The Babel Tower of the World : Read on !

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Facts About Chad

Chad is known as "The Babel Tower of the World".

Chad is about the size of Spain, France and Kansas combined-- is famous in the world as the home to up to 200 ethnic groups.

Over 100 languages spoken across the nation.

The total area of Chad is more than twice the size of Texas i.e. 496,000 square miles ( 1, 284,000 square km).

This French-speaking nation is the 21st-largest country on Earth, ahead of a host of nations such as Germany, Finland, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Most of Chad has a tropical climate.

It is located in central North Africa.

Like Bolivia, Switzerland, and Afghanistan, the Republic of Chad is a landlocked country in the world.

Chad is surrounded by three oil-rich countries Libya, Sudan and Nigeria and two poorest nations among the world's five poorest countries - Niger and the Central African Republic.

The area around Lake Chad has been inhabited since at least 500 B.C. In the 8th century A.D. , Berbers began migrating to the area.

Islam arrived in 1085, and by the 16th century a trio of rival kingdoms flourished: the Kanem-Bornu, Baguirmi, and Ouaddai.

During the years 1883–1893, all three kingdoms came under the rule of the Sudanese conqueror Rabih al-Zubayr.

In 1900, Rabih was overthrown by the French, who absorbed these kingdoms into the colony of French Equatorial Africa, as part of Ubangi-Shari, now the Central African Republic, in 1913.

In 1946, the territory, now known as Chad, became an autonomous republic within the French Community.

An independence movement led by the first premier and president, Francois (later Ngarta) Tombalbaye, achieved complete independence on Aug. 11, 1960.






Tombalbaye was killed in the 1975 coup and succeeded by Gen. Félix Malloum, who faced a Libyan-financed civil war throughout his tenure in office.

In 1977, Libya seized a strip of Chadian land and launched an invasion two years later.

In 1990, Idriss Déby, a former defense minister and head of the Patriotic Salvation Movement, overthrew Habré, suspended the constitution, and dissolved the legislature.

Déby won multiparty elections in 1996 and was reelected in 2001.

The Religion Practised in Chad are ( 53%) Muslim,(20%) Roman Catholic, (15%) Protestant,( 7%) animist and (3%) Atheist.

TheMonetary Unit of Chad is Central African Franc.

Chad is full of Natural Resources such as petroleum, uranium, natron, kaolin, fish (Lake Chad), gold, limestone, sand and gravel, salt.

The main Industry consists of oil, cotton textiles, meatpacking, beer brewing, natron (sodium carbonate), soap, cigarettes, construction materials

The Population Growth Rate in Chad is 2.32 percent.

The Average Life Expectancy of the country is 47 years.

The Capital City of Chad is N'Djamena with population 721,000.

The highest point in Chad is Emi Koussi (3,415 m), a dormant volcano in the northern Tibesti Mountains.

The Animal Life of Chad consists of elephant, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, warthog, giraffe, antelope, lion, leopard, cheetah, hyenas, snakes

The country has never competed in the FIFA World Championships, but Chad's idol Japhnes N'doram was one of the Continent's most popular soccer players in the mid-1990s.

The Republic of Chad is home to one of the most beautiful natural wonders of the world - the Lake Chad (6,875 square miles). This African wonder is the world's 17th-largest lake.

Lake Chad is about the size of the American State of Hawaii. Since the 2000s it is the nation's greatest tourist attraction.

Up to 80 percent of people of Chad live in rural areas.

The Sara make up Chad's largest ethnic group, followed by the Arabs, and other groups.

French and Arabic are the official languages of Chad.

The nation is home to up to 200,000 Sudanese refugees.

The African country of Chad proclaimed its independence from France on August 11, 1960.






Economic growth between 1994 and 2004 was 7%, one of the world's best performers.

N'Djamena, formerly Fort Lamy, and Chad's capital is the largest city. It lies in the south of the nation.

The nation's flag has vertical stripes of blue, yellow and red, the traditional colors.

Since the beginning of the post-colonial era, Washington has provided Chad with millions of dollars in humanitarian aid.

In the last few years, America has become one of the country's largest investors.

By early 1990,Pope John Paul II, spiritual leader of the world's millions of Catholics, visited the country.

Against all odds, the modern country of Chad made its first African Games appearance in Congo-Brazzaville in July 1965, where won three bronze medals, ahead of Gabon, Ethiopia and Zaire.

The people of Chad are often called Chadians & Chadiens.

