An interesting case of pre-Islamic cavalry traditions, described in “A travers l’Afrique centrale du Congo au Niger 1892-1893”, by C. Maistre, published in 1895. The Gabri are an East Chadic (Afro-Asiatic) speaking population like the nearby Musgum, Musey and Masa peoples.
“The most complete account of the use of ponies in this area is by Maistre (1895), whose plates depict the role of the Gaberi pony in Gaberi society. The Gaberi are described as ‘un tribu de pillards’ and they seem to have made a profession of mounted raiding. The engravings show that they rode with a piece of skin as a saddle, wearing only a leather loin-cloth.
Their weapons appear to have been the throwing axe and the spear, and some riders also carried wicker shields. There are leather straps around the mouth of the ponies, and these may have been bits corresponding to those described for the Plateau. Certainly only a single rein is depicted.
The plate in Maistre’s page 203 has a remarkable image of the Gaberi crossing the Logone in canoes on a raiding expedition, pulling the horses behind the canoes.
Maistre saw an army of three to four thousand and he estimated that perhaps one third were mounted, so the Gaberi were clearly able to put considerable forces in the field”
- The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns
