CHAPTER XLIII NORTHERN NIGERIA UNDER FULANI RULE Bello of Sokoto and Kanemi of Bornu, who died within two years of each other, were the two great native sovereigns of the nineteenth century in the country now known as Northern Nigeria.

They had estabHshed their dynasties securely on their respective thrones, but the impression of their greatness did not long survive them. It would but weary the reader if I were to attempt to relate the little wars and counter wars which filled the second half of the nineteenth century, and immediately preceded the introduction of British administration. What has been told of the establishment of the Bornuese and Fulani powers is enough to show that in both cases very strong elements of disruption were waiting only for the removal of the hand which had welded the state together to break into active discord. There has remained the difference between the two empires, that in Bornu the power established was to a great extent a native power, which had to war against foreign invading elements, while in the rest of Haussaland the power established was a foreign power which fastened itself upon the necks of already existing and well-established native rulers. The wars, which in the latter half of the century decimated both empires, kept the different character imposed by this circumstance. In the case of Bornu, the attacks of old enemies and foreign invaders from the east tended to minimise the native power, while pagan states previously held 399