135:... Except on ceremonial occasions, the rulers made few public appearances and even then remained concealed from the common gaze by a screen. Women occupied a respected position in society and the Queen Mother and senior sister of the ruler exercised considerable political influence on the government of the states. The So people were mainly settled farmers but among them were craftsmen of considerable industrial and artistic merit. They were able to work in both clay and metals to manufacture household utensils, tools, and works of art for religious purposes. Impressive objects found by archaeologists include burial urns and
20:
51:. They are the earliest civilization to have left clear traces of their presence in the territory of modern Cameroon. Sometime around the 16th century, conversion to Islam changed the cultural identity of the former Sao. Today, several ethnic groups of northern Cameroon and southern Chad, but particularly the
190:
people. Oral histories add further details about the people: The Sao were made up of several patrilineal clans who were united into a single polity with one language, race, and religion. In these narratives, the Sao are presented as giants and mighty warriors who fought and conquered their neighbors.
103:
and that their ultimate origins lie south of the lake. Recent archaeological research indicates that the Sao civilization developed indigenously from earlier cultures in the region (such as the
Gajiganna culture, which began at around 1,800 BCE and began to build fortified towns by about 800 BCE),
82:
Although some scholars estimate that the Sao civilization south of Lake Chad lasted until the fourteenth or fifteenth century, the majority opinion is that it ceased to exist as a separate culture sometime in the 16th century after the expansion of the
120:. Finds include bronze sculptures and terra cotta statues of human and animal figures, coins, funerary urns, household utensils, jewelry, highly decorated pottery, and spears. The largest Sao archaeological finds have been made south of Lake Chad.
75:, which dated from about the 18th to the 9th century BCE, eventually taking Sao form between the 11th and 4th centuries BCE, such that, by the end of the first millennium BCE, Sao presence was well established around Lake Chad and near the
131:... Each city was surrounded by strong defensive walls and dominated the life of the surrounding countryside which it both protected and governed. Government was by an elaborate hierarchy, headed by a divine ruler
127:
he So people possessed considerable political and artistic genius. Although they never combined effectively to form an empire, they developed city-states which were the centres of intense local patriotism
186:
claim descent from the Sao. Lebeuf supports this connection and has traced symbolism from Sao art in works by the Guti and Tukuri subgroups of the
403:
Breunig P, Neumann K, Van Neer W (June 1996). "New
Research on the Holocene Settlement and Environment of the Chad Basin in Nigeria".
304:
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Sudanese
Memoirs. Being mainly translations of a number of Arabic Manuscripts relating to the Central and Western Sudan
147:... The vigour of the government and civilization is best demonstrated by their long resistance to the empires of
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of the Chad Basin are examples of this. Sao artifacts show that they were a sophisticated civilization working in
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39:
from ca. the 6th century BCE or 5th century BCE to as late as the 16th century AD. The Sao lived by the
336:"Early sculptural traditions in West Africa: New evidence from the Chad Basin of north-eastern Nigeria"
79:. The city-states of the Sao reached their apex sometime between the ninth and fifteenth centuries CE.
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157:] and the fact that many cultural characteristics of the Kanuri adopted from the So.
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604:] (in French). Éditions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique.
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A widely accepted theory is that the Sao were indigenous inhabitants of the
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G.T. Stride presented these important facts about the Sao civilization:
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The Sao civilization is hypothesized to have descended from the earlier
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When We Ruled: The
Ancient and Mediæval History of Black Civilisations
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Peoples and
Empires of West Africa: West Africa in History, 1000-1800
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19:
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Les principautés kotoko: essai sur le caractère sacré de lʼautorité
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La civilisation du Tchad suivi d'une Ă©tude sur les bronzes Sao
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are the inheritors of the former city states of the Sao.
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Corpus of Early
African Sources for West African History
372:"Zilum: a mid-first millennium BC fortified settlement"
269:
402:
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284:
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History for Secondary Schools and Colleges
370:Magnavita C, Breunig P, Ameje J, Posselt M (2006).
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170:Ethnic groups in the Lake Chad basin, such as the
59:, claim descent from the civilization of the Sao.
505:Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cameroon
201:
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609:Lebeuf, Jean-Paul; Detourbet, A. Masson (1950).
501:
243:
231:
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502:DeLancey, Mark W.; DeLancey, Mark Dike (2000).
104:gradually increasing in complexity. Sites like
576:The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa
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43:basin in territory that later became part of
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334:Breunig P, NĂĽsse M, Franke G (June 2008).
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688:Stride, G.T.; Ifeka, Caroline (1971).
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554:Hudgens, Jim; Trillo, Richard (1999).
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736:(3rd ed.). Bradt Travel Guides.
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556:The Rough Guide to West Africa
377:Journal of African Archaeology
244:DeLancey & DeLancey (2000)
232:DeLancey & DeLancey (2000)
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558:(3rd ed.). Rough Guides.
405:African Archaeological Review
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533:Fanso, Verkijika G. (1989).
16:Central African civilization
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766:Iron Age cultures of Africa
458:Hudgens & Trillo (1999)
220:Hudgens & Trillo (1999)
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802:
627:; Hopkins, J.F.P. (1981).
539:. Vol. 1. Macmillan.
143:... before about A. D. 700
94:
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470:Stride & Ifeka (1971)
354:10.1017/S0003598X00096915
321:2027/spo.4761563.0003.101
303:Augustin FC (July 2006).
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23:Terracotta Sao statuette
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390:10.3213/1612-1651-10068
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168:
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563:Fifth edition (2008)
523:Fifth edition (2019)
776:History of Cameroon
488:, pp. 137–173.
472:, pp. 113–115.
730:West, Ben (2011).
560: –
520: –
417:10.1007/BF01956304
278:, pp. 53–120.
25:
743:978-1-84162-353-5
722:978-1-58073-045-7
701:978-0-17-511448-1
672:978-0-4290-5784-7
640:978-0-521-22422-2
625:Levtzion, Nehemia
586:978-0-521-65702-0
546:978-0-333-47121-0
515:978-0-8108-3775-1
69:Gajiganna culture
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781:Prehistoric Chad
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85:Bornu Empire
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174:, Gamergu,
77:Chari River
41:Chari River
755:Categories
694:. Nelson.
195:References
151: [
681:197522624
651:(1967) .
341:Antiquity
73:Lake Chad
733:Cameroon
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160:—
45:Cameroon
176:Kanembu
95:Culture
63:Origins
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184:Musgum
182:, and
180:Kotoko
172:Buduma
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116:, and
114:copper
110:bronze
89:Kotoko
87:. The
57:Kotoko
677:S2CID
615:[
600:[
421:JSTOR
315:(1).
106:Zilum
738:ISBN
717:ISBN
696:ISBN
667:ISBN
635:ISBN
581:ISBN
541:ISBN
510:ISBN
118:iron
55:and
53:Sara
49:Chad
47:and
27:The
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350:doi
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