Gaourang II of Bagirmi

Gaourang II of Bagirmi
Mbang Gaourang (left) with Kolak Dud Murra of Wadai (right)
Mbang of Bagirmi
In office 1883–1918
Succeeded by	Mahamat Abdelkader
Personal details
Born	c. 1858
Died	1918

Abd ar-Rahman Gaourang II (also Gaorang or Gwaranga c. 1858 – 1918) was Mbang of Bagirmi from 1885 to 1918. He came to power at a time when the sultanate was in terminal decline, subject to both Wadai and Bornu. The Sudanese warlord Rabih az-Zubayr made him his vassal in 1893. Gaourang signed a treaty that made his sultanate a French protectorate in 1897. After the final defeat of Rabih in 1900 he ruled as a subordinate of the French in Chad until his death in 1918.

The sultanate of Bagirmi was on the east bank of the Chari to the south of Lake Chad. In the 19th century Bagirmi, once a province of the Bornu Empire to the northwest, was now disputed between Bornu and the Wadai Empire to the northeast. The sultanate at this time was rapidly losing power. It paid tribute, mainly in slaves, to either Bornu or Wadai, or sometimes to both. The main source of income for the people of Bagirmi was slave raiding among the Sara people to the south.

Abd ar-Rahman Gaourang was born to the Bagirmi ruling family around 1858. In 1871 Ali, the kolak of the Wadai Empire, captured the Bagirmi capital of Massenya. The Wadai took "weavers, dyers, tailors, saddlers, princes and princesses", including Gaourang. Gaourang was raised at the court of Wadai. In 1883 the sultan Youssouf, who had succeeded Ali, restored Gaourang to his throne. He became the 25th sultan of Baguirmi.

In 1886 the Sudanese warlord Rabih az-Zubayr crossed the Chari, and in 1887 started raiding southern Bagirmi for slaves. Gaourang tried to get the sheikh of Bornu to help him against Rabih, but without success. In 1891 Rabih sent messages to Gaourang asking for open trade and supplies of cloth for his soldiers. Gaourang was hostile due to the way that Rabih had treated his southern vassals, and sent a defiant reply that invited war. Hostilities began at the start of 1893, and Gaourang's forces were beaten in several encounters with Rabih's forces. They made a last stand at Manjaffa, the second capital of Bagirmi, which was besieged for five months of intense struggle.

Gaourang appealed for aid to both Bornu and Wadai. The Sheikh of Bornu, Hashimi bin Umar, refused to send help, perhaps because Bagirmi had always resisted paying tribute and perhaps because he wanted to avoid engaging with Rabih. Sultan Yusuf of Wadai, for whom Bagirmi was an important vassal state, and who had lost much territory to Rabih, responded to the appeal. He sent a large force to help Bagirmi, which was destroyed by Rabih's army. Manjaffa capitulated, but Gaourang had escaped. He would be a fugitive for several years. Rabih went on to invade Bornu, helped by leading Mahdists in Bornu and in the neighboring Sokoto Caliphate.