Kotoko kingdom

The principalities of Kotoko were West African city-states in what is now Cameroon, northeastern Nigeria and southwestern Chad. Their inhabitants and modern descendants are known as the people of Kotoko.

History

The rise of the principalities of Kotoko went hand in hand with the decline of the Sao civilization in southern Chad Basin. Among the most important city-states of Kotoko: Makari, Gulfeil, Mara and Logone - Birni.

Idris Alauma (1564-1596) brought the principalities of northern Kotoko at the beginning of his rule in the sphere of influence of the kingdom of Bornu. With the intensification of Bornu rule and the integration of the principalities of the south Kotoko in the 18th and 19th centuries, there was a greater spread of Islam. In the course of Islamization traditional Kotoko customs and independent Kotoko culture were largely repressed.

After the defeat of the Arab conqueror of Bornu Rabih (1893-1900) by French troops in 1900 at the Kusseri Kotoko city-states and the eastern Bornu came under the domination of the German Empire and were integrated into the German colony of Cameroon. Under the German and later French colonial rule them still remained a certain degree of autonomy. Today, the influx of Schuwa - Arabs and their partial takeover represents the greatest threat to the remaining traditional urban culture of Kotoko