Due to its distance from the sea and its largely desertclimate, the country is sometimes referred to as the "Dead Heart of Africa".
Chad is divided into multiple regions: a desert zone in the north, an arid Sahelian belt in the centre and a more fertile Sudanese savanna zone in the south. HP G62-110ED Battery
Lake Chad, after which the country is named, is the largest wetland in Chad and the second largest in Africa. Chad's highest peak is the Emi Koussi in the Sahara, and N'Djamena, (formerly Fort-Lamy), the capital, is the largest city. Chad is home to over 200 different ethnic and linguistic groups. HP 480385-001 battery
Arabic andFrench are the official languages. Islam and Christianity are the most widely practiced religions.
Beginning in the 7th millennium BC, human populations moved into the Chadian basin in great numbers. HP G62-120SS battery
By the end of the 1st millennium BC, a series of states and empires rose and fell in Chad's Sahelian strip, each focused on controlling the trans-Saharan trade routes that passed through the region. France conquered the territory by 1920 and incorporated it as part of French Equatorial Africa. HP G62-120SS battery
In 1960, Chad obtained independence under the leadership of François Tombalbaye. Resentment towards his policies in the Muslim north culminated in the eruption of a long-lasting civil war in 1965. In 1979, the rebels conquered the capital and put an end to the south's hegemony. HP Pavilion DV6-1246EO battery
However, the rebel commanders fought amongst themselves until Hissène Habrédefeated his rivals. He was overthrown in 1990 by his general Idriss Déby. Recently[when?], the Darfur crisis in Sudan has spilt over the border and destabilised the nation, with hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees living in and around camps in eastern Chad. Sony VAIO VPCS12V9E/B battery
While many political parties are active, power lies firmly in the hands of President Déby and his political party, thePatriotic Salvation Movement. Chad remains plagued by political violence and recurrent attempted coups d'état (seeBattle of N'Djamena (2006) and Battle of N'Djamena (2008)). Sony VGP-BPL7 battery
Chad is one of the poorest and most corrupt countries in the world; most inhabitants live in poverty as subsistence herders and farmers. Since 2003, crude oil has become the country's primary source of export earnings, superseding the traditional cotton industry. Chad is considered a failed state by the Fund for Peace. HP F2299A battery
In the 7th millennium BC, ecological conditions in the northern half of Chadian territory favored human settlement, and the region experienced a strong population increase. Some of the most important African archaeological sites are found in Chad, mainly in the Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti Region; some date to earlier than 2000 BC.[4][5] HSTNN-LB51 battery
For more than 2000 years, the Chadian Basin has been inhabited by agricultural and sedentary peoples. The region became a crossroads of civilizations. The earliest of these were the legendary Sao, known from artifacts and oral histories. The Sao fell to the Kanem Empire,[6][7] Sony VGN-AW11XU/Q battery
the first and longest-lasting of the empires that developed in Chad's Sahelianstrip by the end of the 1st millennium AD. The power of Kanem and its successors was based on control of the trans-Saharan trade routes that passed through the region.[5] HP 446506-001 battery
These states, at least tacitly Muslim, never extended their control to the southern grasslands except to raid for slaves.
French colonial expansion led to the creation of the Territoire Militaire des Pays et Protectorats du Tchad in 1900. HP Pavilion DV4-1365DX battery
By 1920, France had secured full control of the colony and incorporated it as part of French Equatorial Africa.[10] French rule in Chad was characterised by an absence of policies to unify the territory and sluggish modernisation. The French primarily viewed the colony as an unimportant source of untrained labour and raw cotton; Sony VAIO VGN-TZ190N/BC battery
France introduced large-scale cotton production in 1929. The colonial administration in Chad was critically understaffed and had to rely on the dregs of the French civil service. Only the south was governed effectively; French presence in the north and east was nominal. The educational system suffered from this neglect.[5][11] Sony VAIO VGN-Z31WN/B battery
After World War II, France granted Chad the status of overseas territory and its inhabitants the right to elect representatives to the French National Assembly and a Chadian assembly. The largest political party was the Chadian Progressive Party (PPT), based in the southern half of the colony. HP Pavilion DV6-1215EE battery
Chad was granted independence on August 11, 1960 with the PPT's leader,François Tombalbaye, as its first president.[5][12][13]
Two years later, Tombalbaye banned opposition parties and established a one-party system. Sony VGP-BPS22/A Battery
Tombalbaye's autocratic rule and insensitive mismanagement exacerbated interethnic tensions. In 1965 Muslims began a civil war. Tombalbaye was overthrown and killed in 1975,[14] but the insurgency continued. In 1979 the rebel factions conquered the capital, and all central authority in the country collapsed. HP Pavilion DV4T-1400 CTO battery
Armed factions, many from the north's rebellion, contended for power.[15][16]
The disintegration of Chad caused the collapse of France's position in the country. Libya moved to fill the power vacuum and becameinvolved in Chad's civil war.[17] HP Pavilion DV6-1232ET battery
Libya's adventure ended in disaster in 1987; the French-supported president, Hissène Habré, evoked a united response from Chadians of a kind never seen before[18] and forced the Libyan army off Chadian soil.[19]
Habré consolidated his dictatorship through a power system that relied on corruption and violence; Sony VAIO VPCEB19GX battery
an estimated 40,000 people were killed under his rule.[20][21] The president favoured his own Daza ethnic group and discriminated against his former allies, the Zaghawa. His general, Idriss Déby, overthrew him in 1990.[22]
Déby attempted to reconcile the rebel groups and reintroduced multiparty politics. Sony VAIO VPCW12S1E/P battery
Chadians approved a new constitution by referendum, and in 1996, Déby easily won acompetitive presidential election. He won a second term five years later.[23] Oil exploitation began in Chad in 2003, bringing with it hopes that Chad would at last have some chances of peace and prosperity. HP Pavilion DV6-1240EI battery
Instead, internal dissent worsened, and a new civil war broke out. Déby unilaterally modified the constitution to remove the two-term limit on the presidency; this caused an uproar among the civil society and opposition parties.[24] In 2006 Déby won a third mandate in elections that the opposition boycotted. HP Compaq HSTNN-LB51 battery
Ethnic violence in eastern Chad has increased; the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has warned that a genocide like that inDarfur may yet occur in Chad.[25]
In 2006 and in 2008 rebel forces have attempted to take the capital by force, but have on both occasions failed.[26] HP Pavilion DV4-1211TU battery
Politics and government
Chad's constitution provides for a strong executive branch headed by a president who dominates the political system. The president has the power to appoint the prime minister and the cabinet, and exercises considerable influence over appointments of judges, generals, provincial officials and heads of Chad's para-statal firms. Lenovo S10-2 battery
In cases of grave and immediate threat, the president, in consultation with the National Assembly, may declare a state of emergency. The president is directly electedby popular vote for a five-year term; in 2005 constitutional term limits were removed.[27] Apple MacBook Pro Battery
This removal allows a president to remain in power beyond the previous two-term limit.[27] Most of Déby's key advisers are members of the Zaghawa ethnic group, although southern and opposition personalities are represented in government.[28][29]
Chad is listed as a failed state by the Fund for Peace (FFP). Dell Inspiron N5010 Battery
In 2007 Chad had the seventh highest score on the failed state index. Since then the trend has been upwards each year. Chad had the second highest score (behind Somalia) on the Failed State Index of 2011.[3]
Corruption is rife at all levels; Sony Vaio P Battery
Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index for 2005 named Chad the most corrupt country in the world,[30] and it has fared only slightly better in the following years.[31] In 2007, it scored 1.8 out of 10 on the Corruption Perceptions Index (with 10 being the least corrupt). Dell Inspiron 1564 Battery
OnlyTonga, Uzbekistan, Haiti, Iraq, Burma, and Somalia scored lower.[32] Critics of President Déby have accused him of cronyism and tribalism.[33]
Chad's legal system is based on French civil law and Chadian customary law where the latter does not interfere with public order or constitutional guarantees of equality.Lenovo S10-3 Battery
Despite the constitution's guarantee of judicial independence, the president names most key judicial officials. The legal system's highest jurisdictions, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Council, have become fully operational since 2000. The Supreme Court is made up of a chief justice, named by the president, and 15 councillors, appointed for life by the president and the National Assembly. HP 530 Battery
The Constitutional Court is headed by nine judges elected to nine-year terms. It has the power to review legislation, treaties and international agreements prior to their adoption.
