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One of Africa's least developed countries, Chad
boasts three climate zones and
more than 100 languages. Human settlements in Chad began
around 500 B.C. along the southern part of Lake Chad.
Thanks to their command of the southern tip of the
trans-Saharan trade route, a succession of kingdoms
gained power and prosperity. In 1910, the country was
swallowed up by French Equatorial Africa, becoming a
full colony in 1946. Independence arrived in 1960, but
stability was hampered by constant conflict between
Chad's Muslim, non-black north and the Christian, black
south. Libya, sensing an opportunity with guerilla
movements who wanted to align Chad more closely
with Africa's Arab north, invaded in 1977 and civil war
raged for the next four years. Defeated, Libya
withdrew, and a new government was installed until its
overthrow in 1990 by General Idriss Deby, head of the
rebel group Patriotic Salvation Movement and backed
by Libya's Col. Quaddafi. The regime has not earned
good marks for its human rights record: torture, summary
executions and the disappearance of political foes are
common. Economic development remains a sideline.
Chad's primary cash-earner is cotton and its chief
industry is cotton ginning. But the government hopes to add oil to the picture, too. Beginning in 2001, a
controversial oil pipeline project based in southern
Chad's Doba basin and run by Exxon Mobil, could
bring $2 billion to government coffers.
Photo Credit: "Kanembu House," University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, Africa Focus. 2000 http://africafocus.library.wisc.edu/ |
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