Baggara
Baggara (also Baqqara ; Arabic البقارة, DMG al-baqqāra , fromبقرة / baqara / ' cow ') is the summary term for semi- nomadic Arabic-speaking cattle herders in Sudan , Chad and partly in other Sahel countries. The term Baggara is used to distinguish Aballa ( camel nomads ) and Zurga (farmers) and encompasses a large number of different tribes . In Chad, the Baggara are referred to as Shuwa in Chadian Arabic .
The Baggara can be traced back at least partially to camel nomads who, when they advanced into wetter areas from the north, gave up camel breeding in favor of cattle. In their current distribution area, they have also assimilated other cattle-breeding nomads into their ethnic group, including parts of the Fur .
The Baggara belong to different tribes that are more important to their identity than their identity as Baggara. They were traditionally known as slave traders who raided agricultural peoples further south. During the Civil War in South Sudan , the Sudanese government equipped Baggara militias to fight against the South Sudanese rebels. Such militias, known as the Popular Defense Forces or Murahalin , raided villages of the Dinka and other South Sudanese ethnic groups, with whom they compete for land and water. In the process, they often abducted civilians into slavery. Baggara militias are also involved on the government side in the Darfur conflict .
The Baggara are Sunni Muslims .
The Baggara of Darfur and Kordofan were the main supporters of the Mahdi in the Mahdi uprising from 1881 to 1899.
See also
literature
- Ian Cunnison: Baggara Arabs: Power and the Lineage in a Sudanese Nomad Tribe. Clarendon / Oxford University Press, Oxford 1966, ISBN 978-0-19-823125-7
- Christian Delacampagne: The History of Slavery . Patmos Verlag GmbH & Co. KG Artemis & Winkler Verlag, Düsseldorf and Zurich, 2004, ISBN 3-538-07183-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ La tribu des Baggara à surgi au Tchad en 1635. Histoire Islamique, October 10, 2015 (French)