Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa : $b Including accounts of Tripoli, the Sahara, the remarkable kingdom of Bornu, and the countries around Lake ChadBarth, Heinrich
History
Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa : $b Including accounts of Tripoli, the Sahara, the remarkable kingdom of Bornu, and the countries around Lake Chad
Barth, Heinrich
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, North -- Description and travel
As for the Kél-fadaye they are the original and real inhabitants of the
district Fáde-ang, which lies round Tághajít; while the Éfadaye, who have
been called after the same district, are rather a mixture of vagabonds
flocking here from different quarters, and principally from that of the
Azkár. But the Kél-fadaye, who, as well as their neighbours the Éfadaye,
took part in the ghazzia against the expedition on the frontiers of Aïr,
are a very turbulent set of people, being regarded in this light by the
natives themselves, as appears from the letter of the Sultan of Ágades
to the chiefs Ánnur and Lúsu, of which I brought back a copy, wherein
they are called Mehárebín, or freebooters. Nevertheless they are of pure
and noble Berber blood, and renowned for their valour; and I was greatly
astonished to learn afterwards from my noble and intimate friend and
protector the sheikh Sídi Ahmed el Bakáy, that he had married one of
their daughters, and, had long resided amongst them. Even from the letter
of the Sultan of Ágades it appears that they have some relations with the
Awelímmiden. The name of their chief is Shúrwa.
The Kél-ferwán, though they are called after the fine and fertile place
Iferwán, in one of the valleys to the east of Tintágh-odé, where a
good deal of millet is sown, and where there are plenty of date-trees,
do not all reside there at present, a numerous portion of them having
settled in the neighbourhood of Ágades, whence they make continual
marauding expeditions, or “égehen,” upon the Timbúktu road, and against
the Awelímmiden. Nevertheless the Kél-ferwán, as the kinsmen of the
Aurághen, and the Amanókalen (that is to say the clan to which, before
the different tribes came to the decision of fetching their Sultan from
Sókoto, the family of the Sultan belonged) are of nobler and purer blood
than any of the rest. As an evidence of their former nobility, the custom
still remains that when the Sultan of Ágades leaves the town for any
length of time his deputy or lieutenant in the place is the chief of the
Kél-ferwán.
The third tribe of those who are under the direct authority of the Sultan
of Ágades, viz. the Izeráren, live between Ágades and Damerghú. But I did
not come into contact with them.
The Kél-gerés and Itísan seem to have been originally situated in the
fertile and partially beautiful districts round the Bághzen, or (as these
southern tribes pronounce the name in their dialect) Mághzem, where, on
our journey towards Damerghú, we found the well-built stone houses in
which they had formerly dwelt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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