The only important rivers in Chad are the Logone and Chari (Shari). They are located in the southwest of Chad and they flow into Lake Chad, which doubles in size during the rainy season.

Chadic languages, especially Hausa, are spoken in the Lake Chad area.

The flag of Chad has vertical blue, yellow and red stripes. The blue stripe symbolises the sky and hope. The yellow stripe symbolises the sun. The red stripe symbolises fire and unity.

The University of Chad was founded in the year 1971. In 2000, Chad had a literacy rate of 54 percent.






Bullet holes in buildings of N'Djamena serve as a reminder of troubled times.

The historic quarter, with its colourful daily market, is fascinating and a good place to pick up colourful Chadian rugs and jewellery.

Zakouma National Park is located on an immense plain across which the Bahr Salamat and its tributaries flow from north to south. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Bars and open-air dancing can generally be found in N'Djaména.

Over 80% of Chad's population relies on subsistence farming and livestock raising for its livelihood.

Chad began to export oil in 2004.

Chad relies on foreign assistance and foreign capital for most public and private sector investment projects.

A consortium led by two US companies has been investing $3.7 billion to develop oil reserves estimated at 1 billion barrels in southern Chad.

The National Museum has collections of the Sara culture dating back to the 9th century.

Lake Chad is best seen during the August to December period, when the water level is highest and the occasional hippo or crocodile can be seen drifting by.

The inhabitants Tibesti Mountains are distantly related to the Tuareg of the Western Sahara, and were made famous by Herodotus as the Troglodytes, stocky but immensely agile cave-dwellers.

Zakouma National Park also has 226 documented bird species for the bird watchers.

The Ennedi Desert used to be underwater, so it has many rock formations and sea arches. It is located in the Sahara desert in northeastern Chad.

You can also watch camel racing here on Tibesti Mountains.

Abeche is a former capital of the Ouadaï sultanate is surrounded by the desert and has retained much of its Oriental charm.





Funny Facts About Chad People :

In the villages, it is the popular belief that if you take some of the dry matter from the corner of a dog's eye and put it in your own, that you will see demons.

A future husband is required to work in the fields of his father-in-law for three years. He also makes straw mats, builds a hut for his mother-in-law, builds a ligdabe to shade her from the sun.

Never talk to a Chadian while staring him or her in the eyes; he might think you are mad at them.



When shaking your hand with a Muslim, you touch your hand to your heart after you finish shaking hands. This means, you wish peace to him, and that peace may be on you as well.

When a woman gives birth, she cannot leave her living quarters. It is believed that she is in danger of becoming sick with certain illnesses, or that she will be "captured" by evil spirits.

Donkey's milk is used to cure whooping cough, and tamarind fruit to cure measles.

Be careful not to admire what a Chadian friend owns, or their children, especially if they are babies. There is a belief that when someone covets something belonging to another, power is released to cause them to lose what is coveted. This is called the power of the evil eye.

Dates and eggs are an important food.

Chadians often combine fish and meat in the same one-pot meal.

In the south of Chad, the staples of rice, millet, and peanuts are more plentiful.

Omelets are served alongside meat and rice.

Fruit juices and the millet beer called bili bili are traditional beverages.

Chad australopithecine in an early hominid between two hundred thousand and five hundred thousand years old found in the southeast of Chad, along with the teeth of an extinct elephant.

The tip of a home may have an ostrich egg on it, an "X" or other symbol depending on the people and clan who live there.

Rock art in northern Chad shows that thousands of years ago the country's northern desert terrain was very different; people farmed land and animals such as elephants and giraffes roamed the region.

The Sao people, who built walled cities, lived southeast of Lake Chad around 500 BC.

Pottery and bone utensils made by the Sao people can be seen in Chad's National Museum.

The Kanem Empire, established in northern Chad around the ninth century, expanded in the sixteenth century becoming the Kanem-Bornu Empire.

Chad became one of four territories of the Federation of French Equatorial Africa - Afrique Equatoriale Francaise (AEF).






Chad was made an Overseas Territory of France in 1946.

Following independence, Chad suffered years of ethnic warfare, invasion by Libya and cyclical droughts.

Idriss Deby was elected President of Chad in 1996, 2001 and 2006.

By 2004 Chad was exporting oil via a pipeline connecting its oil fields with Cameroon's Atlantic coast.

Refugees from Darfur, western Sudan, crossed the border into Chad to escape fighting in the Darfur region (2004).

Libya invaded Chad on 4th november,1980.

French air force bombed Ouadi Doum airport in Chad on 16 Feb,1986.

- By Sunil R Yadav