Baggara Arabs
عرب البقارة | |
---|---|
Total population | |
6,080,000+[citation needed] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Sudan | 3,700,000+[1] |
Chad | 2,230,000+[2] |
Cameroon | 204,000[citation needed] |
Niger | 150,000[3] |
Central African Republic | 107,000[citation needed] |
Nigeria | 100,000[4] |
Languages | |
Arabic (Chadian Arabic, Sudanese Arabic) | |
Religion | |
Sunni Islam | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Sudanese Arabs, Nilo-Saharans, Nubians, Arabs |
The Baggāra (
The Baggāra mostly speak their distinct dialect, known as Chadian Arabic. However the Baggāra of Southern Kordofan, due to contact with the sedentary population and the Sudanese Arab camel herders of Kordofan, has led to some Sudanese Arabic influence on the dialect of that zone.[10] They also have a common traditional mode of subsistence, nomadic cattle herding, although nowadays many lead a settled existence. Nevertheless, collectively they do not all necessarily consider themselves one people, i.e., a single ethnic group. The term "baggara culture" was introduced in 1994 by Braukämper.[5]
The political use of the term baggāra in Sudan is to denote a large group of closely related cattle-owning Arabic speaking tribes that reside traditionally in the Southern parts of Darfur and Kordofan who mixed extensively with the native people they live with in the region, in particular the Fur people, Nuba peoples and Fula people.[11] The bulk of Baggara Arabs live in Chad and Sudan, with small minorities in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Central African Republic and South Sudan. Those who are still nomads migrate seasonally between grazing lands in the wet season and river areas in the dry season.
Their common language is known to academics by various names, such as Chadian Arabic, taken from the regions where the language is spoken. For much of the 20th century, this language was known to academics as "Shuwa Arabic", but "Shuwa" is a geographically and socially parochial term that has fallen into disuse among linguists specializing in the language, who instead refer to it as "Chadian Arabic" depending on the origin of the native speakers being consulted for a given academic project.
Origins and divisions
Like other Arabic speaking tribes in
Baggara tribes in
The
The Baggara tribes have camel-owning relatives, known as the
The small community of "Baggara Arabs", they are in fact
History
The Baggara of Darfur and Kordofan were the backbone of the Mahdist revolt against Turko-Egyptian rule in Sudan in the 1880s. The Mahdi's second-in-command, the Khalifa Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, was himself a Baggara of the Ta'aisha tribe. During the Mahdist period (1883–98) tens of thousands of Baggara migrated to Omdurman and central Sudan where they provided many of the troops for the Mahdist armies.
After their defeat at the
The main Baggara tribes of
The Baggara people (and subgroups) were armed by the Sudanese government to participate in the counterinsurgency against the
During the Second Sudanese Civil War thousands of Dinka women and children were abducted and subsequently enslaved by members of the Missiriya and Rezeigat tribes. An unknown number of children from the Nuba tribe were similarly abducted and enslaved.[24] In Darfur, a Beni Halba militia force was organized by the government to defeat an SPLA force led by Daud Bolad in 1990–91. However, by the mid-1990s the various Baggara groups had mostly negotiated local truces with the SPLA forces. The leaders of the major Baggara tribes declared that they had no interest in joining the fighting.
See also
- Abbala
- Messiria tribe
- Hawazma tribe
- Rizeigat tribe
- Ta’isha tribe
- Habbaniya tribe
- Beni Halba tribe
- Awlad Himayd
- Diffa Arabs
References
- ^ Flint, Julie (2010), The Other War: Inter-Arab Conflict in Darfur (PDF), Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, retrieved 23 November 2020,
Although the most recent census, conducted in 2008, puts Darfur's population at 7.5 million, the NCP of President Omar al Bashir insisted that tribe and religion be omitted from the database, reportedly for fear that Sudan would no longer be defined as an Arab, Islamic state. Estimates of the Arab population of Darfur range from 30 per cent, based on the census of 1956, to the 70 per cent claimed by Arab tribal leaders in a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in September 2007. Given that many Arabs from Chad have settled in Darfur in the last several decades, and that the rate of migration to Sudan's more developed centre is higher among non-Arabs, who are less dependent on pastoralism, a figure of 40 per cent is probably closer to the mark."