The National Assembly makes legislation. The body consists of 155 members elected for four-year terms who meet three times per year. Samsung R522 Battery
The Assembly holds regular sessions twice a year, starting in March and October, and can hold special sessions when called by the prime minister. Deputies elect a National Assembly president every two years. The president must sign or reject newly passed laws within 15 days. Dell Latitude D630 Battery
The National Assembly must approve the prime minister's plan of government and may force the prime minister to resign through a majority vote of no confidence. However, if the National Assembly rejects the executive branch's programme twice in one year, the president may disband the Assembly and call for new legislative elections. Acer Aspire 5515 Battery
In practice, the president exercises considerable influence over the National Assembly through his party, the Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS), which holds a large majority.[28]
Until the legalisation of opposition parties in 1992, Déby's MPS was the sole legal party in Chad.[28] Dell Studio 1735 Battery
Since, 78 registered political parties have become active.[34] In 2005, opposition parties and human rights organisations supported the boycott of the constitutional referendum that allowed Déby to stand for re-election for a third term[35] amid reports of widespread irregularities in voter registration and government censorship of independent media outlets during the campaign.[36] Toshiba Portege R200 Battery
Correspondents judged the 2006 presidential elections a mere formality, as the opposition deemed the polls a farce and boycotted.[37]
Déby faces armed opposition from groups who are deeply divided by leadership clashes but united in their intention to overthrow him.[38] Dell Vostro 1710 Battery
These forces stormed the capital on April 13, 2006, but were ultimately repelled. Chad's greatest foreign influence is France, which maintains 1,000 troops in the country. Déby relies on the French to help repel the rebels, and France gives the Chadian army logistical and intelligence support for fear of a complete collapse of regional stability.[39] Hp Pavilion dv3-1000 Battery
Nevertheless, Franco-Chadian relations were soured by the granting of oil drilling rights to the American Exxon company in 1999.[40]
Educators face considerable challenges due to the nation's dispersed population and a certain degree of reluctance on the part of parents to send their children to school. HP Pavilion DV7-1261WM battery
Although attendance is compulsory, only 68% of boys attend primary school, and more than half of the population is illiterate. Higher education is provided at the University of N'Djamena.[28][41]
Humanitarian situation
According to the United Nations, Chad has been affected by a humanitarian crisis since at least 2001. HP Pavilion DV6-1299EA battery
As of 2008, the country of Chad hosts over 280,000 refugees from the Sudan's Darfur region, over 55,000 from the Central African Republic, as well as over 170,000 internally displaced persons.[42]
In February 2008 in the aftermath of the battle of N'Djamena, hp g6000 battery
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes expressed "extreme concern" that the crisis would have a negative effect on the ability of humanitarians to deliver life-saving assistance to half a million beneficiaries, most of whom – according to him – heavily rely on humanitarian aid for their survival. HP Pavilion DV6-1210SA battery
UN spokesperson Maurizio Giuliano stated to The Washington Post: "If we do not manage to provide aid at sufficient levels, the humanitarian crisis might become a humanitarian catastrophe".[44]
Regions, departments, and sub-prefectures
Chad has been divided since February 2008 into 22 regions. Compaq Presario CQ71 battery
The subdivision of Chad in regions came about in 2003 as part of the decentralisation process, when the government abolished the previous 14 prefectures. Each region is headed by a presidentially appointed governor. Prefects administer the 61 departments within the regions.[46] HP Pavilion DV7-1120EO battery
The departments are divided into 200 sub-prefectures, which are in turn composed of 446 cantons.[47][48]
The cantons are scheduled to be replaced by communautés rurales, but the legal and regulatory framework has not yet been completed.[49] Sony VAIO VGN-FW160D battery
The constitution provides for decentralised government to compel local populations to play an active role in their own development.[50] To this end, the constitution declares that each administrative subdivisions be governed by elected local assemblies,[51] but no local elections have taken place,[52] HP Pavilion DV4-1220US battery
and communal elections scheduled for 2005 have been repeatedly postponed.
Geography
At 1,284,000 square kilometres (496,000 sq mi), Chad is the world's 21st-largest country. It is slightly smaller than Peru and slightly larger than South Africa.[53][54] Sony VAIO VPCW12S1E/P battery
Chad is in north central Africa, lying between latitudes 7° and 24°N, and 13° and24°E. Chad is bounded to the north by Libya, to the east by Sudan, to the west by Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon, and to the south by the Central African Republic. The country's capital is 1,060 kilometres (660 mi) from the nearest seaport Douala, Cameroon.[ HP Compaq 491278-001 battery
Due to this distance from the sea and the country's largely desert climate, Chad is sometimes referred to as the "Dead Heart of Africa".[56]
The dominant physical structure is a wide basin bounded to the north, east and south by mountain ranges such as the Ennedi Plateau in the north-east. HP Compaq 464119-143 battery
Lake Chad, after which the country is named, is the remains of an immense lake that occupied 330,000 square kilometres (130,000 sq mi) of theChad Basin 7,000 years ago.
[41] Although in the 21st century it covers only 17,806 square kilometres (6,875 sq mi), and its surface area is subject to heavy seasonal fluctuations,[57] HP Compaq Business Notebook 6530B battery
the lake is Africa's second largest wetland.[58] The Emi Koussi, a dormant volcano in the Tibesti Mountains that reaches 3,414 metres (11,201 ft) above sea level, is the highest point in Chad and the Sahara.
The region's tall grasses and extensive marshes make it favourable for birds, reptiles, and large mammals. Sony VAIO VGN-TZ285N/RC battery
Chad's major rivers—the Chari, Logone and their tributaries—flow through the southern savannas from the southeast into Lake Chad.[41][59]
Climate
Each year a tropical weather system known as the intertropical front crosses Chad from south to north, bringing a wet season that lasts from May to October in the south, HP 540 battery
and from June to September in the Sahel.[60] Variations in local rainfall create three major geographical zones. The Sahara lies in the country's northern third. Yearly precipitations throughout this belt are under 50 millimetres (2.0 in); only the occasional spontaneous palm grove survives, and the only ones to do so are south of the Tropic of Cancer. Sony VAIO VPCW119XJ/P battery
The Sahara gives way to a Sahelianbelt in Chad's centre; precipitation there varies from 300 to 600 mm (11.8 to 23.6 in) per year. In the Sahel, a steppe of thorny bushes (mostly acacias) gradually gives way to the south to East Sudanian savanna in Chad's Sudanese zone. Yearly rainfall in this belt is over 900 mm (35.4 in).[55] HP Pavilion DV8 battery
Economy and infrastructure
he United Nations' Human Development Index ranks Chad as the seventh poorest country in the world, with 80% of the population living below the poverty line. The GDP (Purchasing power parity) per capita was estimated as US$1,600 in 2008.[61] Sony VAIO VGN-AR95S battery
Chad is part of the Bank of Central African States, the Customs and Economic Union of Central Africa (UDEAC) and the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA).[62] Its currency is the CFA franc. Years of civil war have scared away foreign investors; Sony VAIO VPCW12S1E/P battery
those who left Chad between 1979 and 1982 have only recently begun to regain confidence in the country's future. In 2000 major direct foreign investment in the oil sector began, boosting the country's economic prospects.
