11 Facts About Kanuri people

Kanuri people are an African ethnic group living largely in the lands of the former Kanem and Bornu Empires in Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Libya and Cameroon.

Those generally termed Kanuri include several subgroups and dialect groups, some of whom identify as distinct from the Kanuri.

In contrast to the neighboring Toubou or Zaghawa pastoralists, Kanuri people groups have traditionally been sedentary, engaging in farming, fishing the Chad Basin, and engaged in trade and salt processing.

The Kanuri people 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 is limited to a handful of speakers in urban centers.

Around 40,000 members of the Tumari subgroup, sometimes called Kanembu in Niger, are a distinct Kanuri subgroup living in the N'guigmi area, and are distinct from the Chadian Kanembu people.

Related searches

Kanuri people speak varieties of Kanuri people, one of the Nilo-Saharan languages.

Kanuri people remains a major language in southeastern Niger, northeastern Nigeria and northern Cameroon.

Originally 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 both indigenous Nilo-Saharan and Chadic speakers.

Kanem became a centre of Muslim learning and the Kanuri people 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 Middle Africa.

In Nigeria, famous post-independence Kanuri people leaders include the politicians 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.

Some "Pan-Kanuri people" nationalists claimed an area of 532,460 square kilometres for the territory of what they called "Greater Kanowra", including the modern-day Lac and Kanem Prefectures in Chad, Far North Region in Cameroon, the Yobe and Borno states in Nigeria and Diffa and Zinder Regions in Niger and darfur in Sudan.