Chad (French: Tchad; Arabic: تشاد‎), officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west. Due to its distance from the sea and its largely desert climate, the country is sometimes referred to as the "Dead Heart of Africa". Chad is divided into three major geographical regions: a desert zone in the north, an arid Sahelian belt in the centre and a more fertile Sudanese savanna zone in the south. 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, the capital, is the largest city. Chad is home to over 200 different ethnic and linguistic groups. Arabic and French are the official languages. Islam is the most widely practiced religion.

Beginning in the 7th millennium BC, human populations moved into the Chadian basin in great numbers. 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. 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. However, the rebel commanders fought amongst themselves until Hissène Habré defeated his rivals. He was overthrown in 1990 by his general Idriss Déby. Recently, 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.

While many political parties are active, power lies firmly in the hands of President Déby and his political party, the Patriotic Salvation Movement. Chad remains plagued by political violence and recurrent attempted coups d'état (see Battle of N'Djamena (2006) and Battle of N'Djamena (2008)).

The country is one of the poorest and most corrupt countries in the world; most Chadians 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.

History

In the 7th millennium BC, ecological conditions in the northern half of Chadian territory favoured human settlement, and the region experienced a strong population increase. Some of the most importantant African archeological sites may be found in Chad, mainly in the Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti Region, and date to earlier than 2,000 BC.^[1]

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, who are known from artifacts and oral histories. The Sao fell to the Kanem Empire,^[3][4] the first and longest-lasting of the empires that developed in Chad's Sahelian strip 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.^[2] These states, at least tacitly Muslim, never extended their control to the southern grasslands except to raid for slaves.^[5]

French colonial expansion led to the creation of the Territoire Militaire des Pays et Protectorats du Tchad in 1900. By 1920, France had secured full control of the colony.^[6] French colonial rule in Chad was characterised by an absence of policies designed to unify the territory and an exceptionally slow pace of modernisation. The French gave the colony little importance and primarily viewed it as a source of untrained labour and of raw cotton. The colonial regime 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. The educational system suffered from this neglect. Only the south was governed effectively, while in the north and east the French only weakly supervised.^[2][7]

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. Chad was granted independence on August 11, 1960 with the PPT's leader,François Tombalbaye, as its first president.^[8][2][9]

Two years later, Tombalbaye banned opposition parties and established a one-party system. Tombalbaye's autocratic rule and insensitive mismanadgement exacerbated interethnic tensions. In 1965 Muslims began a civil war. Tomalbaye was removed in a coup d'état, but the insurgency continued. In 1979 the rebel factions conquered the capital, and all central authority in the country collapsed. Armed factions, many from the north's rebellion, contended for power.^[10][11]

The disentegration of Chad caused the collapse of France's position in the country. Libya moved to fill the power vacuum and became involved in Chad's civil war.^[12] Libya's adventure ended in disaster in 1987; the French-supported president, Hissène Habré, evinced a united response from Chadians of a kind never seen before^[13] and forced the Libyan army off Chadian soil.^[14]

It became clear that behind the apparent return to normality was an air of tension. Habré consolidated his dictatorship through a power system that relied on corruption and violence; an estimated 40,000 people were killed under Habré's rule. The president favoured his own Daza ethnic group and discriminated against his former allies, the Zaghawa. His general, Idriss Déby, overthrew him in 1990.^[15]

Deby attempted to reconcile the rebel groups and re-introduced multiparty politics. Chadians approved a new constitution by referendum, and in 1996, Déby easily won a competitive presidential election. He won a second term five years later.^[16]

Oil exploitation began in Chad in 2003, bringing with it hopes that Chad would at last know some tranquillity. Instead, internal dissent worsened, and a new civil war broke out. Déby unilaterally modified the constitution to remove the two-term limit; this caused an uproar among the civil society and opposition parties.^[17] In 2006 Déby won a third mandate in elections boycotted by the opposition. Ethnic violence in eastern Chad has increased; the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees warns that a genocide like that in Darfur may yet occur in Chad.^[18]