Over 80% of Chad's population relies on subsistence farming and livestock raising for its livelihood.[53] HP Pavilion DV6000 battery
The crops grown and the locations of herds are determined by the local climate. In the southernmost 10 percent of the territory lies the nation's most fertile cropland, with rich yields of sorghum and millet. In the Sahel only the hardier varieties of millet grow, and these with much lower yields than in the south. HP Compaq KU532AA battery
On the other hand, the Sahel is ideal pastureland for large herds of commercial cattle and for goats, sheep, donkeys and horses. The Sahara's scattered oases support only some dates and legumes.[5] Sony VAIO VPCEB16FX/W battery
Before the development of oil industry, cotton dominated industry and the labour market and accounted for approximately 80% of export earnings.[63] Cotton remains a primary export, although exact figures are not available. Rehabilitation of Cotontchad, a major cotton company that suffered from a decline in world cotton prices, Sony VAIO VPCEB17FX/L battery
has been financed by France, the Netherlands, the European Union, and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The parastatal is now expected to be privatised.[28]
ExxonMobil leads a consortium of Chevron and Petronas that has invested HP Pavilion DV6-1240EO battery
$3.7 billion to develop oil reserves estimated at one billion barrels in southern Chad. Oil production began in 2003 with the completion of a pipeline (financed in part by the World Bank) that links the southern oilfields to terminals on the Atlantic coast of Cameroon. Sony VAIO VGN-NS110E/L battery
As a condition of its assistance, the World Bank insisted that 80% of oil revenues be spent on development projects. In January 2006 the World Bank suspended its loan programme when the Chadian government passed laws reducing this amount.[28][52] On July 14, 2006, Sony VAIO VGN-G2AAPS battery
the World Bank and Chad signed a memorandum of understanding under which the Government of Chad commits 70% of its spending to priority poverty reduction programmes.
Civil war crippled the development of transport infrastructure; in 1987, Chad had only 30 kilometres (19 mi) of paved roads. Sony VAIO VGN-NS70B/W battery
Successive road rehabilitation projects improved the network[65] to 550 kilometres (340 mi) by 2004.[66] Nevertheless, the road network is limited; roads are often unusable for several months of the year. With no railways of its own, Chad depends heavily on Cameroon's rail system for the transport of Chadian exports and imports to and from the seaport of Douala. Sony VGP-BPS21B battery
An international airport serves the capital and provides regular direct flights to Paris and several African cities. The telecommunication system is basic and expensive, with fixed telephone services provided by the state telephone company SotelTchad. Sony VAIO VGN-Z56GG/B battery
Only 14,000 fixed telephone lines serve all of Chad, one of the lowest telephone density rates in the world. Chad's energy sector has suffered from years of mismanagement by the parastatal Chad Water and Electric Society (STEE), which provides power for 15% of the capital's citizens and covers only 1.5% of the national population.[68] Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21Z battery
Most Chadians burn biomass fuels such as wood and animal manure for power.[69] Chad's cities face serious difficulties of municipal infrastructure; only 48% of urban residents have access to potable water and only 2% to basic sanitation.[41][70] HP Pavilion DV7-1120EO battery
The country's television audience is limited to N'Djamena. The only television station is the state-owned TeleTchad. Radio has a far greater reach, with 13 private radio stations. Newspapers are limited in quantity and distribution, and circulation figures are small due to transportation costs, HP Pavilion DV6-1210SA battery
low literacy rates, and poverty.[69][71] While the constitution defends liberty of expression, the government has regularly restricted this right, and at the end of 2006 began to enact a system of prior censorship on the media.[72] HP Mini 311-1110TU battery
Demographics
2005 estimates place Chad's population at 10,146,000; 25.8% live in urban areas and 74.8% in rural ones.[73] The country's population is young: an estimated 47.3% is under 15. The birth rate is estimated at 42.35 births per 1,000 people, the mortality rate at 16.69. Compaq Presario V2335US battery
The life expectancy is 47.2 years.
Chad's population is unevenly distributed. Density is 0.1 /km2 (0.26 /sq mi) in the Saharan Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti Region but 52.4 /km2(136 /sq mi) in the Logone Occidental Region. Sony VAIO VGN-FW11E battery
In the capital, it is even higher.[55] About half of the nation's population lives in the southern fifth of its territory, making this the most densely populated region.[74]
Urban life is virtually restricted to the capital, whose population is mostly engaged in commerce. HP Pavilion DV1635LA battery
The other major towns are Sarh,Moundou, Abéché and Doba, which are less urbanised but are growing rapidly and joining the capital as decisive factors in economic growth.[41] Since 2003, 230,000 Sudanese refugees have fled to eastern Chad from war-ridden Darfur. Sony VAIO VGN-FW11E battery
With the 172,000 Chadians[75]displaced by the civil war in the east, this has generated increased tensions among the region's communities.[76]
Polygamy is common, with 39% of women living in such unions. Sony VAIO VGN-NS10J/S battery
This is sanctioned by law, which automatically permits polygamy unless spouses specify that this is unacceptable upon marriage.[77] Although violence against women is prohibited, domestic violence is common.Female genital mutilation is prohibited, but the practice is widespread and deeply rooted in tradition; HP Pavilion DV6-1200SL battery
45% of Chadian women undergo the procedure, with the highest rates among Arabs, Hadjarai, and Ouaddaians (90% or more). Lower percentages were reported among the Sara(38%) and the Toubou (2%). Women lack equal opportunities in education and training, making it difficult for them to compete for the relatively few formal-sector jobs. Sony VAIO VPCEB12FX/T battery
Although property and inheritance laws based on the French code do not discriminate against women, local leaders adjudicate most inheritance cases in favour of men, according to traditional practice.
Chad has more than 200 distinct ethnic groups,[28] which create diverse social structures. HP HSTNN-LB31 battery
The colonial administration and independent governments have attempted to impose a national society, but for most Chadians the local or regional society remains the most important influence outside the immediate family. Nevertheless, Chad's peoples may be classified according to the geographical region in which they live. HP 593553-001 battery
In the south live sedentary people such as the Sara, the nation's main ethnic group, whose essential social unit is the lineage. In the Sahel sedentary peoples live side-by-side with nomadic ones, such as the Arabs, the country's second major ethnic group. The north is inhabited by nomads, mostly Toubous.[5][41] HP Pavilion DV5-1110EM battery
The nation's official business languages are French and Arabic, but over 100 languages and dialects are spoken. Due to the important role played by itinerant Arab traders and settled merchants in local communities, Chadian Arabic has become a lingua franca.[5] HP 436426-752 battery
Religion
Chad is a religiously diverse country. The 1993 census found that 54% of Chadians were Muslim, 20% Roman Catholic, 14% Protestant, 10% animist, and 3% atheist.[55]None of these religious traditions are monolithic. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560N24 battery
Animism includes a variety of ancestor and place-oriented religions whose expression is highly specific. Islam is expressed in diverse ways. Christianity arrived in Chad with the French and American missionaries; as with Chadian Islam, it syncretises aspects of pre-Christian religious beliefs.[5] HP Compaq 451086-661 battery
Muslims are largely concentrated in northern and eastern Chad, and animists and Christians live primarily in southern Chad and Guéra.[41] The constitution provides for a secular state and guarantees religious freedom; different religious communities generally co-exist without problems. Compaq Presario C740EM battery
The vast majority of Muslims in the country are adherents of a moderate branch of mystical Islam (Sufism) known locally as Tijaniyah, which incorporates some local African religious elements. A small minority of the country's Muslims hold more fundamentalist practices, which, in some cases, may be associated with Saudi-oriented Salafi-movement. HP 448007-001 battery
Roman Catholics represent the largest Christian denomination in the country. Most Protestants, including the Nigeria-based "Winners Chapel," are affiliated with various evangelical Christian groups. Members of the Bahá'í and Jehovah's Witnesses religious communities also are present in the country. HP Pavilion DV7 battery
Both faiths were introduced after independence in 1960 and therefore are considered to be "new" religions in the country.
