N'Gousa

N'Gousa lay in the Kanem country north-east of Lake Chad, the heartland of the Kanem state from about the ninth century. Dry pasture and wells supported cattle and camel herds, while trans-Saharan caravans carried salt and cloth across the desert to the lake's shores. In the fourteenth century the centre of power moved westward from Kanem to Bornu, and the region's villages came under the influence of Bornu's rulers.