Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T10:20:02.831Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Chad: The Misadventures of the North-South Dialectic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

René Lemarchand
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Is there more to Chad than the murderous idiosyncrasies of an improbable state which shares with its neighbors the vicissitudes of drought, famine, and environmental bankruptcy? The question is not merely rhetorical. In order to bring the present conflicts and confusions within the realm of comparative discourse, the uniqueness of the Chadian crisis must be assessed against its generic traits. To those of us who once debated whether Zaire was a unique or an extreme case, the issue has a familiar ring, and it carries intimations of inconclusiveness that may well apply to other states, including Chad.

All states are, in one way or another, unique and Chad in more ways than one. Its uniqueness goes far beyond its sudden emergence as a strategic pawn in a desert war among proxies. With its national territory semi-partitioned, its northern half under Libyan occupation and its southern flank threatened by rebel activity; with a government in exile comprising no less than eleven factions at the latest count, some in open warfare with others, some appealing to Libya for continued military support, and others perpetually casting about to form an anti-Libyan coalition; with a central government overwhelmingly dependent on outside donors for military, economic, and financial aid but, nonetheless, highly sensitive to attempts at external manipulation; with a capital city in shambles, an infrastructure thoroughly inadequate for the tasks of rehabilitation and national reconstruction, and anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 refugees living in neighboring states—what other state can make as many claims to being unique in coping with, or surrendering to, the blows of adversity?

Type
Articles
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , September 1986 , pp. 27 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Armstrong, John A. 1976. “Mobilized and Proletarian Diasporas,” The American Political Science Review 70, 2: 393–40.Google Scholar
Bouquet, Christian. 1982. Tchad: Genèse d'un Conflit. Paris.Google Scholar
Boujol, M. 1939. “Les Arabes du Tchad.” Centre de Préparation au Brevet des Hautes Etudes d'Administration Musulmane. No. 603.Google Scholar
Briggs, Lloyd. 1960. Tribes of the Sahara. Cambridge, MA. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bruel, Georges. 1918. L'Afrique Equatoriale Francaise. Paris.Google Scholar
Buijtenhuis, Robert. 1977. “La dialectique nord-sud dans l'histoire tchadienne.” African Perspectives 2:43–62.Google Scholar
Buijtenhuis, Robert. 1978. Le Frolinat et les Révoltes Populaires du Tchad, 1965-1976. The Hague.Google Scholar
Bujra, Janet. 1973. “The Dynamics of Political Action: A New Look at Factionalism.” American Anthropologist 75: 129–136 Google Scholar
Bulletin Politique, du Ouaddai, Région, de Biltine, District, Dec. 1957. Conseil Démocratique Révolutionnaire. Frolinat. 1985. “Introduction Générale aux Travaux de l'Assemblée Générale Extraordinaire des Délégues de Sections CDR tenue à Paris du 12 au 20 mai.” 1985. n.p. Typesript.Google Scholar
Chapelle, Jean. 1982. Nomades Noirs du Sahara. Paris.Google Scholar
Dennis, Cordell. 1985. “The Awlad Sulayman of Libya and Chad: Power and Adaptation in the Sahara and Sahel.” Canadian Journal of African Studies 19, 2: 319–344.Google Scholar
Decalo, Samuel. 1980a. “Chad: The Roots of Center-Periphery Strife.” African Affairs 79, 317: 491–509.Google Scholar
Decalo, Samuel. 1980b. “Regionalism, Political Decay and Civil Strife in Chad.” The Journal of Modern African Studies 18, 1: 23–56.Google Scholar
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1969. The Nuer. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
El Hendiri, Said Abderrahmane. 1983. Chado-Libyan Relations (Al-Ilaqat al-lilbiyyah altchadiyya). Tripoli.Google Scholar
Fortier, Joseph. 1982. Le Couteau de Jet Sacré. Paris.Google Scholar
Horowitz, Donald L. 1985. Ethnic Groupe in Conflict. Berkeley and Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Lemarchand, René. 1980. “The Politics of Sara Ethnicity: A Note on the Origins of the Civil War in Chad.” Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines 20,4:449–71.Google Scholar
Lemarchand, René. 1985. “The Crisis in Chad,” in Bender, Gerald, Coleman, J.S. and Sklar, R., African Crisis Areas and US Foreign Policy. Berkeley and Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Middleton, John and Tait, David (eds.). 1958. Tribes Without Rulers. Lon Morsy, Magali. 1984. North Africa: 1800-1900. London and New York.Google Scholar
Nachtigal, Gustav. 1974. Sahara and Sudan, transl. by Fisher, Allan G.B. and Fisher, Humphrey J. Vol. I: Fezzah and Tibesti. New York Google Scholar
Thomas, Frederic C. 1959. “The Juhaina Arabs of Chad'.” The Middle East Journal 13, 2: 139–149 Google Scholar
Triaud, Jean Louis. 1985. “Le Refus de l'Etat: L'Exemple Tchadien.” Esprit 100, 20–24 Google Scholar
Vansina, Jan. 1980. “Lignage, idéologie et histoire en Afrique Equatoriale.” Enquêtes et Documents d'Histoire Africaine 4: 133–155.Google Scholar
Wright, John. 1983. “Chad and Libya: Some Historical Connections.” The Maghreb Review 8, 3-4: 92–96.Google Scholar
Young, Crawford. 1976. The Politics of Cultural Pluralism. Madison.Google Scholar
Zeltner, J.C. 1979. Les Arabes de la Région du Lac Tchad: Problémes d'Origine et de Chronologie. Sarh.Google Scholar