Bilala people

{{Redirect|Bulala|the Anglo-Irish soldier nicknamed "Bulala"|Alfred Taylor (British Army officer)}} {{pp-protected|small=yes}} {{Infobox ethnic group | group = Bilala | image = | image_caption = | total = {{circa}} 205,000 | total_year = 2018 | regions = Lake Fitri (Chad) | languages = Naba | religions = Islam }} The '''Bilala''', also called '''Bulala''' or '''Boulala''',<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Yakan |first=Mohamad |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Almanac_of_African_Peoples_and_Nations/e_hADwAAQBAJ |title=Almanac of African Peoples and Nations |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-28930-6 |language=en |chapter=Bilala}}</ref> are an ethnic group that mainly lives around Lake Fitri in the Batha region, central Chad. Most of the Bilala population are agricultural farmers and Muslims. The Bilala numbered around 205,000 in 2018.<ref name=":4" />

The traditional capital of the Bilala is the town of Yao, which served as the seat of a small and independent Bilala-ruled sultanate in the 17th–20th centuries. The sultan of Yao remains the traditional leader of the Bilala people. Prior to the 17th century, the Bilala were closely associated with the history of the Kanem–Bornu Empire; in the 14th century, the Bilala captured Kanem (modern-day southwestern Chad) from that empire and ruled a kingdom there until they were driven away to their modern homeland.

== Name == The Bilala call themselves ''Balala''.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Hagenbucher |first=F. |date=1968 |title=Notes sur les Bilala du fitri |url=http://www.bondy.ird.fr/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_4/sci_hum/01553.pdf |journal=Cahiers ORSTOM: Sciences humaines |language=en |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=39–76 |archive-date=2005-10-16 |access-date=2018-01-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051016133554/http://www.bondy.ird.fr/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_4/sci_hum/01553.pdf |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> The common renditions ''Bilala'', ''Bulala'', and ''Boulala'' originate as foreign versions of this name.<ref name=":3" /> ''Boulala'', a French rendition, is common in modern-day Francophone Chad.<ref name=":3" /> Other exonyms have sometimes been applied to the Bilala. The Bagirmi people call the Bilala ''Lis'' or ''Lisi''<ref name=":3" /> and their rulers the ''Biyo Bulala''.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=Richmond |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Sudanese_Memoirs/aGsPEAAAQBAJ |title=Sudanese Memoirs: Being Mainly Translations of a Number of Arabic Manuscripts Relating to the Central and Western Sudan |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-60922-0 |pages=1–2 |language=en |orig-year=1928}}</ref> In Bornu (modern-day northeastern Nigeria), the Bilala are called the ''Kayi Bulala''.<ref name=":5" />

== Early history ==

=== Origin === [[File:Lakefitrinasa.jpg|thumb|Satellite map of Lake Fitri, the lands around which are the present-day homeland of the Bilala. It is unclear if Lake Fitri is the original homeland of the Bilala.]] Much of the history of the Bilala is largely conjectural.<ref name=":3" /> The Bilala are first recorded in the 14th century as rivals of the Sayfawa dynasty, the rulers of the Kanem–Bornu Empire. The available source material leaves the origin of the Bilala and the reasons for the conflict unclear.<ref name=":3" />

The modern-day Bilala people are a composite population, with a vaguely remembered oral tradition claiming Yemenite origin, similar to origin stories of the Sayfawa dynasty.<ref name=":3" /> Their name is sometimes connected to an eponymous ancestor figure named Bilal<ref name=":0" /> or Balal.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Azevedo |first=Mario J. |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Historical_Dictionary_of_Chad/HGeAEQAAQBAJ |title=Historical Dictionary of Chad |last2=Decalo |first2=Samuel |date=2018 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=979-8-216-20783-2 |pages=119–120, 394 |language=en}}</ref> Arabising legends cast Bilal as an early African convert to Islam and perhaps an early companion of the prophet.<ref name=":0" /> Bilal's descendants are said to have "mixed with the Arabs".<ref name=":0" /> Bilal has alternatively been interpreted as a local Kanembu figure, who organised a force to oppose the rule of the Sayfawa.<ref name=":4" /> A contradictory tradition names the Yemenite ancestor as Muhammad al-Kabir al-Yamani,<ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=Richmond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZKqbDwAAQBAJ |title=Sudanese Memoirs: Being Mainly Translations of a Number of Arabic Manuscripts Relating to the Central and Western Sudan |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-60370-9 |language=en |chapter=III.–Bulala Girgam: Their Well-Established Descent from the Arabs of Yaman as Recorded |orig-year=1928}}</ref><ref name=":32">{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=Richmond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZKqbDwAAQBAJ |title=Sudanese Memoirs: Being Mainly Translations of a Number of Arabic Manuscripts Relating to the Central and Western Sudan |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-60370-9 |language=en |chapter=V(b).–Origin of the Bulala Kings of Fitri According to the Manuscript of Sarkin Gulfei |orig-year=1928}}</ref> who was invested as a king by the prophet and who lived for two hundred years. Al-Yamani is said to have attempted to convert populations around the Red Sea and various other locations to Islam before he settled in modern-day Chad.<ref name=":32" />