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. 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 elected by popular vote for a five-year term and since 2005 constitutional term limits have been removed. Most of the Deby's key advisers are members of the Zaghawa ethnic group, although some southern and opposition personalities are represented in his government.^[19][20] Corruption is rife at all levels; Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index for 2005 named Chad the most corrupt country in the world.^[21]

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. Despite the constitution’s guarantee of judicial independence from the executive branch, 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 fifteen councillors, appointed for life by the president and the National Assembly. 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.^[20][19]

The National Assembly makes legislation. The body consists of 155 members elected for four-year terms who meet three times per year. 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. 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 program twice in one year, the president may disband the Assembly and call for new legislative elections. In practice, the president exercises considerable influence over the National Assembly through his party, the Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS), which holds a large majority.^[19]

Until the legalisation of opposition parties in 1992, Déby's MPS was the sole legal party in Chad.^[19] Since, 78 registered political parties have become active.^[22] In 2005, opposition parties and human rights organizations boycotted the constitutional referendum that allowed Déby to stand for re-election for a third term^[23] amid reports of widespread irregularities in voter registration and government censorship of independent media outlets during the campaign.^[24] Correspondents judged the 2006 presidential elections a mere formality, as the opposition judged the polls a farce and boycotted.^[25]

Déby faces an armed opposition of groups who are deeply divided by leadership clashes but united in their intention to overthrow him.^[26] These forces stormed the capital on April 13, 2006. Although repelled, analysts such as Michael Weinstein have argued that this new cycle of instability will probably culminate in regime change.^[27] France is Chad's greatest outside influence and 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.^[28] Nevertheless, Franco-Chadian relations were soured by the adjudication by the American Exxon of the drilling rights of the Chadian oil in 1999.^[29]

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. Although attendance is compulsory, only 68% of boys continue past primary school, and more than half of the population is illiterate. Higher education is provided at the University of N'Djamena.^[19][30]

Administrative subdivisions

Chad is divided into 18 regions. This system came about in 2003 as part of the decentralization process, when the government abolished the previous 14 prefectures. Each region is headed by a presidentially appointed governor. Prefects administer the 50 departments within the regions. The departments are divided into 200 sub-prefectures, which are in turn composed of 446 cantons.^[31][32] The cantons are scheduled to be replaced by communautés rurales, but the legal and regulatory framework has not yet been completed.^[33] The constitution provides for decentralised government to compel local populations to play an active role in their own development.^[34] To this end, the constitution declares that each administrative subdivisions will be governed by elected local assemblies,^[35] but no local elections have taken place,^[36] and communal elections scheduled for 2005 have been repeatedly postponed.^[22]

The regions are:^[37]

Geography

At 1,284,000 square kilometres (495,755 sq mi), Chad is the world's 21st-largest country. It is comparable in size to Niger and slightly more than three times the size of the US state of California.^[38][39] It is in north central Africa, lying between 8° and 24° north and between 14° and 24° east. 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. Due to Chad's landlocked nature, the country's capital is 1,600 kilometres (994 mi) from the nearest seaport.^[30][40] 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".^[41]

A heritage of the colonial era, Chad's borders do not coincide wholly with natural boundaries. The dominant physical structure is a wide basin bounded to the north, east and south by mountain ranges. Lake Chad, after which the country is named, is the remains of an immense lake that occupied 130,000 square miles (336,698 km²) of the Chadian Basin 7,000 years ago. ^[30] In the 21st century, it covers only 6,875 square miles (17,806 km²), and its surface area is subject to heavy seasonal fluctuations^[42], but it's still as yet Africa's second largest wetland.^[43] Chad's highest point is the Emi Koussi, a dormant volcano in the Tibesti Mountains that reaches 3,414 kilometres (2,121 mi) above sea level as the Sahara's highest peak.