- ^ "Chad". 2 October 2023.
- ^ "Africa | Niger's Arabs to fight expulsion". BBC News. 25 October 2006. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
- ^ .
- ^ a b Owens 1993, p. 11.
- S2CID 154443608.
- ^ "Baqqārah | people | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
- ^ Adam 2012, p. 17.
- ^ Owens 1993, p. 12.
- ^ Manfredi 2012, p. 6.
- ^ Macmichael 1922, p. 271.
- ^ "Baqqārah". Encyclopedia Britannica. 20 July 1998.
- ^ Oliver 2008, pp. 80.
- ^ Hassan 1967, pp. 168.
- ^ Owens 1998, pp. 18.
- ^ "Sudan". Retrieved 7 December 2023.
- ^ "Sudan". Retrieved 7 December 2023.
- ^ "Sudan". Retrieved 7 December 2023.
- ^ Tubiana, Tanner & Abdul-Jalil 2012, pp. 24.
- ^ Young 2008, pp. 29.
- ^ Decalo 1979, pp. 31, 179.
- ^ International Crisis Group 2007, p. 2.
- ^ Flint, J. and Alex de Waal, 2008 (2nd Edn), Darfur: A new History of a Long War, Zed Books.
- ^ United States Department of State, 2008
Notes
- Decalo, Samuel (1979). Historical dictionary of Niger. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0810812290.
- de Waal, Alex and Julie Flint. 2006. Darfur: A Short History of a Long War. London: Zed Books. ISBN 1-84277-697-5.
- International Crisis Group (12 October 2007). "Sudan: breaking the Abyei deadlock" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 September 2011.
- Owens, Jonathan (1993). A grammar of Nigerian Arabic. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 9783447032964.
- Owens, Jonathan (2003). "Arabic Dialect History and Historical Linguistic Mythology". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 123 (4): 715–740. JSTOR 3589965.
- Scheinfeldt, Laura B, et al. 2010. Working toward a synthesis of archaeological, linguistic, and genetic data for inferring African population history. In John C. Avise and Francisco J. Ayala, eds., In the light of evolution. Volume IV: the human condition. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. Series: Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia
- United States Department of State. 2008-06-04. Trafficking in Persons Report 2008—Sudan.
- Adam, Biraima M. (30 October 2012). Baggara of Sudan: Culture and Environment: Culture, Traditions and Livelihood. Createspace Independent Pub. ISBN 978-1-4782-4213-0.
- Tubiana, Jérôme; Tanner, Victor; Abdul-Jalil, Musa Adam (2012). Traditional Authorities' Peacemaking Role in Darfur (PDF) (Report). Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace.
- Young, Helen M. (2008). Livelihoods, Power, and Choice: The Vulnerability of the Northern Risaygat, Darfur, Sudan. Feinstein International Center.
- Owens, Jonathan (1998). Neighborhood and Ancestry: Variation in the Spoken Arabic of Maiduguri, Nigeria. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 978-90-272-1834-6.
- Manfredi, Stefano (2012). "Dialect mixing and dialect levelling in Kordofanian Baggara Arabic (Western Sudan)". In Alexandrine Barontini; Christophe Pereira; Ángeles Vincente; Karima Ziamari (eds.). Dynamiques langagières en Arabophonies : variations, contacts, migrations et créations artistiques : hommage offert à Dominique Caubet par ses élèves et collègues (Primeraición ed.). Zaragoza: Universidad de Zaragoza. pp. 141–162. ISBN 9788461614370.
- Macmichael, Harold Alfred (1922). A History of the Arabs in the Sudan - Scholar's Choice Edition. Cambridge: University Press.
- Oliver, Roland, ed. (2008). The Cambridge history of Africa (1050-1600). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-20981-6.
- Hassan, Yusuf Fadl (1967). The Arabs and the Sudan: from the seventh to the early sixteenth century. Edinburgh: University Press.
Further reading
- Braukämper, Ulrich. 1994. Notes on the origin of Baggara Arab culture with special reference to the Shuwa. In Jonathan Owens, ed., Arabs and Arabic in the Lake Chad Region. Rüdiger Köppe. Series SUGIA (Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika); 14.