Chad
The Republic of Chad is a large landlocked country in west central Africa. Formerly a part of French Equatorial Africa, Chad became independent in 1960. Since then civil war and prolonged droughts have devastated much of the country, creating serious problems, including severe food shortages. Foreign countries, especially France, have helped in several ways, one of which is preventing Libya from expanding into Chad from the north. Internal development has slowed, and Chad has become increasingly dependent on imports of food, fuel, and other products.
Land and People
Chad is a country of 495,800 square miles (1,284,000 square kilometers). In the Saharan territories of the north, the rugged granite uplands of the Tibesti mountains have extinct volcanic peaks that reach 11,204 feet (3,415 meters). The Ennedi and Wadai plateaus along the eastern border with Sudan have peaks that reach 1,969 feet (600 meters). To the south and west, the land slopes to the featureless plain of the Bodélé depression and the Lake Chad basin. Intermittent wadis, or streams, flow into the Bodélé, and Lake Chad sometimes overflows into the depression during the rainy season. The southern part of Chad is in the watershed of, or area that drains into, the Shari and Congo, or Zaire, rivers.
The northern two thirds of the country is in the hot arid Sahara desert. Most areas receive less than one inch (2.5 centimeters) of rainfall annually. On the southern edge of the Sahara is the Sahel, a band of hot, semiarid steppe, or treeless plain, that extends from the Atlantic coast across central Africa. Here rainfall averages 10 to 20 inches (25 to 50 centimeters) annually and long droughts followed by wetter periods are common. Droughts occur in the winter, and temperatures are higher than 32° F (0° C) throughout the year. In the southern part, an area of grassland and light woods with scrub underbrush, rainfall averages 20 to 40 inches (50 to 100 centimeters) annually. The average annual temperature at N'Djamena, the capital, is 82° F (28° C).
The Sahel is a fragile ecological zone that has many prolonged droughts. The most recent were from 1968 to 1972 and from 1978 to 1982. Because of increased demand for food, marginal lands have been cultivated, and livestock are grazed on smaller areas of poorer pasture. Extensive gathering of firewood adds to the deterioration. Widespread famine in the north has become common.
Population densities range from 88 persons per square mile (34 per square kilometer) in the south to less than one per square mile in the Saharan north. There are many ethnic groups that share common languages and cultures. Nationally, the main regional cultural differences are between the nomadic stock herders in the north and African farmers in the south. About 10 percent of the people live in cities and towns of 20,000 or more.
The official language is French. The majority of the people, however, use other languages in their daily lives. Arabic, the language of Islam and commerce in northern Chad, is superimposed on local Nilo-Saharan languages. In southern Chad the Sara is the largest ethnic group among Central Sudanic speakers, with about 1 million people. An estimated 8 percent of the country's adult population can read, and 43 percent of 10-year-old children attend school. Education is most widespread among the Sara. The University of Chad, which opened in 1972, is in N'Djamena.
About 45 percent of the people are Muslims, most living in northern Chad. Christians, primarily Roman Catholic, account for about 33 percent of the population. Most live in towns and cities in the south and include many of the educated Sara elite. Many farmers in the south are animists. Although Chad is not a religious state, its peoples' economic, political, and social differences are closely tied to their religions.
Economy
About two thirds of the people depend on subsistence agriculture for a living. The principal food crops are cassavas, or manioc, sugarcane, millet, and yams. Peanuts (groundnuts), pulses, rice, sweet potatoes, dates, and corn (maize) are also grown. About 10 percent of the economically active population raise cattle, sheep, and goats. Since the early 1970s, the prolonged droughts have resulted in annual food deficits. Food imports and international aid are meeting some of the need.
Raw cotton is the primary export, accounting for more than 90 percent of all exports. A government-supported monopoly purchases, gins, and markets cotton. Meat and live cattle are the second most important exports. Most go to neighboring Nigeria and Congo. Gum arabic is collected in the Sahel.
Chad has the least industry in equatorial Africa. Cotton ginning, sugar refining, and textiles are the primary industries. Chad has few mineral resources, though uranium, tungsten, cassiterite, bauxite, and gold are thought to exist in the north. In the early 1970s petroleum resources were sufficiently developed to supply 80 percent of Chad's own needs. Production stopped in 1980, however, and petroleum is imported from Nigeria. Chemicals, machinery, and transport equipment as well as textiles and clothing are other imports.
N'Djamena is the capital and largest city, with a population of about 500,000. Moundou, Sarh, and Abéché are regional administrative and commercial centers. Transportation within the country is primarily by road. A primitive road suitable for motor traffic links Chad with Algeria and Libya. Chad has no railways, and water transportation is limited to small craft on the Shari and Logone during the wet season. The N'Djamena international airport links Chad with neighboring African countries and with Europe.
History and Government
The Lake Chad region has been settled since about 500 BC. North African Berbers controlled trans-Saharan commerce from the 8th to the 11th century. Then Arabs gained control of trade and gradually gained political control and converted local Africans to Islam. In the 18th century the Ottoman Empire claimed Chad. Later when European powers split up control of Africa, France gained control of Chad. In 1910 Chad was made part of French Equatorial Africa, and in 1946 it became a French overseas territory. The territory gained its independence in 1960.
According to the 1989 constitution, Chad is governed by a president, who is head of state, and a 123-member National Assembly elected by universal suffrage. There are no political parties but groups aligned with the Islamic north and with Sara tribes in the south have attempted to gain control of the government. Civil war broke out in the mid-1960s when two guerrilla groups struggled to overthrow the government and create closer ties with Arab North Africa. In the late 1970s Libya lent its support to one of these groups and attempted to annex part of Chad. Foreign intervention halted Libyan expansion and contained the civil war in Chad, but conflict with Libya continued until 1988, when diplomatic relations between the two countries were restored. In 1990 Gen. Idriss Deby overthrew President Hissen Habré, suspended the constitution, and dissolved the legislature. In March 1991 Deby established a new government according to the terms of a national charter that had been adopted on February 28.
Population (1991 estimate), 5,823,000.
Author Credit:
Gary L. Fowler