Soculated at the crossroads of the roads of the Niger valley, the southern forest regions, the Nile valley and the Mediterranean, the Chad basin is the largest crossroads of civilizations south of the Sahara. Here it is developed the kingdom of Kanem in the 7th century. Its sovereign, the “mai”, held his power from the possession of horses and the presence of metalworkers. Thanks to the cavalry equipped with formidable throwing knives, the Zaghawas, a pastoral people from which he came, ensured their domination over the farmers.
Kanem lasted more than 1000 years.
An empire founded on slavery
The wealth of the “Mai” of Kanem was not based on gold, but on slavery.
“His hold over his subjects,” writes a Muslim columnist at the time, “is absolute. He enslaves whomever he wants. ”
Over the centuries, the region never ceased to be the privileged terrain of slave hunters for the benefit of the Arab world, then the Ottoman Empire.
Today, slavery has not completely disappeared in the region and is perpetuated during local conflicts with neighboring Sudan.
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