BORGU or BARBA, an inland country of West Africa. The western part is included in the French colony of Dahomey; the eastern in the Ilorin province of the British protectorate of Nigeria. Borgu is bounded N.E. and E. by the Niger, S. by the Yoruba country, N.W. by Gurma. It consists of an elevated plain traversed by rivers draining north or east to the Niger. Borgu is inhabited by a number of pagan negro tribes, several of whom were dependent on the chief of Nikki, a town in the centre of the country, the chief being spoken of as sultan of Borgu. The chief or king of Bussa (q.v.) was another more or less powerful potentate. In 1894 Borgu became the object of rivalry between France and Great Britain. The Royal Niger Company, which had already concluded a treaty of protection with the king of Bussa, sent out Capt. F. D. Lugard (afterwards Lord Lugard) to negotiate treaties with the king of Nikki and other chiefs, and Lugard succeeded in doing so a few days before the arrival of French expeditions from the west. Disregarding the British treaties, French officers concluded others with various chiefs, invaded Bussa, and established themselves at various points on the Niger. To defend British interests Joseph Chamberlain, then secretary of State for the Colonies, early in 1898 sent Lugard back to Borgu. A period of great tension ensued. It was at this time that Lugard raised the West African frontier force. In the result an Anglo-French conflict was averted, and by the con vention of June 1898 the western part of Borgu, including the town of Nikki, was declared French and the eastern British, the French withdrawing from all places on the lower Niger.
Since 1898 the country has been opened, and from being the most lawless and truculent of people the Bariba have become singularly amenable and law-abiding. Elephants are still to be found in the som. strip of forest land which stretches between the Niger and the interior of the country, in which are extensive areas of land suitable for cotton.