Chad is home to foreign missionaries representing both Christian and Islamic groups. HP DV6-1120SA battery
Itinerant Muslim preachers primarily from Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, also visit. Saudi Arabian funding generally supports social and educational projects and extensive mosque construction.[79]
Culture
Because of its great variety of peoples and languages, Chad possesses a rich cultural heritage. HP DV6-1210SA battery
The Chadian government has actively promoted Chadian culture and national traditions by opening the Chad National Museum and the Chad Cultural Centre.[41] Six national holidays are observed throughout the year, and movable holidays include the Christian holiday of Easter Monday and the Muslim holidays of Eid ul-Fitr, Compaq CQ50 battery
Eid ul-Adha, and Eid Milad Nnabi.[68]
The music of Chad includes a number of unusual instruments such as the kinde, a type of bow harp; the kakaki, a long tin horn; and the hu hu, a stringed instrument that uses calabashes as loudspeakers. HP Pavilion DV8 battery
Other instruments and their combinations are more linked to specific ethnic groups: the Sara prefer whistles, balafones, harps and kodjo drums; and the Kanembucombine the sounds of drums with those of flute-like instruments.
The music group Chari Jazz formed in 1964 and initiated Chad's modern music scene. Sony VGP-BPS13 battery
Later, more renowned groups such as African Melody and International Challal attempted to mix modernity and tradition. Popular groups such as Tibesti have clung faster to their heritage by drawing on sai, a traditional style of music from southern Chad. The people of Chad have customarily disdained modern music. HP DV9700 battery
However, in 1995 greater interest has developed and fostered the distribution of CDs and audio cassettes featuring Chadian artists. Piracy and a lack of legal protections for artists' rights remain problems to further development of the Chadian music industry.[80][81] Compaq CQ35-100 battery
Millet is the staple food throughout Chad. It is used to make balls of paste that are dipped in sauces. In the north this dish is known as alysh; in the south, as biya. Fish is popular, which is generally prepared and sold either as salanga (sun-dried and lightly smoked Alestes and Hydrocynus) or as banda (smoked larger fish).[ Sony VGP-BPS11 battery
Carcaje is a popular sweet drink extracted from hibiscus leaves. Alcoholic beverages, though absent in the north, are popular in the south, where people drink millet beer, known as billi-billi when brewed from red millet and as coshate when from white millet.[80] HP Pavilion DV9085 Battery
As in other Sahelian countries, literature in Chad has suffered from an economic, political and spiritual drought that has affected its best known writers. Chadian authors have been forced to write from exile or expatriate status and have generated literature dominated by themes of political oppression and historical discourse. HP Pavilion DV9085EA Battery
Since 1962, 20 Chadian authors have written some 60 works of fiction. Among the most internationally renowned writers are Joseph Brahim Seïd, Baba Moustapha, Antoine Bangui and Koulsy Lamko. In 2003 Chad's sole literary critic, Ahmat Taboye, HP Pavilion DV9086 Battery
published his Anthologie de la littérature tchadienne to further knowledge of Chad's literature internationally and among youth and to make up for Chad's lack of publishing houses and promotional structure.
The development of a Chadian film industry has suffered from the devastations of civil war and from the lack of cinemas, of which there is only one in the whole country. HP Pavilion DV9086EA Battery
The first Chadian feature film, the docudrama Bye Bye Africa, was made in 1999 by Mahamat Saleh Haroun. His later film Abouna was critically acclaimed, and his Daratt won the Grand Special Jury Prize at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival. Issa Serge Coelo directed Chad's two other films, Daresalam and DP75: Tartina City. HP Pavilion DV9087 Battery
Football is Chad's most popular sport.[89] The country's national team is closely followed during international competitions,[80] and Chadian footballers have played for French teams. Basketball and freestyle wrestling are widely practiced, the latter in a form in which the wrestlers don traditional animal hides and cover themselves with dust. HP Pavilion DV9087EA Battery
Chad is a land-locked country in north central Africa measuring 1,284,000 square kilometers (495,755 sq mi), roughly three times the size of California. Most of its ethnically and linguistically diverse population lives in the south, HP Pavilion DV9088 Battery
with densities ranging from 54 persons per square kilometers in the Logone River basin to 0.1 persons in the northern B.E.T. desert region, which is larger than France. The capital city of N'Djaména, situated at the confluence of theChari and Logone Rivers, is cosmopolitan in nature, with a current population in excess of 700,000 people. HP Pavilion DV9088EA Battery
Chad has four bioclimatic zones. The northernmost Saharan zone averages less than 200 mm (7.9 in) of rainfall annually. The sparse human population is largely nomadic, with some livestock, mostly small ruminants and camels. HP Pavilion DV9089 Battery
The central Sahelian zone receives between 200 and 600 mm (7.9 and 23.6 in) rainfall and has vegetation ranging from grass/shrub steppe to thorny, open savanna. The southern zone, often referred to as the Sudanian zone, receives between 600 and 1,000 mm (23.6 and 39.4 in), with woodland savanna and deciduous forests for vegetation. HP Pavilion DV9089EA Battery
Rainfall in the Guinea zone, located in Chad's southwestern tip, ranges between 1,000 and 1,200 mm (39.4 and 47.2 in).
The country's topography is generally flat, with the elevation gradually rising as one moves north and east away fromLake Chad. The highest point in Chad is Emi Koussi, a mountain that rises 3,100 m (10,171 ft) in the northern Tibesti Mountains. HP Pavilion DV9090 Battery
The Ennedi Plateau and the Ouaddaï highlands in the east complete the image of a gradually sloping basin, which descends towards Lake Chad. There are also central highlands in the Guera region rising to 1,500 m (4,921 ft).
Lake Chad is the second largest lake in west Africa and is one of the most important wetlands on the continent.[1] HP Pavilion DV9090EA Battery
Home to 120 species of fish and at least that many species of birds, the lake has shrunk dramatically in the last four decades due to the increased water from an expanding population usage and low rainfall. Bordered by Chad, Niger,Nigeria, and Cameroon, HP Pavilion DV9091 Battery
Lake Chad currently covers only 1350 square kilometers, down from 25,000 square kilometers in 1963. The Chari and Logone Rivers, both of which originate in the Central African Republic and flow northward, provide most of the surface water entering Lake Chad. HP Pavilion DV9091EA Battery
Geographical setting
Located in north-central Africa, Chad stretches for about 1,800 kilometers from its northernmost point to its southern boundary. Except in the far northwest and south, where its borders converge, Chad's average width is about 800 kilometers. HP Pavilion DV9092 Battery
Its area of 1,284,000 square kilometers is roughly equal to the combined areas of Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. Chad's neighbors include Libya to the north, Niger and Nigeria to the west, Sudan to the east, Central African Republic to the south, and Cameroonto the southwest. HP Pavilion DV9092EA Battery
Chad exhibits two striking geographical characteristics. First, the country is landlocked. N'Djamena, the capital, is located more than 1,100 kilometers northeast of the Atlantic Ocean; Abéché, a major city in the east, lies 2,650 kilometers from the Red Sea; HP Pavilion DV9095EU Battery
and Faya-Largeau, a much smaller but strategically important center in the north, is in the middle of the Sahara Desert, 1,550 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea. These vast distances from the sea have had a profound impact on Chad's historical and contemporary development. HP Pavilion DV9095TX Battery
The second noteworthy characteristic is that the country borders on very different parts of the African continent: North Africa, with its Islamic culture and economic orientation toward the Mediterranean Basin; West Africa, with its diverse religions and cultures and its history of highly developed states and regional economies; HP Pavilion DV9095XX Battery
Northeast Africa, oriented toward the Nile Valley and Red Sea region; and Central or Equatorial Africa, some of whose people have retained classical African religions while others have adopted Christianity, and whose economies were part of the great Congo River system. HP Pavilion DV9096EA Battery
Although much of Chad's distinctiveness comes from this diversity of influences, since independence the diversity has also been an obstacle to the creation of a national identity.
