Information About Chad, Africa
Chadians call their country "Africa's Mesopotamia" because its civilization also began between two rivers---the Chari and the Logone. There is archaeological evidence that Chad was already an important trading center in the fourth century A.D. Unfortunately, by contrast, today Chad is one of the poorest nations in the world.
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Geography
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Chad is located in north-central Africa and neighbors Sudan, Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Libya and the Central African Republic. N'Djamena is its capital and largest city.
Colonial Rule
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Europeans first explored Chad in the early nineteenth century, but it did not come under French control until 1909. France incorporated Chad into the federation of French Equatorial Africa as a colony in 1920. Chad gained its independence in 1960.
Regional Differences
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In northern Chad, most of the people are either Arabs or African Toubou and are Muslim. In southern Chad, most Chadians follow traditional African religions but many are also Christian.
Economy
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The majority of Chad's population works in agriculture or as cattle traders. Crops grow primarily in the south, with the most important being cotton, cassava, millet and rice.
Domestic Instability
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Chad has experienced political and ethnic violence since the middle of the 1960s. Chad's political instability has been heightened by the influx of thousands of refugees from Sudan.
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References
- Photo Credit Mark Knobil
