File:Galadima of Bornu receiving Parfait-Louis Monteil in Bakousso.png

English: Parfait-Louis Monteil arrives in Bakousso in March 1891 while the settlement was still under construction. There, the Galadima of Bornu receives him:

"I find the King (sic) under a vast circular tent surmounted by the parasol, the badge of his dignity. A mound of earth marks the projection of the tent; the ground is beaten in this circle. The King (sic), on a clay bench covered with carpets, is seated in the black custom; he wears a kind of crown made of a large Turkish headband in golden fabric, over a white turban forming a litham; however, his face is uncovered; he is dressed in a heavy red velvet caftan, over white burnous; on his powerful abdomen, silk handkerchiefs with shimmering patterns; he is a colossus in the style of the Serky of Guiouaé or the Naba of Yako with whom he has some resemblance."

The crowd of courtiers, naked to the chest, heads shaved and uncovered, turn their backs on him; in the center, an individual armed with a powerful baton ending in a head 10 centimeters in diameter marks the place I must occupy."