Between Hausaland and the lake, along the Komadugu Yobe and its tributaries and on the sandy Manga plains to the north, lived Chadic-speaking farming and fishing peoples, the later Bade, Ngizim, Karekare and Bolewa.
Kanuri tradition counts such earlier peoples among the 'Sao'; their walled towns and small kingdoms (the Bade emirate, the Bolewa of Fika) are known only from later centuries. Nothing is written of them for 1200.
Who holds it
- Title
- town and village heads
- Confidence
- low
Overlord
None recorded
How things stand that morning
Self-governing peoples between Kanem's claimed Bornu and the Hausa marches.
Customs
Town and village heads; river fishing lineages (later ethnography).
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Later history, language geography and ethnography only.
On the map: Rough outline.
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia: Sao civilisation (city-states peaking 9th-15th centuries; walled towns; divine rulers behind a screen after Stride; queen mothers; Kotoko as heirs)
- Wikipedia: Hausa Kingdoms (Banza Bakwai including Kwararafa and Gwari)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.