List of mais of Marte
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The mai of Marte (mai martema[1][2]) is the traditional leader of the town of Marte in Borno State, Nigeria. Mai is in the case of Marte generally translated as "village head"[3][4] or "town head".[5] The title derives from the royal/imperial style once used by the monarchs of the Kanem–Bornu Empire, and has as such also sometimes been translated as "king".[6]
Like the mais of Kanem–Bornu, the line of mais of Marte before 1900 is reconstructed through a girgam, an orally transmitted royal chronicle.[7] The mais of Marte claim to be one of the oldest, if not the oldest, surviving dynasty in Borno.[8] They claim descent from the formerly ruling Sayfawa dynasty of Kanem–Bornu,[8][9] with the first mai of Marte, Kadiri Arsomi, being said to have been a son of mai "Ngeleroma" of Bornu.[7][8] It is unclear which mai this Ngeleroma corresponds to.[7] The precise date of the foundation of Marte and its ruling house is unclear due to discrepancies in the source material, though it is traditionally claimed to have taken place in the 16th or 17th century,[9] about a century or two after the foundation of the Bornu capital Ngazargamu.[10]
The mais of Marte are said to have initially refused to recognise the rise of the al-Kanemi dynasty, which supplanted the Sayfawa dynasty as Bornu's rulers (under the new title shehu) in the mid-19th century.[8] The founder of the al-Kanemi dynasty, Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi, is claimed to have attacked Marte three times without success.[1][8] On his fourth attempt, al-Kanemi managed to seize the town and executed its ruling mai,[1] replacing him with another who was willing to accept his rule.[8] Marte was directly administered from the al-Kanemi capital at Kukawa, though the style of mai martema continued to be attached to local officials.[2] The mais of Marte have continued to serve as the traditional heads of Marte to the present day.[3][4]