Land
Although Chadian society is economically, socially, and culturally fragmented, the country's geography is unified by the Lake Chad Basin. HP Pavilion DV9096XX Battery
Once a huge inland sea (the Pale-Chadian Sea) whose only remnant is shallow Lake Chad, this vast depression extends west into Nigeria and Niger. The larger, northern portion of the basin is bounded within Chad by the Tibesti Mountains in the northwest, the Ennedi Plateau in the northeast, HP Pavilion DV9097EA Battery
the Ouaddaï Highlands in the east along the border with Sudan, the Guéra Massif in central Chad, and the Mandara Mountains along Chad's southwestern border with Cameroon. The smaller, southern part of the basin falls almost exclusively in Chad. HP Pavilion DV9097XX Battery
It is delimited in the north by the Guéra Massif, in the south by highlands 250 kilometers south of the border with Central African Republic, and in the southwest by the Mandara Mountains.
Lake Chad, located in the southwestern part of the basin at an altitude of 282 meters, HP Pavilion DV9098 Battery
surprisingly does not mark the basin's lowest point; instead, this is found in the Bodele and Djourab regions in the north-central and northeastern parts of the country, respectively. This oddity arises because the great stationary dunes (ergs) of the Kanem region create a dam, preventing lake waters from flowing to the basin's lowest point. HP Pavilion DV9098XX Battery
At various times in the past, and as late as the 1870s, the Bahr el Ghazal Depression, which extends from the northeastern part of the lake to the Djourab, acted as an overflow canal; since independence, climatic conditions have made overflows impossible. HP Pavilion DV9099EA Battery
North and northeast of Lake Chad, the basin extends for more than 800 kilometers, passing through regions characterized by great rolling dunes separated by very deep depressions. Although vegetation holds the dunes in place in the Kanem region, farther north they are bare and have a fluid, rippling character. HP Pavilion DV9099XX Battery
From its low point in the Djourab, the basin then rises to the plateaus and peaks of the Tibesti Mountains in the north. The summit of this formation—as well as the highest point in the Sahara Desert—is Emi Koussi, a dormant volcano that reaches 3,414 meters above sea level. HP Pavilion DV9076 Battery
The basin's northeastern limit is the Ennedi Plateau, whose limestone bed rises in steps etched by erosion. East of the lake, the basin rises gradually to the Ouaddaï Highlands, which mark Chad's eastern border and also divide the Chad and Nile watersheds. These highland areas are part of the East Saharan montane xeric woodlands ecoregion. HP Pavilion DV9076EA Battery
Southeast of Lake Chad, the regular contours of the terrain are broken by the Guéra Massif, which divides the basin into its northern and southern parts. South of the lake lie the floodplains of the Chari and Logone rivers, much of which are inundated during the rainy season. HP Pavilion DV9077 Battery
Farther south, the basin floor slopes upward, forming a series of low sand and clay plateaus, called koros, which eventually climb to 615 meters above sea level. South of the Chadian border, the koros divide the Lake Chad Basin from the Ubangi-Zaire river system. HP Pavilion DV9077EA Battery
Water systems
Permanent streams do not exist in northern or central Chad. Following infrequent rains in the Ennedi Plateau and Ouaddaï Highlands, water may flow through depressions called enneris and wadis. HP Pavilion DV9078 Battery
Often the result of flash floods, such streams usually dry out within a few days as the remaining puddles seep into the sandy clay soil. The most important of these streams is the Batha, which in the rainy season carries water west from the Ouaddaï Highlands and the Guéra Massif to Lake Fitri. HP Pavilion DV9078EA Battery
Chad's major rivers are the Chari and the Logone and their tributaries, which flow from the southeast into Lake Chad. Both river systems rise in the highlands of Central African Republic and Cameroon, regions that receive more than 1,250 millimeters of rainfall annually. HP Pavilion DV9079 Battery
Fed by rivers of Central African Republic, as well as by the Bahr Salamat, Bahr Aouk, and Bahr Sara rivers of southeastern Chad, the Chari River is about 1,200 kilometers long. From its origins near the city of Sarh, the middle course of the Chari makes its way through swampy terrain; the lower Chari is joined by the Logone River near N'Djamena. HP Pavilion DV9079EA Battery
The Chari's volume varies greatly, from 17 cubic meters per second during the dry season to 340 cubic meters per second during the wettest part of the year.
The Logone River is formed by tributaries flowing from Cameroon and Central African Republic. HP Pavilion DV9080 Battery
Both shorter and smaller in volume than the Chari, it flows northeast for 960 kilometers; its volume ranges from five to eighty-five cubic meters per second. At N'Djamena the Logone empties into the Chari, and the combined rivers flow together for thirty kilometers through a large delta and into Lake Chad. HP Pavilion DV9080EA Battery
At the end of the rainy season in the fall, the river overflows its banks and creates a huge floodplain in the delta.
The seventh largest lake in the world (and the fourth largest in Africa), Lake Chad is located in the sahelian zone, a region just south of the Sahara Desert. HP Pavilion DV9081 Battery
The Chari River contributes 95 percent of Lake Chad's water, an average annual volume of 40 billion cubic meters, 95% of which is lost to evaporation. The size of the lake is determined by rains in the southern highlands bordering the basin and by temperatures in the Sahel. HP Pavilion DV9081EA Battery
Fluctuations in both cause the lake to change dramatically in size, from 9,800 square kilometers in the dry season to 25,500 at the end of the rainy season. Lake Chad also changes greatly in size from one year to another. In 1870 its maximum area was 28,000 square kilometers. The measurement dropped to 12,700 in 1908. HP Pavilion DV9082 Battery
In the 1940s and 1950s, the lake remained small, but it grew again to 26,000 square kilometers in 1963. The droughts of the late 1960s, early 1970s, and mid-1980s caused Lake Chad to shrink once again, however. The only other lakes of importance in Chad are Lake Fitri, in Batha Prefecture, and Lake Iro, in the marshy southeast. HP Pavilion DV9082EA Battery
Climate
The Lake Chad Basin embraces a great range of tropical climates from north to south, although most of these climates tend to be dry. Apart from the far north, most regions are characterized by a cycle of alternating rainy and dry seasons. HP Pavilion DV9083 Battery
In any given year, the duration of each season is determined largely by the positions of two great air masses—a maritime mass over the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest and a much drier continental mass. During the rainy season, winds from the southwest push the moister maritime system north over the African continent where it meets and slips under the continental mass along a front called the "intertropical convergence zone". HP Pavilion DV9083EA Battery
At the height of the rainy season, the front may reach as far as Kanem Prefecture. By the middle of the dry season, the intertropical convergence zone moves south of Chad, taking the rain with it. This weather system contributes to the formation of three major regions of climate and vegetation. HP Pavilion DV9084 Battery
Saharan region
The Saharan region covers roughly the northern third of the country, including Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti Prefecture along with the northern parts of Kanem, Batha, and Biltine prefectures. HP Pavilion DV9084EA Battery
Much of this area receives only traces of rain during the entire year; at Faya Largeau, for example, annual rainfall averages less than 30 millimeters (1.18 in). Scattered small oases and occasional wells provide water for a few date palms or small plots of millet and garden crops. In much of the north, HP Pavilion DV9065EA Battery
the average daily maximum temperature is about 32 °C (89.6 °F) during January, the coolest month of the year, and about 45 °C (113 °F) during May, the hottest month. On occasion, strong winds from the northeast produce violent sandstorms. In northern Biltine Prefecture, a region called the Mortcha plays a major role in animal husbandry. HP Pavilion DV9066 Battery
Dry for nine months of the year, it receives 350 millimeters (13.8 in) or more of rain, mostly during July and August. A carpet of green springs from the desert during this brief wet season, attracting herders from throughout the region who come to pasture their cattle and camels. HP Pavilion DV9066EA Battery
Because very few wells and springs have water throughout the year, the herders leave with the end of the rains, turning over the land to the antelopes, gazelles, and ostriches that can survive with little groundwater.