Oral histories collected in northeastern Nigeria and southwestern Chad in the 19th and early 20th centuries, published by Heinrich Barth and Palmer, claim that the Bilala were related to the Sayfawa. Barth claimed that the Bilala rulers were descendants of the 13th-century Sayfawa ''mai'' Dunama II Dibalemi.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Lange |first=Dierk |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000184287 |title=General history of Africa, IV: Africa from the twelfth to the sixteenth century |date= |website= |publisher=University of California |year=1984 |isbn=978-92-3-101710-0 |editor-last=Niane |editor-first=Djibril Tamsir |pages=258–260 |language=en |chapter=The kingdoms and peoples of Chad}}</ref> Palmer considered this improbable and instead made the case that they were descended from ''mai'' Bulu, Kanem's legendary eighth ''mai''.<ref name=":5" /> Later scholars have variously disputed<ref name=":1" /> and supported<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Conte |first=Edouard |title=Herders, Warriors, And Traders: Pastoralism In Africa |publisher=Routledge |year=1991 |isbn=9780429045615 |pages=226, 234 |chapter=Herders, Hunters and Smiths: Mobile Populations in the History of Kanem |chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429045615-10/herders-hunters-smiths-mobile-populations-history-kanem-edouard-conte}}</ref> the idea of kinship between the Bilala and Sayfawa. According to some traditional accounts, the first ruler of the Bilala was Jil Sukumami<ref name=":5" /> (or Djil Sjikomeni),<ref name=":1" /> who Barth claimed was a son of Dunama II.<ref name=":1" /> Palmer placed Jil later than Barth, as a mid- to late 14th-century contemporary of the Sayfawa ''mai''s Idris I Nikalemi and Dawud Nikalemi.<ref name=":5" /> The Bilala ruler contemporary Dawud is in various accounts alternatively referred to as Bilala (i.e. another eponymous ancestor), Lefia, or Muhammad Bilalama.<ref name=":33">{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=Richmond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZKqbDwAAQBAJ |title=Sudanese Memoirs: Being Mainly Translations of a Number of Arabic Manuscripts Relating to the Central and Western Sudan |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-60370-9 |language=en |chapter=V(b).–Origin of the Bulala Kings of Fitri According to the Manuscript of Sarkin Gulfei |orig-year=1928}}</ref><ref name=":13">{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=Richmond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZKqbDwAAQBAJ |title=Sudanese Memoirs: Being Mainly Translations of a Number of Arabic Manuscripts Relating to the Central and Western Sudan |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-60370-9 |language=en |chapter=V.–The Bulala Secession from the Mais of Kanem |orig-year=1928}}</ref>

It is unclear if the lands around Lake Fitri are the original homeland of the Bilala, or even whether the Bilala lived there before their association with Kanem. Several authors have considered this probable, including Gustav Nachtigal<ref name=":3" /> and Dierk Lange.<ref name=":1" /> Lange suggested that the Bilala were originally a pastoral people who lived around the lake.<ref name=":1" /> Richmond Palmer believed that the Bilala were entrusted with the lands around Lake Fitri by the Sayfawa rulers, perhaps in the 14th century.<ref name=":3" />

=== Conflict with the Sayfawa === Conflict between the Bilala and the Sayfawa erupted in the 14th century; according to the ''girgam'' (the royal chronicle of the Kanem–Bornu Empire), the Bilala defeated and killed the Sayfawa ''mai'' Dawud at this time.<ref name=":3" /> The Bilala were allied with the Toubou people during their conflicts with the Sayfawa.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":1" />

