Sao civilisation
Encyclopedia
The Sao were an Africa
n civilisation
that flourished from ca. the 6th century to as late as the 15th century. The Sao lived by the Chari River
south of Lake Chad
in territory that would later be part of Cameroon
and Chad
. They are the earliest people to have left clear traces of their presence in the territory of modern Cameroon. Little is known about the Sao's history, society, or culture. They may have originated in the Nile
valley, the Bilma
oasis, or near Lake Chad. Sometime around the 10th century, invading peoples conquered or absorbed the Sao. Today, several ethnic groups of northern Cameroon and southern Chad claim descent from the civilisation.
who conquered Ancient Egypt
. They moved south from the Nile
valley into middle Africa in several waves under pressure from Arab
invaders. According to Dierk Lange the Sao were immigrants from the ancient Near East in consequence of the fall of the Assyrian Empire at the end of the seventh century BC. Another theory places the Sao's origins in the Bilma
oasis north of Lake Chad
. Proponents of the idea often propose a Nilotic
origin for the culture. A third theory says that the Sao were simply the indigenous inhabitants of the Lake Chad basin and that their ultimate origins lie south of the lake.
. The Sao's first major population centre was the east bank of Lake Chad, from whence they moved west and south into the savanna. The civilisation reached its apex sometime between the 9th and 15th centuries.
The Sao's demise may have come about due to conquest, assimilation, or both. Although some estimates say the culture lasted until the 15th century, the majority opinion is that they ceased to exist as a separate culture sometime in the 10th century. The peoples of the Kanem Empire
were pushing south in the 9th and 10th centuries and may have been the Sao's conquerors. The Kotoko kingdom
also appeared around this time in former Sao territory. However, traditional tales say that the Sao fell to "whites" from the east. These invaders made several unsuccessful attempts to conquer the Sao before finally succeeding by resorting to trickery. If true, the invaders may have been Arab or Bedouin
raiders who moved into the region c. 1045.
finds and the oral history
of the people who live in their territory. Sao artefacts show that they were skilled workers in bronze
, copper
, and iron
. Finds include bronze sculptures and terra cotta statues of human and animal figures, coins, funerary urns, household utensils, jewellery, highly decorated pottery, and spears. The largest Sao archaeological finds have been made south of Lake Chad. Archaeologists J. F. Lebeuf and A. Masson-Détourbet suggest that the civilisation may have been the link between the advanced civilisations of the Nile and the Niger
rivers.
Ethnic groups in the Lake Chad basin, such as the Buduma, Gamergu, Kanembu
, Kotoko, Musgum
, and Logone-Birni
, claim descent from the Sao. Lebeuf supports this connection and has traced symbolism from Sao art in works by the Guti and Tukuri subgroups of the Logone-Birni people. Oral histories add further details about the people: The Sao were made up of several patrilineal clans who were united into a single polity with one language, race, and religion. In these narratives, the Sao are presented as giants
and mighty warriors who fought and conquered their neighbors.
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n civilisation
Civilization
Civilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...
that flourished from ca. the 6th century to as late as the 15th century. The Sao lived by the Chari River
Chari River
The Chari or Shari River is a 949-kilometer-long river of central Africa. It flows from the Central African Republic through Chad into Lake Chad, following the Cameroon border from N'Djamena, where it joins the Logone River waters....
south of Lake Chad
Lake Chad
Lake Chad is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Africa, whose size has varied over the centuries. According to the Global Resource Information Database of the United Nations Environment Programme, it shrank as much as 95% from about 1963 to 1998; yet it also states that "the 2007 ...
in territory that would later be part of Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
and Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
. They are the earliest people to have left clear traces of their presence in the territory of modern Cameroon. Little is known about the Sao's history, society, or culture. They may have originated in the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
valley, the Bilma
Bilma
Bilma is an oasis town in north east Niger with a population of around 2,500 people. It lies protected from the desert dunes under the Kaouar Cliffs and is the largest town along the Kaouar escarpment...
oasis, or near Lake Chad. Sometime around the 10th century, invading peoples conquered or absorbed the Sao. Today, several ethnic groups of northern Cameroon and southern Chad claim descent from the civilisation.
Origins
Historian Victor Fanso outlines three major origins for the Sao based on oral tradition and archaeological theories. One theory holds that they were the descendants of the HyksosHyksos
The Hyksos were an Asiatic people who took over the eastern Nile Delta during the twelfth dynasty, initiating the Second Intermediate Period of ancient Egypt....
who conquered Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
. They moved south from the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
valley into middle Africa in several waves under pressure from Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
invaders. According to Dierk Lange the Sao were immigrants from the ancient Near East in consequence of the fall of the Assyrian Empire at the end of the seventh century BC. Another theory places the Sao's origins in the Bilma
Bilma
Bilma is an oasis town in north east Niger with a population of around 2,500 people. It lies protected from the desert dunes under the Kaouar Cliffs and is the largest town along the Kaouar escarpment...
oasis north of Lake Chad
Lake Chad
Lake Chad is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Africa, whose size has varied over the centuries. According to the Global Resource Information Database of the United Nations Environment Programme, it shrank as much as 95% from about 1963 to 1998; yet it also states that "the 2007 ...
