I was under the impression it was the other way around. With Kanem being the bigger empire and Bornu being the rump state.
But this is just off the top of my head so I could be wrong. I very much expected the empire to be simply named Kanem, with a perhaps a Bornu duchy around the South West of Lake Chad.
The thing is that the change was gradual and one can't really put a sharp date to say, before this it was clearly Kanem and after it was clearly Bornu, since there was a long period in which the state was seated already in Bornu, but was still called Kanem.
That's why I think naming the empire after the continuum - Kanem-Bornu - in accord with accademic sources which describe the whole continuum like this (unless they clearly speak only about the early phase - Kanem - or the successor state - Bornu - about 14th century and later) is slightly better than picking either Kanem or Bornu.
But either name is okay and none of them is wrong.
I didn’t ignore it mate, it’s just that your answer was that it was perhaps a different name for something you didn’t quite know what it was. So it didn’t seem like an important thing to mention in the original post. Just like I didn’t mention Fouta-Toro or the Toro language, I was just hoping somebody would show up and be like “Oh there was this important chiefdom named Toro in 1657, here is the source” or something like that.
I thought we both know that we're talking about an area which didn't have a kingdom-sized state in our time period, Hence, because the game's engine still needs some kingdom there, we're talking about what kind of fantasy setup will be/was chosen.
There's no need to hope or wait for some kingdom called Toro in that area, we know there was no kingdom at all. I tried to explain that the reasoning for namiing it Toro can be the same as you did when you suggested to name the neighbouring kingdom Kpelle - pick just one of entities there and name the wnole kingdom after it. Similar alternatives here would be Sankaran or Konya(n)... or Kisi, Mau etc.
Or there's a possibility to merge it entirely with Mali, or with Guinea, or split it between the two.
I think either possibility is equaly legitimate and okay. I do agree that Toro can be confusing and it might not be ideal, but I don't think it's any more wrong than any of the other possibilities.
The duchy is named Igan not Ife, that was more or less my entire point. It's not an eponymous duchy, but it should be.
Strage. I would have sweared I saw a screenshot where it was called Ife. OTOH those screenshots we use for our estimates are evidently taken from a running game, where for instance some duchies are drifting into other kingdoms, some kingdoms are already expanded (Maghreb cutting Anbiya into 2 pieces), so they don't show the actual starting settings. I simply refuse to believe that the duchy can not be named Ife, especially since I am pretty sure I saw a screenshot with the duchy being Ife somewhere.
I need to put a hard disagree with you here mate, that area is not inhospitable, you can check a map and see that it’s scattered with small villages today and there is even a city of 350k people there (Yenagoa). The Ijaw people were at least advanced enough in pre-colonial times to establish trade relationships with the Europeans once they arrived to the area. I am not saying that the delta was some kind of metropolis, but I think it can more than justify 1 or 2 humble tribal counties.
Oh, sorry mate if I wasn't clear enough. I meant that the area was inhospitable and uninhabited
during the medieval period*. None of the sources I have gathered about the area, shows no settlements there, no tribal communities, nothing, except marshes combined with jungle. All sources I have seen about medieval history of this region show it empty and the first source filling it with some settlements, depicts era of 1750 and later.
As for the Ijaw, you're right, they lived in the delta and they actually do have a county there. But as far as I have learned, they inhabited its eastern half, not areas to the west of the delta. But there certainly are tons of sources I don't know, if you know some which would prove that the Ijaw lived also to the west of the delta, could you share them please?
Also, is there evidence of Benin ever encompassing areas to the east of the delta? I mean in medieval period, of course.
* I'm sorry that I prefer using a "medieval period" over "pre-colonial period". Pre-colonial is to me even more eurocentric than medieval... and it usually describes the time since the first arrival of Europeans to Africa (which is the Portugeese at the last decade of CK period) until the 19th century, which does fit the EU period, but noc CK
