16 | The Lion King
Country Focus
Chad
the hope of life
T
he name Chad is derived from
the designation of the great Lake
Chad, originally called Kuri by the
sixteenth century author and Imam; Ibn
Fortu. Fondly referred to as ‘Toumai’
which means “hope of life” in the local
Dazaga language, Chad is the host
country of Sahelanthropus tchadensis,
an extinct hominine species that existed
about 7 million years ago. It is believed
to be the oldest known human ancestor
after the split of the human line from the
chimpanzee.
Chad has a northern part inhabited by
an Islamic (and partly Arabic-speaking)
population of pastoralist semi desert
peoples, and a Southern part of Chris-
tians and traditional religious people,
engaged in mixed agriculture, crafts,
and trade.
Postcolonial Chad has been marked
by deep ethno-regional divisions with
a violent history of struggle for power
among the various elites that have
alternative visions of the state and their
place within it. Chad, part of France's
African holdings until 1960, endured
three decades of civil warfare, as well
as invasions by Libya, before peace
was finally restored in 1990. The govern-
ment eventually drafted a democratic
constitution and held presidential elec-
tions in 1996 and 2001.
In 1998, a rebellion broke out in North-
ern Chad, which sporadically flared
up despite several peace agreements
between the government and the
insurgents. In 2005, new rebel groups
emerged in Western Sudan and made
probing attacks into Eastern Chad
despite signing peace agreements in
December 2006 and October 2007.
Photo: Franck Zecchin/flickr