Each year a tropical weather system known as the intertropical front crosses Chad from south to north, bringing a brief wet season; a longer dry season follows.^[44] Variations in local rainfall create three major geographical zones. The Sahara lies in the country's northern third. Yearly precipitations there is under 50 mm; in fact, Borkou in Chad is the most arid area of the Sahara. Vegetation throughout this belt is scarce; only the occasional spontaneous palm grove survives, the only ones to do so south of the Tropic of Cancer. The Sahara gives way to a Sahelian belt in Chad's centre; precipitation there varies from 300 to 600 mm per year. In the Sahel a steppe of thorny bushes (mostly acacias) gradually gives way to a savanna in Chad's Sudanian zone to the south. Yearly rainfall in this belt is over 900 mm.^[40] The region's tall grasses and extensive marshes make it favourable for large mammals, and reptiles and birds. Chad's major rivers—the Chari, Logone and their tributaries—flow through the southern savannas from the southeast into Lake Chad.^[30][45]

Economy and infrastructure

The United Nations' Human Development Index ranks Chad as the fifth poorest country in the world, with 80% of the population living below the poverty line. The GDP (PPP) per capita was estimated as US$ 1,500 in 2005.^[46] Chad is part of the Bank of Central African States and the Customs and Economic Union of Central Africa (UDEAC). Its currency is the CFA franc. Years of civil war have scared away foreign investors; 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.^[38][19]

Over 80% of Chad's population relies on subsistence farming and livestock raising for its livelihood.^[38] The crops grown and the locations of herds are determined by the local climate. In the southernmost 10 percent of the territory is 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. 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.^[2] Before the development of oil industry, cotton dominated industry and the labour market and accounted for approximately 80% of export earnings.^[47] Cotton remains a primary export, although exact figures are not available. Rehabilitation of Cotontchad, the major cotton company that suffered from a decline in world cotton prices, has been financed by France, the Netherlands, the European Union, and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The parastatal is now being privatised.^[19]

ExxonMobil leads a consortium of Chevron and Petronas that has invested $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. 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 program when the Chadian government passed laws reducing this amount.^[19][36] On July 14, 2006, 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.^[48]

Civil war crippled the development of transport infrastructure; in 1987, Chad had only 30 kilometres (19 mi) of paved roads. Successive road rehabilitation projects improved the network^[49] to 550 kilometres (342 mi) of paved roads by 2004.^[50] 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.^[51] 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. 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 the 1.5% of the national population.^[52] Most Chadians burn biomass fuels such as wood and animal manure for power.^[53] 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.^[30][54]

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, low literacy rates, and poverty.^[55][53] 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 of the media.^[56]

Demographics

2005 estimates place Chad's population at 10,146,000; 25.8% live in urban areas and 74.8% in rural ones.^[57] 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. The life expectancy is 47.2 years.^[38]

Chad's population is unevenly distributed. Density is 0.1 inhabitant per km² in the Saharan Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti Region but 52.4 per km² in the Logone Occidental Region. In the capital, it is even higher.^[40] About half of the nation's population lives in the southern fifth of its territory, making this the most densely populated region.^[58] Urban life is virtually restricted to the capital, whose population is mostly engaged in commerce. The other major towns are Sarh, Moundou, Abéché and Doba, which are less urbanised but are growing rapidly and becoming with the Capital decisive factors in economic growth.^[30] Since 2003, 230,000 Sudanese refugees have fled to eastern Chad from war-ridden Darfur. With the 100,000 Chadians displaced by the civil war in the east, this has generated increasing tensions among the region's communities.^[59]

Polygyny is common, with 39% of women living in such unions. This is sanctioned by law, which automatically permits polygamy unless spouses specify that this is unacceptable upon marriage.^[60] 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; 45% of Chadian women undergo the procedure. Discrimination against women is widespread. Women lack equal opportunities in education and training, making it difficult for them to compete for the relatively few formal-sector jobs. Although property and inheritance laws based on the French code do not discriminate against women, local leaders adjudicate most inheritance cases in favor of men, according to traditional practice.^[22]

