Baguirmi

The Baguirmi, self-styled Barma, are people of the Chari-Baguirmi plain southeast of Lake Chad, sorghum and millet farmers and cattle raisers speaking Bagirmi, many using Fula. Their traditions claim migration from the east; the kingdom was founded at Massenya around 1522 by first mbang Birni Besse, after expelling the Bilala.

Under Mbang Abdullah (1568 to 1608) the court converted to Islam and the kingdom became a sultanate, though commoners long kept the old beliefs. Bornu emperor Idris Alooma conquered it, and for generations it paid tribute in slaves raided from pagan southern peoples; growing rich on trans-Saharan trade, it exported ivory, skins and eunuchs as far as Tripoli.

Under Burkumanda (1635 to 1665) raiders reached Lake Chad, and Muhammad al-Amin rewon independence in 1751. In 1805 Wadai sacked Massenya, killed the mbang and carried off twenty thousand captives, reducing it to a tributary.