ROOTS OF VIOLENCE War and Society A series edited by S.P.Reyna and R.E.Downs Volume 1 Feuding and Warfare: Selected Works of Keith F.Otterbein Volume 2 Studying War: Anthropological Perspectives Edited by S.P.Reyna and R.E.Downs Volume 3 Troubled Times: Violence and Warf are in the Past Edited by Debra L.Martin and David W.Frayer Volume 4 Roots of Violence: A History of War in Chad Mario J.Azevedo This book is part of a series. The publisher will accept continuation orders which may be cancelled at any time and which provide for automatic billing and shipping of each title in the series upon publication. Please write for details. ROOTS OF VIOLENCE A History of War in Chad Mario J.Azevedo University of North Carolina at Charlotte LONDON AND NEW YORK Copyright © 1998 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V. Published by license under the Gordon and Breach Publishers imprint. First published 1998 By Gordon and Breach Publishers Transferred to Digital Printing 2004 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor and Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “ To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/.” All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. COVER: Map of ethnic groups in Chad reprinted here with kind permis sion of Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina. Copyright © 1978 Duke University Press. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Azevedo, Mario Joaquim Roots of violence: a history of war in Chad—(War and society; v. 4) 1. War and society—Chad—History 2. Chad—History—Civil War, 1965—Causes I. Title 967.4′3′04 ISBN 0-203-98874-4 Master e-book ISBN ISBN - (Adobe e-Reader Format) ISBN 90-5699-583-9 (Print Edition) CONTENTS Introduction to the Series vi Preface viii Acknowledgments ix About the Author x ONE Environment and Society 1 TWO Chad’s Centralized Societies and the Use of Organized Violence 15 THREE The Army as an Instrument of Organized Violence in Central Africa 34 FOUR The Role of Violence During the Colonial Era 47 FIVE Independence and Civil War in Chad 64 SIX The Nature and Use of Violence in Post-Colonial Chad 82 SEVEN International Involvement and the Escalation of Violence in Chad 98 EIGHT At the Crossroads: Lessons and Prospects 121 References 130 Index 138 INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES The War and Society book series fosters studies of organized violence and its consequences in all forms of society, from deep in the past until the present. It encourages different intellectual traditions from different disciplines. Its goal is to expand theoretical understanding of the causes and effects of war, thereby to provide intellectual tools for constructing a more peaceful world. PREFACE This book focuses on conflict and violence in Central Africa, the region Africanists have labeled Central Sudan, with specific reference to Chad from ancient times to the present. As such, it adds to the growing literature on the roots of conflict and resolution in the region and helps fill the prevailing research gap on this former French colony in Equatorial Africa. To the extent possible, it combines written primary and archival sources with secondary works, primarily in French and English, as well as oral data collected by the author in the country in 1974, 1981, 1984 and 1995. The volume is organized into eight chapters. The first chapter addresses Chad’s diverse life-styles and cultures—greatly conditioned by the unique environment of the region and the intermingling of people of diverse economic and cultural backgrounds following the great migratory movement of the sixteenth century in Central Africa. The extent to which such a movement of people may explain the nature and degree of violence that prevailed in the area in subsequent centuries is examined. However, the focus is on the non-centralized, stateless societies that for centuries have occupied the southwestern and southern tier of the country. Chapter two analyzes the uniqueness of the northern and Sahelian state societies, characterized by warfare, raiding and looting of the outlying areas. In this context, slavery and the slave trade constitute important themes in the discussion of the region’s violence and conflict. Chapter three looks specifically at the nature and role of the army in state activity to the extent that the available sources illuminate the pre-colonial period in Central Sudan. The fourth chapter traces the violent history of the French conquest of Chad; the colonial policies that exacerbated the differences among the various peoples brought together as a nation; and Chad’s unpreparedness and inability on the eve of independence to forge an integrated and regionally representative unitary state. As such, this chapter provides needed background to the roots of vio lence and the civil war that followed the achievement of independence in 1960 and the virtual destruction of the Chadian state during the 1979–1982 period. Chapter five examines the nature of the post-colonial state and the causes that brought about the country’s civil war. Chapter six looks systematically at the post-colonial instruments of violence and their impact on the state and Chadian society. The extent of foreign military involvement, which seems to have prolonged rather than shortened the conflict, is covered in the seventh chapter. This is followed by a general conclusion, chapter eight, that reflects upon Chad’s history in an attempt to put the theme of violence in perspective; comments on the country’s future as a nation-state; and looks at the prospects of the use of further violent means in the settlement of future domestic conflict. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express profound gratitude to my publisher for enabling me to tell the story of Chad, one of the most neglected and troubled countries on the continent of Africa. Above all, however, I acknowledge the role played by S.P.Reyna, who sparked my interest in this project and the theme of conflict and violence in Central Sudan in general and Chad in particular. I thank him for his unselfish hospitality and invaluable assistance and advice while we were both doing our fieldwork in Chad in 1974. I will never forget how helpful those trips in his beat-up green van were to me—with him at the wheel and a crowd of Chadian children surrounding us everywhere we stopped—while N’Djamena’s temperatures soared to over 100°F. His familiarity with the country and his invaluable advice provided me access to the right people and scholars in Chad and contributed immensely to my own research. I recall with gratitude my friend Christian Bouquet, professor of history and geography at the University of Chad, the first scholar I met when I landed on Chadian soil in 1974, who was instrumental in arranging my meeting with personnel of Chad’s National Research Institute for Human Sciences, including director Nga Ngakoutou, secretary-general M.Mathieu, and the staff of the Musée National du Chad. Dr. Bouquet also assisted me with my research in Paris once I had completed my work in Chad. I am equally grateful to the late Colonel Jean Chapelle, who spent hours telling me his experiences as an officer and administrator in the north and about nomadic desert life and the contributions of the Sara in the colonial army. My warmest, heartfelt thanks, however, go to the people of Chad, the Sara in particular, among whom I was so well received as I traveled from village to village and interviewed their elders on the social and demographic impact of French colonial policies prior to 1940. Words of gratitude must likewise extend to my PhD dissertation advisor, the late Dr. Gerald Hartwig, who, while I was his student at Duke University, introduced me to Chad, and to my friend and scholar, Dr. Mustafah Dhada, Department of Political Science, University of Colorado, and to Elizabeth Friar Williams, of California, for reading the manuscript and providing the most constructive criticism. I acknowledge the patience and assistance I received from my family: Ernestine, Margarida and Linda. I would not have been able to complete the manuscript in time without the help of my secretary, Roberta Duff. Finally, my sincere thanks to Dean Schley Lyons, College of Arts and Sciences, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, for supporting and encouraging my research activities. My colleagues in the Department of African-American and African Studies— Vicki Crawford, Gregory Davis, Veronica Nmoma, Tanure Ojaide and Dorothy Ruiz— were unswervingly understanding and supportive. They remained an inspiration to me throughout the writing of this book. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mario J.Azevedo is Frank Porter Graham Professor and Chair in the Department of African-American and African Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Trained in African history with a focus on former French Equatorial Africa and Lusophone Southern Africa, Dr. Azevedo holds a BA in history from The Catholic University of America, an MA in history from American University, and a PhD in African history from Duke University. Professor Azevedo did his dissertation fieldwork in Chad in 1974 and has returned to the country on several occasions. His publications include: The Returning Hunter (Interculture Associates, 1978); Disease