The Bulala founded a powerful kingdom in Kanem during the later medieval history of the Lake Chad basin. Their political rise coincided with the weakening of Sefuwa authority and with conflicts over succession among the rulers of Kanem-Bornu. The excerpt presents them not simply as raiders but as the founders of a durable kingdom whose power challenged the established dynasty.

The Bulala were allied with Tubu and Arab tribes, according to Ibn Furtuwa as represented in the passage. Their forces intervened decisively in the Sefuwa succession crisis, and between 1376 and 1389 seven successive Sefuwa kings died fighting the invaders. One consequence was the displacement of Sefuwa rule from Kanem and the emergence of Bornu as the territory governed by the remaining dynasty.

The Bulala were not decisively defeated until Idris Alawoma achieved victory in the second half of the sixteenth century. The excerpt also records Leo Africanus’s description of their kingdom as Gaoga, while warning that his account may reflect information about the end of the fifteenth century rather than a direct visit to the central Sudan.