Sahelian region
The semiarid sahelian zone, or Sahel, HP Pavilion DV9067 Battery
forms a belt about 500 kilometers (311 mi) wide that runs from Lac and Chari-Baguirmi prefectures eastward through Guéra, Ouaddaï, and northern Salamat prefectures to the Sudanese frontier. The climate in this transition zone between the desert and the southern soudanian zone is divided into a rainy season (from June to early September) and a dry period (from October to May). HP Pavilion DV9067EA Battery
In the northern Sahel, thorny shrubs and acacia trees grow wild, while date palms, cereals, and garden crops are raised in scattered oases. Outside these settlements, nomads tend their flocks during the rainy season, moving southward as forage and surface water disappear with the onset of the dry part of the year. HP Pavilion DV9068 Battery
The central Sahel is characterized by drought-resistant grasses and small woods. Rainfall is more abundant there than in the Saharan region. For example, N'Djamena records a maximum annual average rainfall of 580 millimeters (22.8 in), while Ouaddaï Prefecture receives just a bit less. HP Pavilion DV9068EA Battery
During the hot season, in April and May, maximum temperatures frequently rise above 40 °C (104 °F). In the southern part of the Sahel, rainfall is sufficient to permit crop production on unirrigated land, and millet and sorghum are grown. Agriculture is also common in the marshlands east of Lake Chad and near swamps or wells. HP Pavilion DV9069 Battery
Many farmers in the region combine subsistence agriculture with the raising of cattle, sheep, goats, and poultry.
Soudanian region
The humid soudanian zone includes the southern prefectures of Mayo-Kebbi, Tandjilé, Logone Occidental, Logone Oriental, Moyen-Chari, and southern Salamat. HP Pavilion DV9069EA Battery
Between April and October, the rainy season brings between 750 and 1,250 millimeters (29.5 and 49.2 in) of precipitation. Temperatures are high throughout the year. Daytime readings in Moundou, the major city in the southwest, range from 27 °C (80.6 °F) in the middle of the cool season in January to about 40 °C (104 °F) in the hot months of March, April, and May. HP Pavilion DV9071 Battery
The soudanian region is predominantly East Sudanian savanna, or plains covered with a mixture of tropical or subtropical grasses and woodlands. The growth is lush during the rainy season but turns brown and dormant during the five-month dry season between November and March. HP Pavilion DV9071EA Battery
Over a large part of the region, however, natural vegetation has yielded to agriculture.
The 1993 census found that 53% of Chadians were Muslim, 20% Roman Catholic, 14% Protestant, 10% animist and 3% atheist.[1]Christianity arrived in Chad with the French.[2] HP Pavilion DV9072 Battery
Muslims are largely concentrated in northern and eastern Chad, and animists and Christians live primarily in southern Chad and Guéra.[3] The constitution provides for a secular state and guarantees religious freedom.[4] The separation of religion from social structure in Chad represents a false dichotomy, for they are perceived as two sides of the same coin. HP Pavilion DV9072EA Battery
Three religious traditions coexist in Chad—classical African religions, Islam, and Christianity. The first tradition includes a variety of ancestor and/or place-oriented religions whose expression is highly specific.
Islam, although characterized by an orthodox set of beliefs and observances, is expressed in diverse ways. HP Pavilion DV9073 Battery
Christianity arrived in Chad with the arrival of Europeans. Its followers are divided into Roman Catholics and Protestants (including several denominations). As with Chadian Islam, Chadian Christianity retains aspects of pre-Christian religious belief. The number of followers of each tradition in Chad is unknown. HP Pavilion DV9073EA Battery
Estimates made in 1962 suggested that 35 percent of Chadians practiced classical African religions, 55 percent were Muslims and 10 percent were Christians. In the 1970s and 1980s, this distribution undoubtedly changed. Observers report that Islam has spread among the Hajerai and among other non-Muslim populations of the Saharan and sahelian zones. HP Pavilion DV9074CL Battery
The proportion of Muslims may have fallen because the birthrate among the followers of classical religions and Christians in southern Chad is thought to be higher than that among Muslims.
African religions
Classical African religions regard the world as a product of a complex system of relationships among people, HP Pavilion DV9074EA Battery
living and dead, and animals, plants, and natural and supernatural phenomena. This religious tradition is often called "animism" because of its central premise that all things are "animated" by life forces. The relationships among all things are ordered and often hierarchical. HP Pavilion DV9075EA Battery
Human societies reflect this order, and human survival and success require that it be maintained. Antisocial acts or bad luck signal that this harmony has been upset, leading to efforts to restore it through ritual acts, such as prayers, sacrifices, libations, communions, dances, and symbolic struggles. HP Pavilion DV9075EU Battery
Such intervention, it is believed, helps ward off the chaos that adversely affects people and their souls, families and communities, and crops and harvests.
Ancestors play an important role in Chadian classical religions. They are thought to span the gap between the supernatural and natural worlds. HP Pavilion DV9075LA Battery
They connect these two worlds specifically by linking living lineage members with their earliest forebears. Because of their proximity, and because they once walked among the living, ancestors are prone to intervene in daily affairs. HP Pavilion DV9075XX Battery
This intervention is particularly likely in the case of the recently deceased, who are thought to spend weeks or months in limbo between the living and the dead. Many religious observances include special rituals to propitiate these spirits, encourage them to take their leave with serenity, and restore the social order their deaths have disrupted. HP Pavilion DV9051 Battery
Spirits are also numerous. These invisible beings inhabit a parallel world and sometimes reside in particular places or are associated with particular natural phenomena. Among the Mbaye, a Sara subgroup, water and lightning spirits are thought to bring violent death and influence other spirits to intervene in daily life. HP Pavilion DV9051EA Battery
The sun spirit, capable of rendering service or causing harm, also must be propitiated. Spirits may live in family groups with spouses and children. They are also capable of taking human, animal, or plant forms when they appear among the living. The supernatural powers that control natural events are also of major concern. HP Pavilion DV9052 Battery
Among farming peoples, rituals to propitiate such powers are associated with the beginning and end of the agricultural cycle. Among the Sara, the new year begins with the appearance of the first new moon following the harvest. The next day, people hunt with nets and fire, offering the catch to ancestors. HP Pavilion DV9052EA Battery
Libations are offered to ancestors, and the first meal from the new harvest is consumed.
