Wikipedia

Baggara Arabs

Not to be confused withAl-Baggara.

TheBaggāra(Arabic:البَقَّارَة,romanized:al baqqāra"heifer herder"[5]), also known asChadian Arabs,are anomadicconfederation of people of mixedArabandArabizedindigenous Africanancestry,[6][7]inhabiting a portion of theSahelmainly betweenLake Chadand theNile rivernearsouth Kordofan,numbering over six million.[8]They are known as Baggara and Abbala inSudan,and as Shuwa Arabs inCameroon,Nigeriaand WesternChad.[4]The term Shuwa is said to be ofKanuriorigin.[9]

Baggara Arabs
عرب البقارة
Caravan of Baggara Arab nomads in Chad
Total population
6,080,000+[citation needed]
Regions with significant populations
Sudan3,700,000+[1]
Chad2,230,000+[2]
Cameroon204,000[citation needed]
Niger150,000[3]
Central African Republic107,000[citation needed]
Nigeria100,000[4]
Languages
Arabic(Chadian Arabic,Sudanese Arabic)
Religion
Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Sudanese Arabs,Nilo-Saharans,Nubians,Arabs
Wikisourcehas the text of the1911Encyclopædia Britannicaarticle "Baggāra".

The Baggāra mostly speak their distinct dialect, known asChadian 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 someSudanese Arabicinfluence 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 termbaggārain 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 theFur people,Nuba peoplesandFula people.[11]The bulk of Baggara Arabs live inChadandSudan,with small minorities inNigeria,Cameroon,Niger,Central African RepublicandSouth 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

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Shuwa Arab women in the Kingdom of Bornu (1826)

Like other Arabic speaking tribes inSudanand the Sahel, Baggara tribes claim to have ancestry from theJuhaynahArab tribe. They are ofAraband Arabized African ancestry.[12]However the first documented evidence of Arab settlements in this region was in 1391 when the Mai, Kanuri title for King, ofBornu,Abu 'Amr Uthman b. Idris sent a letter to the Mamluk Sultan,Barquq,complaining about theJudhamand other Arabs raiding his territory and enslaving his subjects.[13]The name of one of the major Baggara tribes is shared with an important sub-tribe of the Judham Arabs, theBeni Halba.[14]Braukamper dates the formation of the Baggara culture to the 17th century inWadai,betweenBornuandDarfur,where Arabs, who were camel-herders, met the cattle-rearingFula peoplemigrating east, and out of this contact arose what Braukämper has coined an Arabic baggaara (cattle-herders') culture which today extends from western Sudan (Kordofan and Darfur) into Nigeria (Borno). The Nigerian Arabs are the westernmost representation.[15]

Baggara tribes inSudaninclude: theRizeigat,Ta’isha,Beni Halba,Habbaniya,Salamat,Messiria,Tarjam,and Beni Hussein inDarfur,and theMessiriaZurug, MessiriaHumr,Hawazma,HabbaniyaandAwlad HimaydinKordofan,and the Beni Selam on theWhite Nile.TheMessiriaestimated at 515,000 people (2012 estimate) and theRezeigatestimated at 299,000 people (2012 estimate) are probably the largest sub tribes of the Baggara in Sudan.[16]There is also a small population of "Shuwa Arabs" from Chad who numbered 90,000 in Sudan according to a 2012 estimate.[17]

TheMessiria,one of the largest and most important tribes of the Baggara Arabs are found in Chad, Darfur and Kordofan in Sudan. They numbered 515,000 in Sudan according to a 2012 estimate.[18]The bulk of the Messiria reside in East Kordofan and Chad with a comparatively smaller population in Darfur. In Darfur they are found mainly in Niteiga, an area north of Nyala. Besides the community of Messiria in Niteiga, there are several small Arab groups in Darfur that claim a connection with the Messiria, these are the Ta'alba, Sa'ada, Hotiyya, and Nei'mat. Along with these small groups should be included the Jebel "Messiria" community at Jebel Mun, in West Darfur, that speak aNilo-Saharan language,Mileri,related to theTama.The Mileri of Jebel Mun are traditionally not regarded as Arabs but their leaders have been stressing a Messiria Arab descent.[19]

The Baggara tribes have camel-owning relatives, known as theAbbala.The Abbala tribes in Sudan mainly reside in North and West Darfur. The largest and the tribe most synonymous with the term Abbala are the Northern Rizeigat, which consists of 5 sections; theMahamid,Mahariyya, Nuwaiba, Irayqat and Atayfat.[20]Closely affiliated with them in Darfur are theAwlad Rashidtribe, who mostly live in Chad.