Chad has more than 200 distinct ethnic groups,^[19] which creates diverse social structures. 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. 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.^[30][2] 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.^[2]

The 1993 census shows that 54% of Chadians are Muslim, 20% are Roman Catholics, 14% are Protestants, 10% are animists and 3% are atheists.^[40] None of these religious traditions is monolithic. Animism includes a variety of ancestor and place-oriented religions whose expression is highly specific. Islam, although characterized by an orthodox set of beliefs and observances, is expressed in diverse ways. Christianity arrived in Chad only with the French; as with Chadian Islam, it syncretises aspects of pre-Christian religious beliefs.^[2] Muslims are largely concentrated in northern and eastern Chad, and animists and Christians live primarily in southern Chad and Guéra.^[30] The constitution provides for a secular state and guarantees religious freedom; different religious communities generally coexist without problems.^[61]

Culture

Due to its great variety of peoples and languages, Chad possesses a rich cultural heritage. The Chadian governments have actively promoted Chadian culuture, for example, by opening the Chad National Museum and a Chad Cultural Centre to foster interest in national traditions.^[30] 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, Eid ul-Adha, and Eid Milad Nnabi.^[52]

Chadians enjoy listening to music, both traditional and modern. To produce traditional music Chadians use instruments such as the kinde, a type of bow harp; the kakaki, a long tin horn; a hu hu, a stringed instrument that avails itself of calabashes as loudspeakers. As can be expected by the great cultural diversity of Chad, there are many instruments characteristic of the specific ethnic groups: so while the Sara prefer to use whistles, balafones, harps and kodjo drums, people such as the Kanembu combine the sounds of drums with those of flute-like instruments.^[62]

Modern music groups have existed in Chad since 1964, when Chari Jazz was founded. These gave way to more renown groups that attempted to mix modernity and tradition, like African Melody and International Challal, or efforts. Popular groups like Tibesti have remained closer to tradition, drawing on sai, a form of music from southern Chad. Until 1995 Chadian groups have been partly disregarded by their fellow citizens, but since then a greater interest has started developing in the country, favouring the diffusion of CDs and audio cassettes. Problems remain, linked in particular to piracy and the absence of a legislation protecting the authour's rights.^[62][63]

Throughout the country millet is the staple food, that is commonly 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 also appreciated, especially as salanga, a form of small dried fish, or banda, larger smoked fish. Among drinks instead there is carcaje, a sweet drink extracted from hibiscus leaves. Alchoolics, while absent in the north, are popular in the south, where people drink millet beer, known as billi-billi when distilled from red millet and as coshate when from white millet instead.^[62]

Chadian literature has suffered, like other Sahelian countries, from an economic, political and spiritual drought that has affected its best known writers, causing them to write through through the veils of exile and diaspora status, and generating a literature dominated by the paradigms of political oppression and historical discourse. This literature, while it has not produced outstanding authors has produced since 1962 about 60 works of fiction, written by 20 Chadians. Among the most internationally renown stand Joseph Brahim Seïd, Baba Moustapha, Antoine Bangui and, more recently, Koulsy Lamko. In an effort to expand internationally the knowledge of Chadian literature and especially of its younger generation, the country's sole literary critic, Ahmat Taboye, has published in 2003 an Anthologie de la littérature tchadienne. This was also to partly obviate to the absence of any publishing house or promotional structure in Chad.^[62][64][65]

The most appreciated sport among Chadians is football. The country's national team is much followed during the international competitions, and Chadian footballers have played in French teams. Also popular is basket, and freestyle wrestling, where the wrestlers traditionally dress in animal hides and cover themselves with dust.^[62]

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Notes

Web Links

• (French) Official government site
• (French) Official presidency site
• Chad Embassy - Washington DC