Goulfey

Goulfey was one of the Kotoko towns of the lower Chari and Logone country, south of Lake Chad. Its ruler stood among a number of chiefs whose towns formed a landscape of walled settlements and competing courts. Goulfey was known to outside writers in the sixteenth century, alongside neighbouring Makari, Afade and Kusseri, each with its own local ruler.

In that century the expansion of Bornu brought war and new alliances to the Kotoko country. Northern towns came within the sphere of the ruler of Makari, who was connected to Bornu, while Logone led a separate grouping farther south. Goulfey's place in this world was shaped by its relationships with neighbouring rulers as well as by its own court and community.