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35-720: Sigismund Koelle was born in Cleebronn in the Württemberg region of southern Germany. In his Württemberg origin he resembles his contemporaries Johann Ludwig Krapf (born 1810) and Johannes Rebmann (born 1820), who also worked as linguists and missionaries for the Church Missionary Society, but in East Africa. Another CMS missionary born in Württemberg was Karl Gottlieb Pfander (born 1803), who

70-821: A Church of England clergyman. One of Constantine's sons, Sir Harry Philpot Koelle (1901–1980), was to become a vice-admiral in the British Navy. His descendants pronounce the name as "Kelly". Cleebronn Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.237 via cp1104 cp1104, Varnish XID 206398469 Upstream caches: cp1104 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 07:45:10 GMT Kanuri people The Kanuri people ( Kanouri , Kanowri , also Yerwa , Barebari and several subgroup names) are an African ethnic group living largely in

105-705: A Kanuri diaspora. In southeastern Niger, where they form the majority of the sedentary population, the Kanuri are commonly called Barebari (a Hausa name). The 400,000 Kanuri population in Niger includes the Manga subgroup, numbering some 100,000 (as at 1997) in the area east of Zinder , who regard themselves as distinct from the Barebari . Around 40,000 (1998) members of the Tumari subgroup, sometimes called Kanembu, are

140-699: A Turkish friend, Ahmed Tewfik, who had helped him translate the Anglican prayer book into Turkish. Koelle was released after a few hours, but Tewfik was imprisoned and sentenced to death. After pressure from the British Government, Tewfik was sent into exile on the island of Chios, and eventually escaped to England, where he was baptized in 1881 into the Anglican church in a ceremony in St Paul's, Onslow Square London, witnessed among others by Koelle's father-in-law, Archdeacon Philpot. However, it seems that he

175-655: A distinct Kanuri subgroup living in the N'guigmi area, and are distinct from the Chadian Kanembu people . In the Kaour escarpment oasis of eastern Niger, the Kanuri are further divided into the Bilma subgroup, numbering some 20,000 (2003), and are the dominant ethnic group in the salt evaporation and trade industry of Bilma . Kanuri speak varieties of Kanuri, one of the Nilo-Saharan languages . Divisions include

210-410: A long vacation he had made a similar such list, of just 71 languages, and that in making the present list he had learnt from that experience. Included with a book is a map of Africa showing the approximate location, as far as it could be ascertained, of each language, prepared by the cartographer August Heinrich Petermann . The value of the list is not merely linguistic, since the work not only includes

245-530: A pastoral people, the Kanuri were one of many Nilo-Saharan groups indigenous to the Central South Sahara, beginning their expansion in the area of Lake Chad in the late 7th century, and absorbing indigenous Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo and Chadic (Afro-Asiatic) speakers. According to Kanuri tradition, Sef, son of Dhu Ifazan of Yemen , arrived in Kanem in the ninth century and united the population into

280-440: A way to scare or warn the people of foolish or dangerous acts, but can also be more light hearted and encouraging. The Kanuri became Muslims in the 11th century. Kanem became a centre of Muslim learning and the Kanuri soon controlled all the area surrounding Lake Chad and a powerful empire called Kanem Empire , which reached its height in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when they ruled much of Central Africa. Following

315-522: Is considered the beginning of the serious study of a large range of African languages by European scholars. In 1849, when Koelle had been in Freetown for just over a year, he was asked to investigate a report that speakers of the Vy, Vei, or Vai language were using a script of their own invention. Koelle made a 7-week trip to Vailand to meet the inventor of the script, and wrote an account of his journey which

350-599: Is limited to a handful of speakers in urban centers. The largest population of Kanuri reside in the northeast corner of Nigeria , where the ceremonial Emirate of Bornu traces direct descent from the Kanem-Bornu empire, founded sometime before 1000 CE. Some 3 million Kanuri speakers live in Nigeria, not including some 200,000 speakers of the Manga dialect. The Nga people in Bauchi State trace their origins to

385-516: The Polyglotta Africana . The idea of this was to use the fact that Sierra Leone was a melting pot of ex-slaves from all over Africa to compile a list of 280 basic words (a sort of early Swadesh list ) in some 160 languages and dialects. These were then grouped as far as possible in families. Most of the informants who contributed to this work came from West Africa, but there were also others from as far away as Mozambique . One area that

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420-588: The Sayfawa dynasty . This tradition however, is likely a product of later Islamic influence, reflecting the association with their Arabian origins in the Islamic era. Evidence of indigenous state formation in the Lake Chad area dates back to circa 800 BCE at Zilum. The use of proverbs is very apparent in the Kanuri religion of Islam where they are used to help with comprehension of social happenings and to teach

