712
August 2014
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
Republic of
“T
he territory now known as Chad pos-
sesses some of the richest archaeological
sites in Africa. During the seventh mil-
lennium
B.C
., the northern half of Chad was part of
a broad expanse of land, stretching from the Indus
River in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west,
in which ecological conditions favored early human
settlement. Rock art of the “Round Head” style,
found in the Ennedi region, has been dated to be-
fore the seventh millennium
B.C
. and, because of
the tools with which the rocks were carved and the
scenes they depict, may represent the oldest evi-
dence in the Sahara of Neolithic industries. Many
of the pottery-making and Neolithic activities in
Ennedi date back further than any of those of the
Nile Valley to the east.
“In the prehistoric period, Chad was much wetter than it is
today, as evidenced by large game animals depicted in rock
paintings in the Tibesti and Borkou regions. Recent linguistic
research suggests that all of Africa’s languages south of the
Sahara Desert (except Khoisan) originated in prehistoric times
in a narrow band between Lake Chad and the Nile Valley. The
origins of Chad’s peoples, however, remain unclear. Several
of the proven archaeological sites have been only partially
studied, and other sites of great potential have yet to be
mapped.
“Toward the end of the first millennium
A.D
., the formation
of states began across central Chad in the
sahelian
zone
between the desert and the savanna. For almost the next
1,000 years, these states, their relations with each other, and
their effects on the peoples who lived in “stateless” societies
along their peripheries dominated Chad’s political history.
Recent research suggests that indigenous Africans founded
most of these states, not migrating Arabic-speaking groups,
as was believed previously. Nonetheless, immigrants, Arabic-
speaking or otherwise, played a significant role, along with
Islam, in the formation and early evolution of these states.
“Most states began as kingdoms, in which the king was
considered divine and endowed with temporal and spiritual
powers. All states were militaristic (or they did not survive
long), but none was able to expand far into southern Chad,
where forests and the tsetse fly complicated the use of
cavalry. Control over the trans-Saharan trade routes that
passed through the region formed the economic basis of these
kingdoms. Although many states rose and fell, the most
important and durable of the empires were Kanem-Borno,
Bagirmi, and Wadai, according to most written sources (mainly
court chronicles and writings of Arab traders and travelers).
“European interest in Africa generally grew during the
nineteenth century. By 1887 France, motivated by the search
for wealth, had driven inland from its settlements on central
Africa’s west coast to claim the territory of Ubangi-Chari
(present-day Central African Republic). It claimed this area
as a zone of French influence, and within two years it occupied
part of what is now southern Chad. In the early 1890s, French
military expeditions sent to Chad encountered the forces of
Rabih Fadlallah, who had been conducting slave raids (
razzias
)
in southern Chad throughout the 1890s and had sacked the
settlements of Kanem-Borno, Bagirmi, and Wadai. After
years of indecisive engagements, French forces finally defeated
Rabih Fadlallah at the Battle of Kousséri in 1900”
(Library of
Congress Country Studies, 1988)
.
“Chad, part of France’s African holdings until 1960, endured
three decades of civil warfare, as well as invasions by Libya,
before a semblance of peace was finally restored in 1990. The
712
A gust 2014
I
I
I
I
