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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Rabih and the European powers in the Chad Basin, 1891-1901
Author:Hallam, W.K.R.
Year:1989
Periodical:Annals of Borno
Volume:6-7
Pages:23-34
Language:English
Geographic terms:Nigeria
Northern Nigeria
Chad
Subjects:anticolonialism
traditional rulers
scramble for Africa
About person:Rabih Fadl Allah
Abstract:Rabih Fadl Allah, otherwise known as Rabih Zubair, is the well-known Sudanese conqueror of the southern and western Chad Basin at the end of the last century. By 1896 he had consolidated and established his capital in Dikwa. However, unknown to Rabi.h and its legitimate sovereigns, the Chad Basin had been partitioned by the 1885 Act of Berlin. The British and French viewed each other with mutual suspicion in the Chad Basin throughout the last decade of the 19th century. The French intervened in the British and German 'spheres of influence', as defined by the Act of Berlin. The British dreamed of vast regions under British control, stretching through the French sphere, to the Nile and East Africa. Three different bodies, the Foreign Office, the Royal Niger Company, and British Intelligence in Egypt undertook a long operation to use Rabi.h against the French. The operation failed, partly as a result of ineptitude. The French believed it was an attempt to induce Rabi.h not to attack the Fulani States within the British sphere. Later they understood that they were the target. In April 1900 Rabih was killed by the French. For over a year his son, Fa.dl Allah, pillaged in Borno, until his death in 1901. Subsequently, the French strengthened their hold over the Shari Valley whilst the British and Germans effectively occupied their own zones up to the shores of Lake Chad. Notes, ref.
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