Kanuri

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The Kanuri are an African ethnic group living in Bornu state in northeastern Nigeria, southeast Niger, western Chad and northern Cameroon.

Known as "Kanembu" in Chad and "Manga" or "Beri-Beri" in Niger, Kanuri speak the Kanuri language, a member of the Nilo-Saharan language family and are predominantly Sunni Muslim with some animist and Christian followers.

The Kanuri are of mixed black African, Berber and Arab descent and are more closely related to North Africans than the central Africans they now live amongst. Initially Pastoral Berber, the Kanuri were driven from North Africa by Arabs, moving to the area around Lake Chad in the late seventh century, and absorbed migrants from the Upper Nile. According to Kanuri tradition, Sef, son of Dhu Ifazan of Yemen, arrived in Kanem in the ninth century and united the population into the Sayfawa dynasty.

Converted to Islam by Arabs in the eleventh century, Kanem became a centre of Muslim learning and the Kanuri soon controlled all the area surrounding Lake Chad and a powerful empire called Kanem-Bornu Empire which reached its height in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when they ruled much of Central Africa.

Following the downfall of the Kanem-Bornu Empire and the Scramble for Africa in the 19th century, the Kanuri were divided under the rule of the British, French and German African empires.

Kanuri nationalism began to emerge in 1950s, centred around Bornu, the least developed region in Nigeria. Pan-Kanowri nationalists claimed an area of 532, 460km² for the territory of Greater Kanowra, including the modern day prefectures of Lac and Kanem in Chad, Far North Province in Cameroon and the departments of Diffa and Zinder in Niger.

In 1954, the Bornu Youth Movement (BYM) was founded to fight for the reunification of Greater Kanowra. The Biafran seccession and civil war gave further encouragement to Kanowri nationalists and in November 1976 mass demonstrations in Bornu sought independence, including an armed insurrection by gun men attempting to establish a Kanuri government. The uprising was quashed by Nigerian troops but agitation for a Kanuri state continued, particularly by Kanembru refugees from North Chad. In 1992, protests in Maiduguri by Kanowri over Nigerian government attempts to expel Kanembu back to Chad and protests have continued for a Kanowra state.

The Kanuri national flag is a horizontal tricolour of blue, yellow and green, representing the sky, the land and the water of Lake Chad.