Skip to content
Civilizations & Empires

Kanem-Bornu

c. 9th century – 1846

Around Lake Chad: parts of present-day Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon

Lake Chad empire whose Sayfawa kings embraced Islam in the late 11th century, moved their base west to Bornu around 1400, and grew rich on trans-Saharan trade, including in enslaved people.

This entry is a stub. Its content has not been verified yet.

Astronaut photograph of Lake Chad's remaining water, wetlands and dunes, taken from the International Space Station in 2025
Credit: NASA Earth Observatory / ISS Crew Earth Observations (ISS072-E-571857). License: Public domain (NASA).

Content pending: verified research needed.

Sources

  1. Library of Congress Country Studies, "Chad: Kanem-Borno" (Primary source)
  2. Vincent Hiribarren, "Kanem-Bornu Empire," in The Encyclopedia of Empire (Wiley, 2016) (Scholarly)
  3. BlackPast, "Empire of Kanem-Bornu (c. 9th century-1900)" (Reference)

Suggest a correction: opens once the database is connected.