Among the more centralized societies of Chad, the ruler frequently is associated with divine power. Poised at the apex of society, he or (more rarely) she is responsible for good relations with the supernatural forces that sanction and maintain the social order. HP Pavilion DV9053 Battery
For example, among the Moundang, the gon lere of Léré is responsible for relations with the sky spirits. And among the Sara Madjingay, the mbang (chief) of the village of Bédaya controls religious rituals that preserve and renew the social order. Even after the coming of Islam, the symbols of such authority reinforced the rulers of nominally Islamic states such as Wadai, Kanem-Borno, and Bagirmi. HP Pavilion DV9053EA Battery
Finally, most classical African religions involve belief in a supreme being who created the world and its inhabitants but who then retired from active intervention in human affairs. As a result, shrines to a high god are uncommon, and people tend to appeal to the lesser spirits; HP Pavilion DV9054 Battery
yet the notion of a supreme being may have helped the spread of Christianity. When missionaries arrived in southern Chad, they often used the local name of this high god to refer to the Christian supreme being. Thus, although a much more interventionist spirit, the Christian god was recognizable to the people. HP Pavilion DV9054EA Battery
This recognition probably facilitated conversion, but it may also have ironically encouraged syncretism (the mixing of religious traditions), a practice disturbing to many missionaries and to Protestants in particular. Followers of classical African religions would probably not perceive any necessary contradiction between accepting the Christian god and continuing to believe in the spirits just described. HP Pavilion DV9055 Battery
Because order is thought to be the natural, desirable state, disorder is not happenstance. Classical African religions devote considerable energy to the maintenance of order and the determination of who or what is responsible for disorder. In the case of illness, for example, HP Pavilion DV9055EA Battery
it is of the greatest importance to ascertain which spirit or which person is responsible for undermining the natural order; only then is it possible to prescribe a remedy. In such circumstances, people frequently take their cases to ritual specialists, who divine the threats to harmony and recommend appropriate action. HP Pavilion DV9056 Battery
Such specialists share their knowledge only with peers. Indeed, they themselves have probably acquired such knowledge incrementally as they made their way through elaborate apprenticeships.
Although classical African religions provide institutionalized ways of maintaining or restoring community solidarity, HP Pavilion DV9056EA Battery
they also allow individuals to influence the cosmic order to advance their own interests. Magic and sorcery both serve this end. From society's standpoint, magic is positive or neutral. On the one hand, magicians try to influence life forces to alter the physical world, perhaps to bring good fortune or a return to health. HP Pavilion DV9057 Battery
Sorcerers, on the other hand, are antisocial, using sorcery (or "black magic") to control or consume the vital force of others. Unlike magicians, whose identity is generally known, sorcerers hide their supernatural powers, practicing their nefarious rites in secret. When misfortune occurs, people often suspect that sorcery is at the root of their troubles. HP Pavilion DV9057EA Battery
They seek counsel from diviners or magicians to identify the responsible party and ways to rectify the situation; if the disruption is deemed to threaten everyone, leaders may act on behalf of the community at large. If discovered, sorcerers are punished. HP Pavilion DV9058 Battery
The survival of any society requires that knowledge be passed from one generation to another. In many Chadian societies, this transmission is marked by ritual. Knowledge of the world and its forces is limited to adults; among the predominantly patrilineal societies of Chad, it is further limited to men in particular. HP Pavilion DV9058EA Battery
Rituals often mark the transition from childhood to adulthood. However, they actively "transform" children into adults, teaching them what adults must know to assume societal responsibilities.
Although such rites differ among societies, the Sara yondo may serve as a model of male initiation ceremonies found in Chad. HP Pavilion DV9059 Battery
The yondo takes place at a limited number of sites every six or seven years. Boys from different villages, usually accompanied by an elder, gather for the rites, which, before the advent of Western education with its nine-month academic calendar, lasted several months. In recent decades, the yondo has been limited to several weeks between academic years. HP Pavilion DV9059EA Battery
The yondo and its counterparts among other Chadian societies reinforce male bonds and male authority. Women are not allowed to witness the rite. Their initiated sons and brothers no longer eat with them and go to live in separate houses. Although rites also mark the transition to womanhood in many Chadian societies, such ceremonies are much shorter. HP Pavilion DV9060EA Battery
Rather than encouraging girls to participate in the larger society, they stress household responsibilities and deference to male authority.
Islam
Islam became a dynamic political and military force in the Middle East in the decades immediately following Muhammad's death. HP Pavilion DV9060US Battery
By the late seventh century A.D., Muslims reached North Africa and moved south into the desert. Although it is difficult to date the arrival and spread of Islam in Chad, by the time Arab migrants began arriving from the east in the fourteenth century, the faith was already widespread. HP Pavilion DV9061 Battery
Instead of being the product of conquest or the imposition of political power, Islam gradually spread in Chad, and beyond its political frontiers.
Islam in Chad has adapted to its local context in many ways. HP Pavilion DV9061EA Battery
For one thing, despite the presence of a large number of Arabs, Arabic is not the maternal language of the majority of Chadian Muslims. As a result, although many Chadian Muslims have attended Quranic schools, they often have learned to recite Quranic verses without understanding their meaning. HP Pavilion DV9062 Battery
Hence, perhaps even more than among those who understand Arabic, the recitation of verse has taken on a mystical character among Chadian Muslims. Moreover, Islam in Chad was not particularly influenced by the great mystical movements of the Islamic Middle Ages or the fundamentalist upheavals that affected the faith in the Middle East, West Africa, and Sudan. HP Pavilion DV9062EA Battery
Beginning in the Middle East in the thirteenth century, Muslim mystics and da'is sought to complement the intellectual comprehension of Islam with direct religious experience through prayer, contemplation, and action. The followers of these da'is founded brotherhoods, which institutionalized their teachers' interpretations of the faith. HP Pavilion DV9064 Battery
Such organizations stimulated the spread of Islam and also provided opportunities for joint action, for the most part, which was not the case in Chad, where only two brotherhoods exist. Perhaps as a result of prolonged contact with West African Muslim traders and pilgrims, HP Pavilion DV9064EA Battery
most Chadian Muslims identify with the Tijaniyya order, but the brotherhood has not served as a rallying point for unified action. Similarly, the Sanusiyya, a brotherhood founded in Libya in the mid-nineteenth century, enjoyed substantial economic and political influence in the Lake Chad Basin around 1900. HP Pavilion DV9065 Battery
Despite French fears of an Islamic revival movement led by "Sanusi fanatics," Chadian adherents, limited to the Awlad Sulayman Arabs and the Toubou of eastern Tibesti, have never been numerous. HP Pavilion DV9042 Battery
Chapelle writes that even though Chadian Islam adheres to the Maliki legal school (which, like the other three accepted schools of Islamic jurisprudence, is based on an extensive legal literature), most Islamic education relies solely on the Quran. Higher Islamic education in Chad is all but nonexistent; HP Pavilion DV9042EA Battery
thus, serious Islamic students and scholars must go abroad. Popular destinations include Khartoum and Cairo, where numerous Chadians attend Al Azhar, the most renowned university in the Islamic world.
Chadian observance of the five pillars of the faith differs somewhat from the orthodox tradition. HP Pavilion DV9043 Battery
For example, public and communal prayer occurs more often than the prescribed one time each week but often does not take place in a mosque. Moreover, Chadian Muslims probably make the pilgrimage less often than, for example, theirHausa counterparts in northern Nigeria. HP Pavilion DV9043EA Battery
As for the Ramadan fast, the most fervent Muslims in Chad refuse to swallow their saliva during the day, a particularly stern interpretation of the injunction against eating or drinking between sunrise and sunset.
