Makari (Sultanate)
Makari was a sultanate of the Kotoko in the far north of today's Cameroon , named after the city of the same name , which lies on the Serbewel River between Logone and Lake Chad, about 90 km northwest of N'djamena . The sultanate was also a city-state at the same time , since, like the other Kotoko sultanates, it primarily consisted of the city and the surrounding area. The fate of the rather small Sultanate is closely linked to the Sultanate of Goulfey and is therefore sometimes referred to as Makari-Goulfey .
The Chadian- speaking Kotoko are divided into several subgroups, the Makari state people were the Mpade .
According to legend, the state and city were founded by the first chief Moussakala, a Sao , who came to the region together with 24 other chiefs in search of land to settle. The name of the city, Makari means millet in the Mpade language. Makari became a sultanate in the 15th century and has seen 30 sultans since then. When the Sultanate of Makari Kanem-Bornu became subject to tribute in the 16th century, the Islamization of Makaris society began. Under the German colonial administration in Cameroon, Makari was the capital of Kotoko, but lost this status to Goulfey after Cameroon fell to the French in the First World War .
When the area was annexed by the French colonial empire, the colonial administrator Émile Gentil transferred the land of the Kotoko to Jaggara , the first Sheikh of the Shua Arabs , who had joined the French. The sovereign territory called the Serbewel Sultanate with the capital Goulfey, which was still subject to the French colonial administration, could not consolidate itself. From 1914 onwards there was considerable tension. The disempowered rulers of the Kotoko sultanates Makari and Afade raised an army and moved towards Goulfey. The punitive expedition then started by the French was paradoxically directed against Shuwa Arabs and not against the rebels. Since Jaggara was now deprived of its power base, the colonial administration initiated a reorganization of the country. In 1953, following the example of the Kotoko sultanates, the country was divided into five cantons, namely Makari, Goulfey , Wulki , Afade and Bodo . Further south there was at least the Kotoko Sultanate of Logone-Birni , which was not affected by the unrest, as it had obviously never been integrated into the Serbewel Sultanate.
In 2005 and 2010 there were floods, which led to epidemics, and there were recurring tensions between Mpade and Arabs, which have not yet been resolved properly.
The city itself, in which around 8,000 people live, is now dominated by Arabs, while in the surrounding area, which is home to around 130,000 people, Mpade and Arabs live roughly in equal parts. Tribal war-like conflicts often occur between the Mpade and the Arabs, but the Sultan of Makari tries to establish peace between the warring parties.
The predominant religion is Islam, there are also some animists and Catholics.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mpade | Ethnologue (English) Source: Ethnologue, accessed on October 26, 2015
- ↑ Ethnoarcheology of Shuwa-Arab-Settlements by Augustin Holl (English) Source: Google Books, accessed on October 26, 2015
- ↑ Région de l'Est (French), cvuc.cm, accessed on October 26, 2015