Writing around 1400, the Egyptian historian al-Maqrizi connects the conflict between the Bilala and the Sayfawa to the Bilala resisting Islam: "the people of Kanem revolted against them [i.e. the Sayfawa rulers] and renounced the faith. Bornu remained in their empire. Its inhabitants are Muslims and wage holy wars against the people of Kanem."<ref name=":1" /> No native sources corroborate the claim that the Bilala were pagans, a claim that does not appear in either the ''girgam'' (the Kanem–Bornu Empire's royal chronicle) or the 16th-century writings of Ibn Furtu.<ref name=":1" /> The idea that the Bilala were traditionalists alienated by increasing Islamisation in Kanem has nevertheless been supported by scholars such as Eduoard Conte (1991)<ref name=":7" /> and Timothy Insoll (2003).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Insoll |first=Timothy |title=The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2003 |isbn=0-521-65171-9 |pages=274 |chapter=}}</ref>

According to the ''girgam'', the Bilala defeated and killed Dawud's immediate successors Uthman I, Uthman II, and Abubakar Liyatu.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Barth |first=Heinrich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=la_zIUj0oiwC |title=Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa: Being a Journal of an Expedition Undertaken under the Auspices of H.B.M.'s Government, in the Years 1849–1855 |date=1857 |publisher=Longmans |pages=640, 646 |language=en}}</ref> The incursion of the Bilala into Kanem and their ability to inflict frequent defeats on the Sayfawa may have been possible due to civil wars between the descendants of Idris I and Dawud.<ref name=":1" /> In the late 14th century, the Bilala captured the Sayfawa capital of Njimi and ousted the Sayfawa from power in Kanem. The Sayfawa relocated their base of power to Bornu (modern-day northeastern Nigeria), west of Lake Chad, hence their state often being referred to as ''Kanem–Bornu''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nave |first=Ari |title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-19-517055-9 |location= |pages=17 |chapter=Chad}}</ref>

== Bilala kingdoms ==

=== Kanem/Gaoga (14th–17th century) === [[File:Empèri Songai.png|thumb|West Africa in the 15th century, with Kanem (under the Bilala) and Borno (the Kanem–Bornu Empire) shown as separate states]]After their conquest of Kanem, the leaders of the Bilala declared themselves sultans.<ref name=":8">{{Citation |last=Dewière |first=Rémi |title=The Kanem and Borno Sultanates (11th–19th Centuries) |date=2024 |work=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History |pages=7, 13 |url=https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-1147 |access-date= |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.1147 |isbn=978-0-19-027773-4 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> The situation in Kanem under the Bilala is largely unknown,<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Maceachern |first=Scott |title=West Africa During the Atlantic Slave Trade: Archaeological Perspectives |date=2001 |publisher=Leicester University Press |isbn=0-7185-0247-7 |pages=139 |chapter=State Formation and Enslavement in the Southern Lake Chad Basin |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229088418_State_formation_and_enslavement_in_the_southern_Lake_Chad_Basin}}</ref> but it is clear that they established a powerful<ref name=":1" /> and effective<ref name=":6" /> kingdom, with an aristocracy.<ref name=":8" /> The new Bilala kingdom posed a serious political alternative to the Safawa in the region around Lake Chad.<ref name=":8" /> By the late 15th century, the Bilala kingdom might have been larger and more powerful than the kingdom ruled by the Sayfawa in Bornu.<ref name=":1" /> Mamluk (Egyptian) chancery manuals from this time accord the Bilala the same diplomatic status as the Sayfawa<ref name=":8" /> and the Bilala rulers are said to have enjoyed good relations with the Abbasid caliph in Egypt.<ref name=":1" />

Leo Africanus, writing in the 16th century, referred to the Bilala kingdom as "Gaoga".<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Dalen |first=Dorrit van |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Doubt_Scholarship_and_Society_in_17th_Ce/RNfzDQAAQBAJ |title=Doubt, Scholarship and Society in 17th-Century Central Sudanic Africa |date=2016 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-32448-0 |pages=29 |language=en}}</ref> According to Leo Africanus, all the kingdoms of the Sudan region were subject to only three rulers: the king of "Tombuto" (=Timbuktu, i.e. the Songhai Empire), who ruled the largest domain, the king of Bornu (i.e. the Sayfawa rulers), and the king of "Gaoga", who ruled "the rest".<ref name=":2" />

The Sayfawa attempted to retake Kanem throughout the 15th and 16th centuries.<ref name=":6" /> They were unsuccessful until ''mai'' Idris III Katagarmabe captured Kanem in the early 16th century, more than a century after the Sayfawa lost the region.<ref name=":1" /> Idris Katagarmabe chose to let the Bilala continue to govern Kanem<ref name=":12" /> as a province.<ref name=":42">{{Cite book |last=Hasan |first=Masudul |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/History_of_Islam_Classical_period_1206_1/ZFMkAQAAIAAJ |title=History of Islam: Classical period, 1206-1900 C.E |date=1998 |publisher=Adam Publishers & Distributers |pages=631 |language=en}}</ref> After Idris Katagarmabe's time, the Bilala rose in rebellion against the empire several times.<ref name=":3" /> They were not decisively suppressed by the Sayfawa until the reign of ''mai'' Idris IV Alooma in the second half of the 16th century.<ref name=":1" /> Tradition claims that Idris Alooma's mother was a daughter of the ruler of the Bilala.<ref name=":5" />

