Barth. Later travellers included Gerhard Rohlfs (1866) and Gustav Nachtigal. All these travellers were well received by the Kanuri, whose power from the middle of the 19th century began to decay. This was foreseen by Barth; and Nachtigal, who in 1870 conveyed presents sent by King William of Prussia, in acknowledgment of the sheik’s kindness to many German explorers, writes thus in December 1872:
“The rapid declension of Bornu is an undeniable and lamentable fact. It is taking place with increasing rapidity, and the boundless weakness of Sheik Omar—otherwise so worthy and brave a man—must bear almost all the blame. His sons and ministers plunder the provinces in an almost unheard-of manner; trade and intercourse are almost at a standstill; good faith and confidence exist no more. The indolence of the court avoids military expeditions, and anarchy and a lack of security on the routes are the consequences.... Thus the sheik and the land grow poorer and poorer, and public morality sinks lower and lower.”
After the visit of Nachtigal the country was visited by no European traveller until 1892, when Colonel P.L. Monteil resided for a time at Kuka during his great journey from the Senegal to Tripoli. The French traveller noticed many signs of decadence, the energy of the people being sapped by luxury, while a virtual anarchy prevailed owing to rivalries and intrigues among members of the royal family. The chief of Zinder had ceased to pay tribute, and the sultan was not strong enough to exact it by force. At the same time a danger was threatening from the south-east, where the negro adventurer Rabah, once a slave of Zobeir Pasha, was menacing the kingdom of Bagirmi. After making himself master of the fortified town of Manifa, Rabah proceeded against Bornu, defeating the army of the sultan Ahsem in two pitched battles. In December 1893 Ahsem fled from Kuka, which was entered by Rabah and soon afterwards destroyed, the capital being transferred to Dikwa in the south-east of the kingdom. These events ruined for many years the trade between Tripoli and Kuka by the long-established route via Bilma. Rabah had raised a large, well-drilled army, and proved a formidable opponent to the French in their advance on Lake Chad from the south. However in 1900 he was killed at Kussuri near the lower Shari, by the combined forces of three French expeditions which had been converging from the Congo, the Sahara and the Niger.
By an Anglo-French agreement of 1898 the tributary state of Zinder in the north had been included in the French sphere, and after the defeat of Rabah French military expeditions occupied both the German and British portions of Bornu, but in 1902 on the appearance of British and German expeditions the French withdrew to their own country east of the Shari. The British placed on the throne of Bornu Shehu Garbai, a descendant of the ancient sultans, and Kuka was again chosen as the capital of the state. From that date British Bornu has been under administrative control. It has been divided into East and West Bornu, the line of division being fixed approximately at longitude 12°, and placed under the administration of a resident. Maifoni and Kuka were selected for British stations in the east, and Damjiri and Gujba in the west. Garrisons are quartered at these points. The province has been mapped, and a network of tracks available for wheeled transport has been made through it. Water communication with the Benue and Niger has been opened through the Gongola river. The shehu, who took the oath of allegiance to the British crown on the occasion of his formal installation in November 1904, is maintained in all local dignity as a native chief, and co-operates loyally with the British administration. Peace has prevailed in Bornu since the British occupation, and it is estimated that the population has increased by immigration to about 50% more than it was in 1902. The people are industrious. Extensive areas are being brought under cultivation, and taxes are collected without difficulty. Owing to its increasing commercial importance, the native capital was in 1908 transferred to Maidugari (see also [Nigeria]: History; and [Rabah]).
Authorities.—Heinrich Barth’s Travels in North and Central Africa (1857, new ed., London, 1890) contains an exact picture of the state in the period (c. 1850) preceding its decay. The earlier Travels of Denham and Clapperton (London, 1828) may also be consulted, as well as Rohlfs, Land und Volk in Afrika (Bremen, 1870); Nachtigal, Sahara und Sudan, vol. i. (Berlin, 1879); and Monteil, de St.-Louis à Tripoli par le lac Tchad (Paris, 1895). For later information consult Lady Lugard’s A Tropical Dependency (London, 1905), and the Annual Reports, from 1900 onward, on Northern Nigeria, issued by the Colonial Office, London.
(F. L. L.)
BORODIN, ALEXANDER PORFYRIEVICH (1834-1887), Russian musical composer, natural son of a Russian prince, was born in St Petersburg on the 12th of November 1834. He was brought up to the medical profession, and in 1862 was appointed assistant professor of chemistry at the St Petersburg academy of medicine. He wrote several works on chemistry, and took a leading part in advocating women’s education, helping to found the school of medicine for women, and lecturing there from 1872 till his death. But he is best known as a musician. His interest in music was indeed stimulated from 1862 onwards by his friendship with Balakirev, and from 1863 by his marriage with a lady who was an accomplished pianist; but in his earlier years he had been proficient both in playing the piano, violin, ’cello and other instruments, and also in composing; and during life he did his best to pursue his studies in both music and chemistry with equal enthusiasm. Like other Russian composers he owed much to the influence of Liszt at Weimar. His first symphony was written in 1862-1867; his opera Prince Igor, begun in 1869, was left unfinished at his death, and was completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazounov (1889); his symphonic sketch, “In the Steppes” (1880) is, however, his best-known work. Borodin also wrote a second symphony (1871-1877), part of a third (orchestrated after his death by Glazounov), and a few string quartets and some fine songs. His music is characteristically Russian, and of an advanced modern type. He died suddenly at St Petersburg, on the 28th of February 1887.