Darfur

Darfur (Arabic دار فور is a region of Sudan, which borders the Central African Republic, Libya, and Chad along the Sudanese western border. Darfur, meaning "home of the Fur", is divided into three federal states: Gharb Darfur (West Darfur), Janub Darfur (South Darfur), and Shamal Darfur (North Darfur).

Background

The country of Sudan

Darfur extends from about 10 N. to 16° N. and from 21° E. to 27° 30' E, covering an area of approximately 150,000 sq. miles. For the basis of comparision, the Darfur region is geographically about three-quarters the size of Texas, more than half the size of Kenya or slightly smaller than France. Darfur has an estimated population of 7.4 million people.

Like many of the countries bordering the Sahara, the Darfur is dominated by a semiarid plateau that punctuated by occasional mountain ranges. The plateau is bordered along 24° E by the Jebel Marra mountain range that defines the region along the north-south border. The mountain range extends past the borders of Darfur, eventually reaching its highest point of between 5,000 to 6,000 feet. Towards the east the range loses its sharp definition and dissolves into a series of sandy steppes. The Darfur region also contains a high level of volcanic activity, which has significantly aided in forming most of the mountain ranges in the area. One volcanic range, the Jebel Medob lies to the north east of Jebel Marra and is continuously affected by volcanic activity in the region. Volcanic activity in Darfur also results in volcanic craters, the most notable of which is Bir-el-Melh, a crater that descends 50 ft. into the ground.

The rainy season in Darfur is from June to September, and it effectively transforms the dry arid plateau to verdant green that is rich with vegetation. The rains are a vital part of life in Darfur, helping the preodimantly agricultural society to grow a sucessful harvest of millet. Millet is the main crop of the region, and is used to feed both the human and livestock populations. Other main agricultural staples include cereals, fruit and tobacco as well as livestock in the drier north. Despite the need for rain, the northern parts of the region can go years without suffiecient rainfall. In the far south the story is different, and the annual average rainfall is 700 mm

Culture and Economy

Location of the Fur people within Darfur

The Darfur region is culturally divided along occupational lines, with the agricultural Fur people of the in the center, the former ruling class the Tunjur in the north, and Nilo-Saharan language speakers in the northwest who focus on animal husbandry as livelihood. The largest cultural groups in the northwest are the Berti people and the Zaghawa people. In the western portion of the Darfur region, the Masalit people have sucessfully maintained their cultural identity and remained independent from Dar Fur. In the early history of the region, a group of Arab camel herders travelled to the southern parts of the area to find an adequate source of rainfall. This group of people later merged with the Fulani people and became known as the Baggara . Soon after the populations blended to form one cultural unit, the Baggara switched from raising cattle to raising horses. The Baggara developed a duel society, where portions of families were left in the south to cultivate the agricultural fields while a portion of the family took to herds to established grazing areas. On the way to specific area, some traders would allow their herds to seek refuge in fields found along the way, a practice that often required a mediator to step in to resolve conflicts .

Languages

Darfur, due to the huge variety of cultures of ethnic groups in the region, boasts a wide variety of languages within its borders. The main languages of Darfur include:

• Arabic, predominately found south of Nyala and in the eastern portions of Darfur, but smaller enclave of Arabic speakers are also found along the Chad border in a narrow strip north of Jebel Si, between Fur and Zaghawa;
• Daju, is only found in a small pocket near Nyala. It is an offshoot of the Western branch of the Eastern Sudanic group of the Nilo-Saharan language family;
• Erenga, considered a dialect of Tama, is found north of Geneina and across the border in Chad;
• Fongoro, is considered almost extinct as most speakers of the language have shifted to speaking Fur, the remaining speakers are found south of Sinyar.
• Fulbe, or Fulfulde, is only found in a small area south of Nyala;
• Fur, is located in the center of the region, reaching from Wadi Azum in the west to Al Fashir in the east. It belongs to the Fur language group of Nilo-Saharanlanguage family;
• Masalit, is located mostly west of Wadi Azum and around Geneina; it is also spoken across the border, and in a small isolated area south of Nyala. It belongs to the Maban language group of Nilo-Saharan family;
• Sinyar, is mostly found along the border south of Masalit. It is closely related to Fongoro;
• Tama, is only found in a small Tama speaking pocket between Jebel Si and Jebel Marra. It is closely related to Daju ;
• Zaghawa, is popular in the northern portions of Darfur;

History

The early history of Darfur is dominated by the influence of the Marrah Mountains. Most of the region is semi-arid plain and cannot support a large and complex civilization, while the Marrah Mountains offer plentiful water. The Daju people created the first known Darfuri civilization based in the mountains, though they left no records besides a list of kings. The Tunjur displaced the Daju in the fourteenth century and introduced Islam. The Tunjur sultans intermarried with the Fur and sultan Soleiman (reigned c.1596 to c.1637) is considered the founder of the Keira dynasty. Darfur became a great power of the Sahel under the Keira dynasty, expanding its borders as far east as the Atbarah River and attracting immigrants from Bornu and Bagirmi. During the mid-18th century the country was wracked by conflict between rival factions, and external war with Sennar and Wadai. In 1875, the weakened kingdom was destroyed by the Egyptian government (itself under British colonization) set up in Khartoum, largely through the machinations of al-Zubayr Rahma, a businessman who was competing with the dar over access to slaves and ivory in Bahr el Ghazal to the south of Darfur.

The Darfuris were restive under Egyptian rule, but were no more predisposed to accept the rule of the self proclaimed Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad, when his forces defeated the British in Darfur in 1883. When Ahmad's successor, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, himself a Darfuri, demanded that the pastoralist tribes provide soldiers, several tribes rose up in revolt. Following the overthrow of Abdallahi at Omdurman in 1898 by a British force, the new Anglo-Egyptian condominium government recognized Ali Dinar as the sultan of Darfur and largely left the dar to its own affairs except for a nominal annual tribute. During the First World War, the British became concerned that the sultanate might fall under the influence of Turkey, invaded and incorporated Darfur into Sudan in 1916. Under colonial rule, financial and administrative resources were directed to the tribes of central Sudan near Khartoum to the detriment of the outlying regions such as Darfur.

This pattern of skewed development continued following national independence in 1956. To this was added an element of political instability caused by the proxy wars between Sudan, Libya and Chad. The influence of an ideology of Arab supremacy propagated by Libyan president Muammar al-Gaddafi that began to be acted upon by Darfuris, including those identified as "Arab" and "African". A famine in the mid-1980s disrupted many societal structures and led to the first significant fighting amongst Darfuris. A low level conflict continued for the next 15 years, with the government coopting and arming "Arab" militias against its enemies. The fighting reached a peak in 2003 with the beginning of the Darfur conflict, in which the resistance coalesced into a roughly cohesive rebel movement. The conflict soon came to be regarded as one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.

See also

• Friedhelm Eronat
• Darfur Conflict

Notes and references

• Davidson, Basil. West Africa Before the Colonial Era: A History to 1850. Essex: Pearson Education Limited, 1998. ISBN 0582318521
• Lewis, Brenda Ralph. Great Civilizations. Bath: Parragon Publishing, 1999. ISBN 0752561413
• Brooks, George E. Eurafricans in Western Africa. Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2003. ISBN 0821414852

External Links

• Darfur Information Retrieved July 18, 2007.
• BBC report on DarfurRetrieved July 18, 2007.

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