BORKU, or BORGU

This article appears in Volume V04, Page 255 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BLA-BOS

BORKU, or BORGU , a region of Central Africa between 17 and 19 N. and 18 and 210 E., forming part of the transitional zone between the arid wastes of the Sahara and the fertile lands of the central Sudan. It is bounded N. by the Tibesti Mountains, and is in

great

GREAT

measure occupied by lesser elevations belonging to the same system. These hills to the

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

and

east

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

merge into the plains of Wadai and Darfur.

South

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

-west, in the direction of Lake Chad, is the Bodele basin. The drainage of the country is to the lake, but the numerous khors with which its surface is scored are mostly dry or contain water for brief periods only. A considerable part of the soil is light sand drifted about by the wind. The irrigated and fertile portions consist mainly of a number of valleys separated from each other by low and irregular limestone rocks. They furnish excellent

dates

DATES

. Barley is also cultivated. The northern valleys are inhabited by a settled population of Tibbu stock, known as the Daza, and by colonies of negroes; the others are mainly visited by nomadic Berber and Arab tribes. The inhabitants own large numbers of goats and asses.
A caravan route from Barca and the Kufra

oasis

OASIS (Gr. &toss, the name given by Herodotus to the fertile spots in the Libyan desert: it probably represents an Egyptian word, cf. Coptic ouahe, ouih, to dwell, from which the Egyptian Arabic sod is derived)

passes through

Borku

BORKU, or BORGU

to Lake Chad. The country long remained unknown to Europeans. Gustav Nachtigal spent some time in it in the year 1871, and gave a valuable account of the region and its inhabitants in his book, Sahara and Sudan (Berlin, 18791889). In 1899

Borku

BORKU, or BORGU

, by agreement with

Great

GREAT

Britain, was assigned to the French sphere of influence. The country, which had formerly been periodically raided by the Walad Sliman Arabs, was then governed by the

Senussi

SENUSSI [SANUSI]

(q.v.), who had placed garrisons in the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

centres of population. From it raids were made on French territory. In 1907 a French column from Kanem entered Borku, but after capturing Ain Galakka, the principal

Senussi

SENUSSI [SANUSI]

station, retired. Borku is also called Borgu, but must not be confounded with the Borgu (q.v.) west of the Niger.
A summary of Nachtigal's writing on Borku will be found in section 28 of Gustav Nachtigal's Reisen in der Sahara and im Sudan (1 vol.), arranged by Albert Frankel (

Leipzig

LEIPZIG

, 1887). See also an article (with map) by Commdt. Bordeaux in LaGeographie, Oct. 1908.

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