Marte

Marte lies in Bornu country near Lake Chad. Its local ruler bears the title mai, the same style used by the sovereigns of Kanem-Bornu, although here it denotes the head of the town. The town was formerly known as Dubuwa, a name preserved in the title of one of its early rulers.

The history of Marte's ruling house is remembered in an oral chronicle, or girgam. Its first mai, Kadiri Arsomi, is said to have been a son of a ruler of Bornu, linking the local dynasty to the Sayfawa line. Tradition places the establishment of the house in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, after the foundation of the Bornu capital at Ngazargamu. The succession continued through generations of local mais.