455-559: The 4 million Kanuri in neighboring countries. The Shehu ("Sheikh") of Bornu draws his authority from a state founded before 1000 CE, the Kanem-Bornu Empire. The current ruling line, the al-Kanemi dynasty, dates to the accession of Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi in the early 19th century, displacing the Sayfawa dynasty which had ruled from around 1300 CE. The 19th Shehu, Mustafa Ibn Umar El-Kanemi , died in February 2009, and

490-518: The African slave trade in the 19th century. Of the 210 informants, there were 179 ex-slaves (two of them women), while the rest were mostly traders or sailors. An analysis of the data shows that typically Koelle's informants were middle-aged or elderly men who had been living in Freetown for ten years or more. Three-quarters of the ex-slaves had left their homeland more than ten years earlier, and half of them more than 20 years before; and three-quarters of

525-629: The Kanem-Borno Empire, whose territories at one time included northeastern Nigeria and southern Libya, the Kanembu retain ties beyond the borders of Chad. For example, close family and commercial ties bind them with the Kanuri of northeastern Nigeria. Within Chad, many Kanembu of Lac and Kanem prefectures identify with the Alifa of Mao, the governor of the region in precolonial times. Originally

560-516: The Manga, Tumari, and Bilma dialects of Kanuri and the more distinct Kanembu language . Inheriting the religious and cultural traditions of the Kanem-Bornu state, The Kanuri people are predominantly Sunni Muslim . In Chad, Kanembu speakers differentiate themselves from the large Kanuri ethnicity. The Kanembu are centered in Lac Prefecture and southern Kanem Prefecture . Although Kanuri

595-455: The book was imitated from a well-known work called Asia Polyglotta (1823) by the German scholar Julius Klaproth . In the introduction Koelle tells us that he wanted a selection of words that would be simple enough for each informant to be interviewed on a single day, and for this reason he omitted pronouns, which would have taken much longer to elicit. He adds that a few years earlier during

630-832: The downfall of the Bornu Empire and the Scramble for Africa in the 19th century, the Kanuri were divided under the rule of the British , French and German Empires . Despite the loss of the Kanuri-led state, the Shehu of Bornu continues as the head of the Bornu Emirate. This traditional Kanuri/Kanembu state maintains a ceremonial rule of the Kanuri people based in Maiduguri , Borno State , Nigeria but acknowledged by

665-512: The former Prime Minister of Niger Mamane Oumarou , and the former President of Niger , Mamadou Tandja . A Nigeria specific small Kanuri nationalist movement emerged in 1950s, centred on Bornu. Some "Pan-Kanuri" nationalists claimed an area of 532,460 square kilometres (205,580 sq mi) for the territory of what they called "Greater Kanowra", including the modern-day Lac and Kanem Prefectures in Chad, Far North Region in Cameroon,

700-577: The informants were over 40 years old. Another interesting facet of the book is the manner in which the informants had been made slaves. Some had been captured in war, some kidnapped, some sold by a relative, others condemned for a debt or sentenced for a crime. Another work researched and written by Koelle in Sierra Leone was the Grammar of the Bornu or Kanuri Language , also published in 1854. Koelle

735-514: The lands of the former Kanem and Bornu Empires in Niger , Nigeria , Chad , and Cameroon , as well as a diaspora community residing in Sudan . Those generally termed Kanuri include several subgroups and dialect groups, some of whom identify as distinct from the Kanuri. Most trace their origins to ruling lineages of the medieval Kanem–Bornu Empire , and its client states or provinces. In contrast to

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770-536: The meanings of things. These proverbs are created by the wise old men with a point of view based on the situation and what lesson is trying to be taught. Proverbs will usually reference objects found in everyday life. However, the objects used in the proverbs are used in such a way that they teach social attitudes, beliefs or experiences. Often proverbs are built around necessary acts that are carried out in daily life, but made to be easily visualized and applied to other, more intense situations. Kanuri proverbs can be used as

805-623: The neighboring Toubou or Zaghawa pastoralists, Kanuri groups have traditionally been sedentary, engaging in farming , fishing the Chad Basin , trade, and salt processing. Kanuri peoples include several subgroups, and identify by different names in some regions. The Kanuri language was the major language of the Bornu Empire and remains a major language in southeastern Niger, northeastern Nigeria and northern Cameroon , but in Chad it