. Proponents of the idea often propose a Nilotic
Nilotic
Nilotic people or Nilotes, in its contemporary usage, refers to some ethnic groups mainly in South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and northern Tanzania, who speak Nilotic languages, a large sub-group of the Nilo-Saharan languages...
origin for the culture. A third theory says that the Sao were simply the indigenous inhabitants of the Lake Chad basin and that their ultimate origins lie south of the lake.
Rise and decline
The Sao civilisation may have begun as early as the 5th century AD, and by the 6th century, their presence was well established south of Lake Chad and by the Chari RiverChari River
The Chari or Shari River is a 949-kilometer-long river of central Africa. It flows from the Central African Republic through Chad into Lake Chad, following the Cameroon border from N'Djamena, where it joins the Logone River waters....
. The Sao's first major population centre was the east bank of Lake Chad, from whence they moved west and south into the savanna. The civilisation reached its apex sometime between the 9th and 15th centuries.
The Sao's demise may have come about due to conquest, assimilation, or both. Although some estimates say the culture lasted until the 15th century, the majority opinion is that they ceased to exist as a separate culture sometime in the 10th century. The peoples of the Kanem Empire
Kanem Empire
The Kanem Empire was located in the present countries of Chad, Nigeria and Libya. At its height it encompassed an area covering not only much of Chad, but also parts of southern Libya , eastern Niger and north-eastern Nigeria...
were pushing south in the 9th and 10th centuries and may have been the Sao's conquerors. The Kotoko kingdom
Kotoko kingdom
The Kotoko kingdom was a West African monarchy in what is today northern Cameroon and Nigeria, and southwestern Chad. Its inhabitants and their modern descendants are known as the Kotoko people....
also appeared around this time in former Sao territory. However, traditional tales say that the Sao fell to "whites" from the east. These invaders made several unsuccessful attempts to conquer the Sao before finally succeeding by resorting to trickery. If true, the invaders may have been Arab or Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
raiders who moved into the region c. 1045.
Culture
Little is known about the Sao's culture or political organisation: They left no written records and are known only through archaeologicalArchaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
finds and the oral history
Oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...
of the people who live in their territory. Sao artefacts show that they were skilled workers in bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
, copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
, and iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
. Finds include bronze sculptures and terra cotta statues of human and animal figures, coins, funerary urns, household utensils, jewellery, highly decorated pottery, and spears. The largest Sao archaeological finds have been made south of Lake Chad. Archaeologists J. F. Lebeuf and A. Masson-Détourbet suggest that the civilisation may have been the link between the advanced civilisations of the Nile and the Niger
Niger River
The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea...
rivers.
Ethnic groups in the Lake Chad basin, such as the Buduma, Gamergu, Kanembu
Kanembu people
The Kanembu are an ethnic group of Chad, generally considered the modern descendants of the Kanem-Borno Empire. The Kanembu number an estimated 655,000 people, located primarily in Chad's Lac Prefecture but also in Chari-Baguirmi and Kanem prefectures. They speak the Kanembu language, a variant...
, Kotoko, Musgum
Musgum
The Musgum or Moupoui are an ethnic group in Cameroon and Chad. They speak Musgu, a Chadic language, which had 61,500 speakers in Cameroon in 1982 and 24,408 speakers in Chad in 1993. The Musgum call themselves Mulwi. In Cameroon, the Musgum live in the Maga sub-division, Mayo-Danay division, Far...
, and Logone-Birni
Logone-Birni
Logone-Birni is a town and commune in Cameroon. It is perhaps most famous as the possible birthplace of Abram Petrovich Gannibal of Russia. -References:...
, claim descent from the Sao. Lebeuf supports this connection and has traced symbolism from Sao art in works by the Guti and Tukuri subgroups of the Logone-Birni people. Oral histories add further details about the people: The Sao were made up of several patrilineal clans who were united into a single polity with one language, race, and religion. In these narratives, the Sao are presented as giants
Giant (mythology)
The mythology and legends of many different cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. "Giant" is the English word commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantes of Greek mythology.In various Indo-European mythologies,...
and mighty warriors who fought and conquered their neighbors.
External links
- Lange, Dierk, "The Emergence of social complexity in the southern Chad Basin towards 500 BC: Archaeological and other evidence," Borno Museum Society Newsletter, 68-71 (2007), 49-68
- Lange, Dierk, "Immigration of the Chadic-speaking Sao towards 600 BCE" Borno Museum Society Newsletter, 72-75 (2008), 84-106.