Christianity
Christianity arrived in Chad in the twentieth century, shortly after the colonial conquest. HP Pavilion DV9044 Battery
Contrary to the dominant pattern in some other parts of Africa, however, where the colonial powers encouraged the spread of the faith, the earliest French officials in Chad advised against it. This recommendation, however, probably reflected European paternalism and favoritism toward Islam rather than a display of liberalism. HP Pavilion DV9044EA Battery
In any case, the French military administration followed such counsel for the first two decades of the century, the time it took to conquer the new colony and establish control over its people. Following World War I, official opposition to Christianity softened, and the government tolerated but did not sponsor missionaries. HP Pavilion DV9045 Battery
Since World War II, Chadian Christians have had a far greater influence on Chadian life than their limited numbers suggest. The missions spread the ideology of Westernization—the notion that progress depended on following European models of development. Even more specifically, HP Pavilion DV9045EA Battery
Roman Catholic mission education spread the French language. Even though Islam spread more quickly and more widely than Christianity, Christians controlled the government that inherited power from the French. These leaders imparted a Western orientation that continued to dominate in the 1980s. HP Pavilion DV9046 Battery
Protestantism
The Protestants came to southern Chad in the 1920s. American Baptists were the first, but missionaries of other denominations and nationalities soon followed. Many of the American missions were northern offshoots of missionary networks founded farther south in the HP Pavilion DV9046EA Battery
Ubangi-Shari colony (now Central African Republic) of French Equatorial Africa (Afrique Equatoriale Française—AEF; ses Glossary). The organizational ties between the missions in southern Chad and Ubangi-Chari were strengthened by France's decision in 1925 to transfer Logone Occidental, HP Pavilion DV9047 Battery
Tandjilé, Logone Oriental, and Moyen-Chari prefectures to Ubangi-Chari, where they remained until another administrative shuffle restored them to Chad in 1932.
These early Protestant establishments looked to their own churches for material resources and to their own countries for diplomatic support. HP Pavilion DV9047EA Battery
Such independence allowed them to maintain a distance from the French colonial administration. In addition, the missionaries arrived with their wives and children, and they often spent their entire lives in the region. Some of the missionaries who arrived at that time had grown up with missionary parents in missions founded earlier in the French colonies to the south. HP Pavilion DV9048 Battery
Some missionary children from this era later founded missions of their own. Many remained after independence, leaving only in the early and or mid-1970s when Tombalbaye's authenticité movement forced their departure (see Fall of the Tombalbaye Government, ch. 1). HP Pavilion DV9048EA Battery
The puritanical message preached by many Protestant missionaries undermined the appeal of the faith. Rather than allowing a local Christian tradition to develop, the missionaries preached a fundamentalist doctrine native to parts of the United States. They inveighed against dancing, alcohol, and local customs, which they considered "superstitions." HP Pavilion DV9049 Battery
New converts found it almost impossible to observe Protestant teachings and remain within their communities. In the early years, Chadian Protestants often left their villages and settled around the missions. But abandoning village and family was a sacrifice that most people were reluctant to make. HP Pavilion DV9049EA Battery
Although language and doctrine probably discouraged conversion, the educational and medical projects of the Protestant missions probably attracted people. The missionaries set up schools, clinics, and hospitals long before the colonial administration did. HP Pavilion DV9050 Battery
In fact, the mission schools produced the first Western-educated Chadians in the 1940s and 1950s. In general, the Protestant missionary effort in southern Chad has enjoyed some success. In 1980, after a half-century of evangelization, Protestants in southern Chad numbered about 80,000. HP Pavilion DV9050EA Battery
From bases in the south, Protestants founded missions in other parts of Chad. For the most part, they avoided settling among Muslims, who were not responsive to their message. In the colonial capital of Fort-Lamy (present-day's N'Djamena), the missions attracted followers among resident southerners. HP Pavilion DV9033 Battery
The missionaries also proselytized among the non-Muslim populations of Guéra, Ouaddaï, and Biltine prefectures. Although Christianity appealed to some in the capital (there were estimated to be 18,000 Christians in N'Djamena in 1980), efforts in other parts of the Sahel were relatively unsuccessful. HP Pavilion DV9033CL Battery
In the late 1980s, the future of the Protestant missions in Chad remained unclear. As noted, many Protestant missionaries were forced to leave the country during the cultural revolution in the early and mid-1970s. Outside the south, other missions have been caught in the cross fire of warring factions. HP Pavilion DV9035EA Battery
Rebel forces have pillaged mission stations, and the government has accused the missionaries of complicity with the opposition.
Roman Catholicism
The Roman Catholic missions came to Chad later than their Protestant counterparts. HP Pavilion DV9035NR Battery
Isolated efforts began as early as 1929 when The Holy Ghost Fathers from Bangui founded a mission at Kou, near Moundou in Logone Occidental Prefecture. In 1934, in the midst of the sleeping sickness epidemic, they abandoned Kou for Doba in Logone Oriental Prefecture. HP Pavilion DV9036 Battery
Other priests from Ubangi-Shari and Cameroon opened missions in Kélo and Sarh in 1935 and 1939, respectively.
In 1946 these autonomous missions gave way to an institutionalized Roman Catholic presence. This late date had more to do with European politics than with events in Chad. HP Pavilion DV9036EA Battery
Earlier in the century, the Vatican had designated the Chad region to be part of the Italian vicarate of Khartoum. Rather than risk the implantation of Italian missionaries during the era of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, the French administration discouraged all Roman Catholic missionary activity. HP Pavilion DV9037 Battery
For its part, the Vatican adopted the same tactic, not wishing to upset the Italian regime by transferring jurisdiction of the Chad region to the French. As a consequence of their defeat in World War II, however, the Italians lost their African colonies. This loss cleared the way for a French Roman Catholic presence in Chad, which a decree from Rome formalized on March 22, 1946. HP Pavilion DV9037EA Battery
This decree set up three religious jurisdictions that eventually became four bishoprics. The first, administered by the Jesuits, had its seat in N'Djamena. Although its jurisdiction included the eight prefectures in the northern and eastern parts of the country, almost all the Roman Catholics in sahelian and Saharan Chad lived in the capital. HP Pavilion DV9038 Battery
The diocese of N'Djamena also served as the archdiocese of all Chad. The second bishopric, at Sarh, also was delegated to the Jesuits. Its region included Salamat and Moyen-Chari prefectures. The third and fourth jurisdictions had their headquarters in Pala and Moundou and were delegated to the Oblats de Marie and Capuchin orders. HP Pavilion DV9038EA Battery
The Pala bishopric served Mayo-Kebbi Prefecture, while the bishopric of Moundou was responsible for missions in Logone Occidental and Logone Oriental prefectures. By far the most important jurisdiction in 1970, Pala included 116,000 of Chad's 160,000 Catholics.
The relatively slow progress of the Roman Catholic Church in Chad has several causes. HP Pavilion DV9039 Battery
Although Roman Catholicism has been much more open to local cultures than Protestantism, the doctrine of celibacy probably has deterred candidates for the priesthood. Insistence on monogamy also has undoubtedly made the faith less attractive to some potential converts, particularly wealthy older men able to afford more than one wife. HP Pavilion DV9039EA Battery
The social works of the Roman Catholic Church have made it an important institution in Chad. Like their Protestant counterparts, the Roman Catholic missions have a history of social service. In the 1970s, along with priests, the staffs of most establishments included brothers and nuns who worked in the areas of health, education, and development. HP Pavilion DV9040EA Battery
Many of the nuns were trained medical professionals who served on the staffs of government hospitals and clinics. It was estimated that 20,000 Chadians attended Roman Catholic schools in 1980. Adult literacy classes also reached beyond the traditional school-aged population. HP Pavilion DV9040EU Battery
In the area of development, as early as the 1950s Roman Catholic missions in southern Chad set up rural development centers whose clientele included non-Christians as well as Christians. HP Pavilion DV9040TX Battery,HP Pavilion DV9040US Battery,HP Pavilion DV9041 Battery,HP Pavilion DV9041EA Battery, HP Pavilion DV9030US Battery
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