840-505: The translator P. A. Benton adds in a footnote: "I cannot agree. Koelle seems to me to be extraordinarily accurate." After 1853, Koelle, who had become ill by the end of his stay in Sierra Leone, never returned to West Africa. For a time he continued his linguistic researches, in particular on questions of standard orthography, in connection with the Standard Alphabet which was being discussed in 1854 by Karl Lepsius . In 1855 he

875-463: The words themselves, arranged with all the languages spread out on two facing pages for each group of three English words, but Koelle also added a short biography of each informant, with geographical information about their place of origin, and an indication of how many other people they knew in Sierra Leone who spoke the same language. This information, combined with a census of Sierra Leone conducted in 1848, has proved invaluable to historians researching

910-1095: Was Koelle's colleague in Constantinople. After training in the Basel Mission , a missionary seminary in Basel , Switzerland, Koelle transferred in 1845 to the Church Missionary Society based in London; after further training in Islington he was ordained by the Bishop of London, Charles Blomfield . From December 1847 to February 1853 he lived and worked in Sierra Leone , the British protectorate established in West Africa for liberated slaves. Koelle taught at Fourah Bay College , which

945-463: Was a violent reaction from the Turkish government and several Turkish converts were arrested. Pfander and Weakley were forced to leave Constantinople, while Koelle remained behind for a few more years. When the Church Missionary Society withdrew from the city in 1877, he stayed on there for a time as an independent missionary, until in 1879 he too was forced to depart, after being arrested, together with

980-429: Was engaged on this at intervals from 1848 to 1853, working for several hours a day with an informant called Ali Eisami Gazirma (also known as William Harding). Eisami also provided the material for another work, African Native Literature , which consists of proverbs, fables, descriptive accounts, and historical fragments in the Kanuri language. Of Koelle's grammar, a later researcher, A. Von Duisburg, wrote: However,

1015-516: Was founded by the Church Missionary Society in 1827. "He was a Semitic scholar, and started a Hebrew class at Fourah Bay; and very soon African youths, the children of liberated slaves, could be seen reading the Old Testament in the original." While in Sierra Leone he also collected linguistic material from many African languages, some of it from freed slaves such as Ali Eisami , a Kanuri man. Koelle's major work, Polyglotta Africana (1854),

1050-469: Was lacking was the Swahili coast of Kenya and Tanzania , since it seems that slaves from this region were generally taken northwards to Zanzibar and Arabia rather than southward towards America and Brazil. The pronunciations of all the words were carefully noted using an alphabet similar, though not identical, to that devised by Karl Richard Lepsius , which was not yet available at that time. The name of

1085-515: Was published later that same year. In mid 1850, Koelle spent a few weeks in the Gallinas district of Vailand, and from November 1850 to March 1851 he worked again in the Cape Mount district. By July 1851 he had completed his Vai grammar, and it was published by the Church Missionary Society in 1854. The second great linguistic work carried out by Koelle during his five years in Sierra Leone was

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1120-846: Was sent to Egypt, but remained only a short time; he moved on to Haifa in Palestine in the same year. In 1856 he was awarded the Volney Prize of 1,200 francs by the French Academy of Sciences for his work on the Polyglotta Africana . In 1859 he was posted by the Church Missionary Society to Constantinople ( Istanbul ) to join Karl Gottlieb Pfander , who had gone out the year before. Together with another missionary, R. H. Weakley, he had some success in converting Turks to Christianity. However, in 1864, there

1155-424: Was succeeded by Abubakar Ibn Umar Garba . In Nigeria, famous post-independence Kanuri leaders include Kashim Ibrahim , Ibrahim Imam , Zannah Bukar Dipcharima , Shettima Ali Monguno, Abba Habib, Muhammad Ngileruma, Baba Gana Kingibe , former GNPP leader Waziri Ibrahim , the former military ruler, Sani Abacha , and the former presidential candidate Bashir Tofa . In Niger, Kanuri-origin political leaders include

1190-495: Was the major language of the Bornu Empire, in Chad, Kanuri speakers are limited to handfuls of speakers in urban centers. Kanuri remains a major language in southeastern Niger, northeastern Nigeria and northern Cameroon. In the early 1980s, the Kanembu constituted the greatest part of the population of Lac Prefecture, but some Kanembu also lived in the Chari-Baguirmi Prefecture . Once the core ethnic group of

1225-472: Was unhappy with his new life and after being sent to Egypt in 1883 he eventually voluntarily gave himself up again to his captors in Chios. Sigismund Koelle died in London in 1902. After returning from Africa, Koelle married Charlotte Elizabeth Philpot (1826–1919), the daughter of an English archdeacon. They had seven children. One of them, Constantine Philpot Koelle, born in Constantinople in 1862, later became

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