Kanembu

Kanembu, the people of the ancient kingdom of Kanem, and generally of the northern shores of Lake Chad, Central Sudan. They are the southernmost branch of the Tibbus of Tibesti (Central Saharan Highlands), as indicated by the name itself, which in the Tibbu language means "Southerners," from Kanem ="the south," and bu="people;" but in this region they have become much mixed with the indigenous Negro populations, so that the Kanembu are now a Negroid people intermediate between the Hamitic Tibbus and the Sudanese blacks. The language also is intermediate between the northern Tibbu and the Kanuri of Bornu. The Kanembu are an historical people, who gave more than one dynasty to Bornu, and whose written and oral records go back to a legendary Sef, founder of a kingdom which in pagan times "ruled over the Berbers, the Tibbus, the Kanembu, and others." The people, or at least their rulers, have been Mohammedans since the 11th century, and, according to Nachtigal (Sahara und Sudan, vol. ii.), they number at present about 100,000, including some Arab, Bornu, and other settlers.