In around 1630,<ref name=":7" /> the Wadai Sultanate drove the Bilala out of Kanem. The Sayfawa were then forced to fight against Wadai to secure the eastern side of Lake Chad.<ref name=":8" />

=== Sultanate of Yao (17th century–1909) === After the loss of Kanem, the Bilala migrated east and re-established themselves in the lands around Lake Fitri.<ref name=":7" /> They established a new small sultanate, centered on the town of Yao.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> The name of the first Bilala ruler in Yao and the reason for settling there varies depending on the source.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":9" /> One origin story claims that a Bilala ruler named Abd al-Jalil al-Kabir invaded Yao when he learned that a local ruler there, Ali Dinar, oppressed his own people.<ref name=":9" /> Another account omits this origin story and gives the name of the first Bilala ruler of Yao as Muhammad Jalil Essa Tubo.<ref name=":3" />

In the late 19th century, the Bilala territories became engulfed in civil war between the brothers Hassan Bekuma and Muhammad Gadai, rival claimants to the sultanate. Muhammad Gadai lost the war and spent seven years in exile in the Wadai Sultanate.<ref name=":9" /> Hassan Bekuma was followed on the throne by his son Jiri, who after just three years on the throne faced a Wadai invasion in Muhammad Gadai's name. Jiri was taken prisoner by the Wadai sultan Yusuf and Muhammad Gadai was installed as the new Bilala ruler.<ref name=":9" /> Muhammad Gadai ruled for twelve<ref name=":3" /> or thirteen<ref name=":9" /> years, and faced internal opposition from the sons of Musa, a previous sultan.<ref name=":9" />

In May 1909, the region around Lake Fitri, including Yao, was occupied and colonised by France.<ref name=":4" /> Muhammad Gadai died in battle against the French at a site called Mulabis.<ref name=":9" /> He was succeeded as sultan by Hassan Absakin,<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":9" /> a descendant of an earlier sultan.<ref name=":3" /> The French deprived Hassan Absakin of nearly all political power.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brocklehurst |first=Philip |date=1922 |title=Across Wadai |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1781506 |journal=The Geographical Journal |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=240 |doi=10.2307/1781506 |issn=0016-7398|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== Society == Bilala society and its organisation has changed very little under colonial occupation and has continued within the modern Republic of Chad.<ref name=":3" /> Yao is still considered the capital of the Bilala,<ref name=":4" /> and is still the seat of the sultan of Yao, their traditional leader.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" />

In the mid-1950s, the Bilala were estimated to number only around 35,000.<ref name=":4" /> Through assimilation with other clans, they numbered around 205,000 in 2018.<ref name=":4" /> The Bilala are centered around Lake Fitri,<ref name=":0" /> where they live in an area roughly 5,000 km<sup>2</sup> in size.<ref name=":3" /> Some Bilala are also found in Massakory, in the east in Oum Hadjer,<ref name=":4" /> and as nomads living among the Daza people.<ref name=":4" /> The Bilala are largely Muslim,<ref name=":4" /> and educated in Quranic schools,<ref name=":0" /> but also retain some pre-Islamic rites and traditions.<ref name=":4" />

The Bilala are mostly agricultural farmers, who raise cotton, millet, and maize.<ref name=":4" /> Some also engage in fishing and stockbreeding.<ref name=":4" /> Bilala economic activity mostly centers around raising herds and trading with Muslim and Arab neighbors.<ref name=":0" />

== See also ==

* Bilala dynasty – the lineage of traditional rulers (sultans) of the Bilala

== References == <references />

== Further reading == * {{Cite journal |last=Hagenbucher |first=F. |date=1968 |title=Notes sur les Bilala du fitri |url=http://www.bondy.ird.fr/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_4/sci_hum/01553.pdf |journal=Cahiers ORSTOM: Sciences humaines |language=en |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=39–76 |archive-date=2005-10-16 |access-date=2018-01-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051016133554/http://www.bondy.ird.fr/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_4/sci_hum/01553.pdf |url-status=bot: unknown }}

Category:Kanem–Bornu Empire Category:Ethnic groups in Chad Category:Muslim ethnic groups in Africa