The small community of "Baggara Arabs", they are in factAbbala,that reside in the southeastern corner of Niger are known asDiffa Arabsfor theDiffa Region.The majority migrated from Chad, initially due to the 1974 drought, with more coming in the 1980s because of the war in Chad. Most of the Diffa Arabs claim descent from the Mahamid clan of Sudan and Chad.[21]

History

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Map of the Baggara belt

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 theBattle of Karariin 1898, the remnants returned home to Darfur and Kordofan. Under the British system of indirect rule, each of the major Baggara tribes was ruled by its own paramount chief (nazir). Most of them were loyal members of the Umma Party, headed since the 1960s by Sadiq el Mahdi.

The main Baggara tribes ofDarfurwere awarded "hawakir" (land grants) by the Fur Sultans in the 1750s. As a result, the four largest Baggara tribes of Darfur—theRizeigat,Habbaniya,Beni HalbaandTa’isha—have been only marginally involved in theDarfur conflict.However, the Baggara have been deeply involved in other conflicts in both Sudan and Chad. Starting in 1985, the Government of Sudan armed many of the local tribes among them theRizeigatof south Darfur and theMessiriaandHawazmaof neighboring Kordofan as militia to fight a proxy war against theSudan People's Liberation Armyin their areas. They formed frontline units as well asMuraheleen,mounted raiders that attacked southern villages to loot valuables and slaves. [22]

The Baggara people (and subgroups) were armed by the Sudanese government to participate in the counterinsurgency against theSudanese People’s Liberation Army.The first attacks against villages by the Baggara were staged in the Nuba Mountains. The Sudanese government promoted attacks by promising the Baggara people no interference so they could seize animals and land. They formed the precursors to theJanjaweed- an infamous para-military.[23]

During theSecond Sudanese Civil Warthousands 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 byDaud Boladin 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

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References

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  1. ^Flint, Julie (2010),The Other War: Inter-Arab Conflict in Darfur(PDF),Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs,retrieved23 November2020,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. "
  2. ^"Chad".2 October 2023.
  3. ^"Africa | Niger's Arabs to fight expulsion".BBC News.25 October 2006.Retrieved1 June2020.
  4. ^abAdam, Sirajudeen; Adebisi, AbdulWahid (2012)."Teaching Arabic as a second language in Nigeria".Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences.66(66): 127.doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.11.254.
  5. ^abOwens 1993,p. 11.
  6. ^Al-Rahim, Muddathir 'Abd (1970)."Arabism, Africanism, and Self-Identification in the Sudan".The Journal of Modern African Studies.8(2):233–249.doi:10.1017/S0022278X00019649.JSTOR159386.S2CID154443608.
  7. ^"Baqqārah | people | Britannica".www.britannica.com.Retrieved4 September2022.
  8. ^Adam 2012,p. 17.
  9. ^Owens 1993,p. 12.
  10. ^Manfredi 2012,p. 6.
  11. ^Macmichael 1922,p. 271.
  12. ^"Baqqārah".Encyclopedia Britannica.20 July 1998.
  13. ^Oliver 2008,pp. 80.
  14. ^Hassan 1967,pp. 168.
  15. ^Owens 1998,pp. 18.
  16. ^"Sudan".Retrieved7 December2023.
  17. ^"Sudan".Retrieved7 December2023.
  18. ^"Sudan".Retrieved7 December2023.
  19. ^Tubiana, Tanner & Abdul-Jalil 2012,pp. 24.
  20. ^Young 2008,pp. 29.
  21. ^Decalo 1979,pp. 31, 179.
  22. ^International Crisis Group 2007,p. 2.
  23. ^Flint, J. and Alex de Waal, 2008 (2nd Edn), Darfur: A new History of a Long War, Zed Books.
  24. ^United States Department of State, 2008

Notes

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Further reading

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  • 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.
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