The territory now known as Chad possesses some of the richest archaeological sites in Africa. A humanoid skull found in Borkou is more than 3 million years old. During the seventh millennium B.C., 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, pre-dates the seventh millennium B.C. The carving tools and the scenes depicted may represent the oldest evidence 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.
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 to the world but studies prove that these people
have migrated from Kush (Nubia) now known as Sudan, ancient Egypt &
from the West African ancient kingdoms. Several of the known archaeological
sites have been only partially studied and other sites of great potential
have yet to be mapped.
The legendary Sao civilization (Present day, Sara people.) existed in the very early days of what is the region of Chad today. The Sao came from Egypt about 500 BC ( http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/kingtaharqa.html) and some also believe that they were Berbers and flourished anywhere between the 8th and 16th centuries AD. From the Sao people arose the Kanem kingdom(capital: Ngarzagamu) east of Lake Chad beginning in the 7th or 8th century AD. Later the Kanem Empire became weakened and was forced to move to the southwest to Borno, which is referred to as the Kanem-Borno Empire. It was at the height of its power with Mai Alooma (King Aluma), the legendary General whom fought over a 1,000 battles. Kanem-Borno peaked during the reign of the outstanding statesman Mai Idris Aluma (ca. 1571-1603). Aluma (also spelled Alooma) is remembered for his military skills, administrative reforms, and Islamic piety. His main adversaries were the Hausa to the west, the Tuareg and Toubou to the north, and the Bulala to the east. One epic poem extols his victories in 330 wars and more than 1,000 battles.
His innovations included the employment of fixed military camps (with walls); permanent sieges and "scorched earth" tactics, where soldiers burned everything in their path; armored horses and riders; and the use of Berber camelry, Kotoko boatmen, and iron-helmeted musketeers trained by Turkish military advisers. His active diplomacy featured relations with Tripoli, Egypt, and the Ottoman Empire, which sent a 200-member ambassadorial party across the desert to Aluma's court at Ngazargamu. Aluma also signed what was probably the first written treaty or cease-fire in Chadian history. (Like many cease-fires negotiated in the 1970s and 1980s, it was promptly broken.) Sometime in the 16th to the 18th centuries and was overtaken by Arab invaders by the end of the 19th century. In the 16th to 17th centuries two smaller kingdoms arose, the Baguirmi and Ouaddai to the southeast and east of the Kanem-Borno Empire. The Ouaddai then attacked Borno and overtook the Baguirmi Empire. All three empires became prosperous by trading goods and slaves captured from the southern pagan peoples. By the end of the 19th century most of these great empires had declined or were destroyed. Islam came to Chad in 1085 to the Kanem Empire, in the 1600’s to the Ouaddai region, between 1568-1608 to the Bagirmi and in the 1800’s to the northern Goran and Zaghawa peoples. Chad's post-independence history has been marked by instability and violence stemming mostly from tension between the Muslim north and the Christian south.
In 1969 Muslim dissatisfaction with the first President, Ngarta Tombalbaye - a Christian southerner - developed into a guerrilla war. This, combined with a severe drought, undermined his rule and in 1975 Tombalbaye was killed in a coup led by another southerner, Felix Malloum.
Malloum, too, failed to end the war, and in 1979 was replaced by a Libyan-backed northerner, Goukouki Oueddei. The war continued, however, this time with a former defense minister, Hissen Habre, on the opposite side.
In 1982, with French help, Habre captured the capital, N'Djamena, and Oueddei escaped to the north, where he formed a rival government. The standoff ended in 1990, when the Libyan-backed Idriss Deby toppled Habre.
By the mid-1990s the situation had stabilized somewhat, and in 1996 Deby was confirmed president in Chad's first election.
However, trouble continues to simmer. In 1998 a new-armed insurgency began in the north, led by Deby's former defense chief, Youssouf Togoimi. A Libyan-brokered peace deal was agreed in early 2002, but clashes between rebels and government troops have since put this in jeopardy.
To read more about Chadian History and Languages
Contributing factors to the Chad social inbalance:
Lack of water, food and medical supplies.
Inequitable distribution of wealth.
Lack of educational opportunities.
Lack of social mobility.
Ethnic (tribal) discrimination.
footnotes:lonelyplanets.com,CIA facts on chad.com,http://www.abacci.com/atlas
