Daju (people)
The Daju ( Dājū ) people are the dominant tribe in southeastern Chad , which borders the Sudanese region of Darfur . An alternative name for the people is Bokoruge.
people
Belonging to the Dājū is defined by the common ancestors and the language, the Dājū , which is part of the Nilosaharan language group. Of the estimated 65,000 speakers, around 40,000 live in Chad. A further distinction according to dialects has been attempted. Most of the children receive Quran lessons, so most of the Dājū are familiar with Chadian Arabic.
The main settlement area extends to the west in a semicircle about 120 km around Goumbatou and across the border into Sudan. Today there are more groups dajusprachige southwest of Kaduqli and Liguri in the Nuba Mountains to Nyala and the river Sopo . In the 20th century, part of the tribe migrated back towards Darfur, many fled the fighting of the last decade back to Chad, where they mostly live in camps.
The Islamization of the region began in the 16th century with the rise of the Wadai Empire . Islam initially remained a religion of the upper class, the people were only "Muslim" insofar as they were subject to an Islamic ruler. As a result, the tribesmen, as “true believers”, were not allowed to be enslaved, even though they were comparatively dark-skinned. Pre-Islamic traditions have remained alive to this day. So the rulers tried to continue to predict the future by means of the "termite oracle" by observing the course of ants. Added to this is the belief in spirits that are inherent in grain, trees and water holes. Today's sultans no longer have political power, but are respected and play a certain role in religious ceremonies.
history
- see main article
- Sultanate of Dar Sila
society
The tribe is divided into individual clans who own the land, under elders ( malik ) who represent to the outside world, who used to collect taxes and sit in court. The households of the free ( masākīn ) were subject to taxation (in kind) by the Sultan. The men were obliged to serve in the arms. The non-Muslim slaves were known as Fertit and Kirdi . The slaves in the Sultan's household had a social status approaching that of their master. They were often settled in their own villages. Other slaves, with the status of the commoners, were integrated into the households of their owners, unless they were only briefly in the country as commodities. Slaves and free people could be distinguished by their clothing.
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Society is organized on a patriarchal basis. However, inheritance is matrilineal. In addition to farming, the tasks of women include general housekeeping and the sole rearing of children. It is common to use twigs to whiten teeth. The eyelids, palate and lips are tattooed with the help of acacia needles. In the family circle, they are often bare-chested.
Sultans
The sultan's position in the male line was hereditary. The principle of primogeniture was not applied consistently, so younger sons or uncles on the paternal side could also succeed a ruler who usually designated a successor. The power of each male member of the dynasty rested on private armies of commoners or slaves trained in firearms, the strength of which usually depended on the status of the leader. Even when there were disputes about succession to the throne, there was a united front against external enemies. The losing parties remained integrated into the extended family. This practice differed from the traditions of neighboring countries: in Wadai, pretenders were blinded, in Darfur they were sent into the desert (albeit with a pension).
The Sultan was theoretically responsible only to God and judged life and death. Its bon plaisier was, however, similar to that of medieval European kings, limited by traditions.
economy
Dār Sīla was the southernmost of a series of sultanates that lay between the realms of Wadai and Darfur. In contrast to the sultanates further north, Dār Sila has sufficient annual precipitation with 600 to 800 mm and comparatively species-rich vegetation. The Dājū are sedentary farmers. Millet varieties and cotton are grown. Corn became an important crop in the 20th century. Livestock farming is also common, but camels are rarely bred.
After the conquest and the Italian occupation of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica , which began in 1911 , the transport of slaves by caravans to Benghazi was stopped. In addition, there was the French policy of unhindered movement of goods along the roads, which abolished the road toll. Within the next decade, the cash economy was introduced and the region was fully integrated into the capitalist colonial economic system. From 1917 onwards, all taxes, which were now based on the built-up land area, were to be paid in cash, which inevitably led to the increased cultivation of cash crops and thus repeatedly caused famine in the region during times of drought or flooding. Many of the residents had to work as migrant workers. This happened on the one hand on the cotton plantations in the Nile Valley, but also during the construction of the railways and in the French army.
A large proportion of the local farmers continue to practice subsistence farming, which is becoming more and more difficult due to increasing desertification and the population explosion in the region.
literature
- Mūsā al-Mūbārak al-Ḥasān: Tārīkh Dār Fur al-Sīyāsī, 1882-1898; Khartoum 1970; 256S
- Lidwien Kapteijns: Dār Silā, the Sultanate in Precolonial Times, 1870-1916 (Le sultanat du Dār Silā à l'époque précoloniale, 1870-1916); Cahiers d'Études Africaines, Vol. 23, Cahier 92 (1983), pp. 447-470.
- Lidwien Kapteijns, J. Spaulding: Precolonial Trade between States in the Eastern Sudan, ca. 1700-ca. 1900; African Economic History, Vol II, 29-62
- Le Cheikh Mohammed Ebn-Omar el-Tounsy: Voyage au Darfour, ex .: E. Perron (Paris: Duprat), 1845
- Le Cheikh Mohammed Ebn-Omar el-Tounsy: Voyage au Ouadây, ex .: E. Perron (Paris: Duprat), 1851
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ (ISO 639-3: last)
- ↑ Estimate 1961: 50,000, of which 30,000 in Chad. quoted in: Kapteijns (1983), p. 448
- ↑ Robin Thelwall: Lexicostatistical subgrouping and Reconstruction of the Daju Group; in: Thilo Schadeberg, Lionel Bender: Nilo-Saharan: Proceedings of the First Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, Leiden, September 8-10, 1980; Dordrecht 1981
- ↑ 7 dialects: CF Voegelin, MF Voegelin: Languages of the World: African Fascicle One; Anthropological Linguistics, Vol. 6, No. 5, (May, 1964), pp. 226f
- ↑ Kapteijns (1962), pp. 262-4
- ↑ The population of Chad increased almost tenfold between 1909 and 2000