5
THE GOSPEL ACROSS THE SAHARA
AND FROM NUBIA
Christian influence in the northern savanna areas of tropical Africa is even older than Portuguese influence. It came from three sources: 1) early North African Christianity, 2) medieval Nubia, and 3) European Christians who crossed the desert, beginning in the 17th century.
5.1 Early Saharan and Nubian influence
Evidence of archaeology and Christian symbols
Early North African Christianity penetrated the nomadic Berbers very extensively, even if not always deeply, and after the Muslim conquest many Christians took refuge in the desert. As a result Tamashek vocabulary still contains Christian terminology, for instance the word for an angel. The “Agadez cross” and similar crosses from other Tuareg towns are possibly of original Christian inspiration, although we have no conclusive proof for this. The “Northern knot” of Nigeria, in its various styles, also seems to fit into this cross series.
Nubia, like Ethiopia, received Christianity before the time of Islam. It maintained its independence for many years against Arab invaders in what is now southern Egypt and Northern Sudan, i.e. from Aswan to Khartoum. Unlike mountainous and insular Ethiopia, which confined Christian evangelization to the limits of imperial expansion, Nubia spread its influence over the savanna plains to the west. Ruins of churches and monasteries are found in Darfur and the Chad Bar al-Ghazâl region.[1] Ruins of burnt brick construction of Nubian inspiration are found as far as Borno.[2] The Nubian formée cross found its way to Borno,[3] and as far as Benin city before the Portuguese arrived. Joăo de Barros, describing the time of discovery, says that when a new king accedes in Benin an eastern king called Ogané sends him emblems of authority, including a brass cross to be worn around the neck, similar to that worn by the knights of the Order of St. John. A similar but smaller cross was given to the Benin ambassador which he wore around his neck and which gave him certain privileges while in Ogané’s kingdom.[4] The messenger with this cross is always depicted at the bottom of the carved elephant tusks of Benin, as displayed in the Lagos and Benin museums. De Barros thought that Ogané was “Prester John} of Ethiopia. In modern times he has been variously identified with the Oni of Ife[5] or the Alafin of y.[6] A. Ryder argues for a more northerly identification, along the Niger or Benue, perhaps Idah. The fact that these crosses are not mentioned again after 1540 suggests a rupture between Benin and Ogané’s kingdom as a result of Benin’s war with Idah and expansion to the north.[7]
Evidence of traditions and reports
The connection between Nubia and Benin can be filled out by writers such as Leo Africanus, who writing about his travels around 1512-14 said that the Gaoga people (somewhere in the Chad/Darfur region)[8] practised Christianity and that the founder of the Mandara kingdom (around Marwa in Cameroon) was a Christian.[9] The same assertion is found in the Mandara Chronicle,[10] and Denham heard some Mandarans referred to as Christians in 1823.[11]
At the beginning of the 18th century reports were reaching Tripoli that the kingdom of Kwararafa (the Jukun on the Benue) was Christian.[12] Richard Gray attaches some importance also to the existence of Maltese (formée) crosses on the garb of the Jukun king, as reported by Meek.[13] The break-up of the Kwararafa federation in the 18th century, however, has left all tradition die out concerning the once powerful Jukun kingdom that was the terror of Katsina and Kano. The only tradition surviving is that of the Kisara migration from Egypt to the Sudan (Nubia) and then west to the Benue and Niger valleys.[14] Some authors would like to see the Kisara migration as one of Christian Nubians,[15] but this is disputed.[16]
Further up the Benue the Batta and Chamba (or Bachama) peoples also hold to a Kisara legend and claim that they originate from Sokoto or Gobir people. The validity of this claim has likewise been challenged.[17] Even so, a similar claim was made for the Gobir people by `Abdalqâdir ibn-al-Muafâ in his Rawat al-afkâr (written in 1824 or 1825)[18] that they originated from the Copts of Egypt.[19] It matters little whether these legends are historically true or not. They only serve to confirm the penetration of Christian cultural influence from Nubia into northeastern Nigeria and along the Benue-Niger to Benin.
The Nubian kingdoms reached the height of their power between 800 and 1000. In Egypt the growing influence of Turkish slaves (Mamlűks) displaced many Arabs, who drifted into Nubia. When the Mamlűks took power in Egypt in 1251 the drift of Arabs turned into a flood. The northern Nubian kingdom fell to Muslim rule in 1297, although Christianity survived there about a century longer. The southern kingdom of Alwa held out until around 1500. In 1525 Fr. Álvares SJ received a letter in Ethiopia asking for Portuguese help against the Arabs; this shows that Christianity was still alive. But before long the only Nubians who retained their Christian faith were those who migrated to Egypt.
[1]Shinnie (1971), 49.
[2]Bivar & Shinnie (1962).
[3]Such a cross, found near Lake Chad, was on display in the Lagos Museum in 1966, but is no longer there. The curator (1980) had no information on its whereabouts.
[4]Barros (1945), Dec. I, liv. 3, ch. 4, 90-1.
[5]Hodgkins (1960), 96; Obayemi (1971), 247. This opinion is taken up again by Robin Horton, “Ancient Ife: a reassessment,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 9:4 (June 1979), 69-150. I discuss this in “The early evangelisation of Benin: further reflections,” Bodija Journal, n. 2 (June, 1990), 71-76.
[6]R. Mauny and P.H. Talbot; cf. Hodgkins (1960), 94.
[7]Ryder (1969), 7, and (1965a).
[8]Palmer (1929-30) thinks these are the Bulala of around Lake Fitri in Chad. Pierre Kalck argues for a kingdom in the Darfur/Chad region. See also R.S. O’Fahey and J.L. Spalding (1973).
[9]Urvoy (1949), 28, note 2.
[10]In Palmer (1928), II, 96.
[11]Bovill (1966), III, 333-4.
[12]Gray (1967), 385; Meek (1931), 19, 206, Plate 1.
[13]Gray (1967), 388.
[14]Palmer (1928), II, 61-3.
[15]Gray (1967), 392-3.
[16]P. Stevens (1975).
[17]Ibid.
[18]Last (1967), xxxiii-iv.
[19]M. Nissen (1968), 57-8, combines the legend of Rawat al-afkâr with that of the Chamba people; she also gives the mistaken common attribution of this work to Muammad Bello.