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796 TUNJUR
Curran, Brian Dean, and Schrock, Joann. Area Handbook for Mauritania. The American
University FAS, DA Pam 550-161. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing
Office, 1972.
Diarra, Fatoumata-Agnes, and Fougeyrollas, Pierre. "Ethnic Group Relations in Senegal."
In Ethnic Group Relations in Africa: Senegal; The United Republic of
Tanzania. Paris: UNESCO, 1974.
Gerteiny, Alfred G. Mauritania. New York: Praeger, 1967.
Nelson, Harold D., et al. Area Handbook for Senegal. The American University FAS,
DA Pam 550-70. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1974.
Oloruntimehin, B. O. The Segu Tukulor Empire. New York: Humanities Press, 1972.
Trimingham, J. Spencer. Islam in West Africa. London: Oxford University Press, 1959.
TUNJUR Tradition, supported by archaeological remains, records the existence
of a Tunjur kingdom seated in northern Darfur (Sudan), powerful in the
sixteenth century and destroyed by the rising power of the Fur at the beginning
of the seventeenth century. A perhaps less important Tunjur kingdom flourished
in Wadai (Chad) at about the same time until it was ended by the Maba supporters
of Abd al-Karim early in the seventeenth century. The Tunjur, or at least some
of them, migrated to the west and settled among the Kanembu of Mao (Kanem),
where they failed in trying to found an autonomous kingdom.
It is their pride in past glories and bitterness against those who later oppressed
them which today prevent the few remaining Tunjur from disappearing altogether.
At the most there are no more than 10,000 Tunjur. In Sudan they live chiefly
in Darfur Province, where they were once the rulers. Ruined citadels or palaces
on nearly every hilltop witness the past power of the Tunjur sultans. Descendants
of the former royal clan live in Jebel Hires south of El Fasher not far from the
former seat of the Fur sultanate, which succeeded them in power in the seventeenth
century. Some Tunjur are traders in the Kutum area as well as traders
and farmers in the Fatta Borno area, but it is in the hills of Dar ("home of")
Furnung that one meets the clans of the poor peasantry. Other Tunjur are scattered
in Dar Forok, Dar Hamra, Jebel Gubba and Jebel Si. In Chad, where they
number perhaps 5,000, they live in a few villages in the Am Dam district of
Wadai Province near the Batha River, in the Abu Telfan hills and in Dar Ziyud.
In the Dagana, there is a large group west of the big village of Massakori. In
Kanem, apart from a tiny group in the Motoa district, the largest group of all
is found in and around the big village of Mondo, perhaps the former seat of the
short-lived Tunjur sultanate in Kanem. First-hand (and sound) information about
the Tunjur is scarce except in Dar Furnung and Kanem.
The Tunjur language has apparently disappeared. In Dar Furnung, the first
language of the Tunjur is Fur; the second is local Arabic used by educated people
and traders. In the Kutum-Fatta Borno area, they speak mainly Arabic, although
some speak Beri (see Beri). In Kanem, Arabic is considered their own language—
some say that anyone speaking only Arabic in Kanem may be Tunjur, but that