ABSTRACT
Although the Koyam are mentioned as a discrete group in Ibn Fartuwa’s account of the sixteenth century wars of Idris Alauma (Ibn Fartuwa in Palmer 1928, II: 27, 45, 52, 55), 1 no specific study has, as yet, been made of them. Nevertheless, this Kanuri-speaking group which still practises transhumance has probably, during the last 1,000 years, been the main stem of the Kanuri nation. Given the importance of Kanem and Borno in the history of the great kingdoms of the Sudan, this alone would make them worthy of study. Again, their situation today as a part of the whole sahelian situation, gives them a wider significance.
