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Tama people

Summary

Tama are a non-Arab, African ethnic group of people who live in eastern Chad and western Sudan. They speak Tama, a Nilo-Saharan language. The population is 200,000–300,000 people and they practice Islam. Many Tama are subsistence farmers who live in permanent settlements and some raise livestock. In the civil war in Chad the Tama were involved in ethnic conflicts with the Zaghawa tribe.

Tama
Total population
200,000–300,000
Regions with significant populations
 Chad
 Sudan
Languages
Tama language
Religion
Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Fur, Masalit, Zaghawa, Nilo-Saharans

Culture edit

The Tama people are a non-Arab[1] (i.e., "Indigenous African"[2][3] ) tribe that live in Dar Tama in northeastern Chad and Darfur in western Sudan.[1] They number 200,000[4]–300,000.[5] They speak Tama, a Nilo-Saharan language.[4] Many of the Tama are subsistence farmers[6][7] who live in permanent settlements[8] and raise millet, beans, cucumbers, gumbo, and sesame.[1] They also raise cattle, camels and goats.[6] The majority of Tama are Muslims, but they also have some animistic beliefs.[8]

Subgroups edit

The Tama are made up of a number of subgroups: Abu Sharib (approximately 50,000 people),[9][10] Asungor (60,000),[6] Dagel,[11] Erenga (35,000),[12] Gimr (50,000),[9][13] Kibet,[14] Marari (20,000),[9][15] Mileri (9,000),[9][16] and Tama proper.[9]

The traditional home of the Tama is Dar Tama.[17] All reside in Chad, except the Gimr and the Mileri, who live near Saref Omra and Kebkabiya in Sudan.[7][18] In 2006, due to violence between the Tama and the Zaghawa,[19] 1,800 Tama refugees fled to Mile and Kounoungo,[7][20] United Nations-sponsored refugee camps.[21]

Governance edit

For centuries, the Tama were governed by sultans.[22] Many of these were believed to be of Dadjo origin.[22] In the 1800s they were a warlike tribe who was known for their use of the spear,[23] who had maintained their independence for the previous two centuries.[23] On at least two occasions, they resisted the invasions from other tribes.[24][25]

At various times they have been subjected to the sultans of Wadai on the west and Darfur on the east, but have always had their own sultan.[26] For example, they were part of the Sultanate of Darfur in the early 1800s.[27] Turkish-Egyptian Sudan governed the area in the late 1800s.[28] During the French colonial period, France really only governed southern Chad,[29] and therefore not the Dar Tama region, but a figurehead sultan was put in place to govern the area.[30]

Zaghawa ethnic tension edit

During the Sahelian drought of the 1980s, the Zaghawa migrated to Dar Tama[17] and displaced some of the Tama.[31]

With the migration of the Zaghawas, armed horsemen began to raid the Tama livestock and commit robberies and murders, a situation that worsened after the rise to power of Déby, who favored his ethnic group in high government and police positions in Dar Tama. The new Zaghawa elite did little to protect Tama civilians from the looting and raiding of these bandits, and even took part in them. This abuse of power was the main reason that led to the establishment of the National Resistance Alliance (ANR) in 1994, an armed organization from which the FUC would later split.[17]

At the time of the Chadian civil war the rebel group United Front for Democratic Change (FUC) largely consisted of Tama.[1] The Zaghawa felt the Tama supported this rebel group that opposed the Chadian government,[31] which was led by President Idriss Déby, a member of the Zaghawa tribe,[32] though there was little activity of any rebel group on the community level.[20]

A 2006 robbery of a Tama man and an ensuing gunfight that caused 20 deaths and 9 serious injuries was cited as the event that triggered increased violence.[33] After that, the Zaghawa increased the frequency and violence of their theft of Tama cattle.[34] In 2006, dozens of Tama were killed by Zaghawa militants and thousands of Tama were displaced after Zaghawa attacks on Tama villages.[17]

In August 2006, 3,300 Tama civilians fled from Dar Tama to Sudan because some Zaghawa accused a Tama man of raping one of their women.[20] In October, 1,800 refugees fled to Mile and Kounoungo,[7][20] UN-sponsored refugee camps.[21] Human Rights Watch could not corroborate allegations of Tama attacks on Zaghawa civilians.[35] The Chadian government and police did little to investigate or condemn the increasing violence.[36]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d Human Rights Watch, p. 11
  2. ^ "Operational Guidance Note, Republic of the Sudan" (PDF). UK Border Agency. August 2012. p. 23. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  3. ^ Rebecca Hamilton (2011). Fighting for Darfur: Public Action and the Struggle to Stop Genocide. Macmillan. p. 13. ISBN 978-0230100220. tama non-arab african.
  4. ^ a b Anthony Appiah; Henry Louis Gates (2010). Encyclopedia of Africa. Oxford University Press. p. 454. ISBN 978-0195337709.
  5. ^ Olson, p. 544
  6. ^ a b c Olson, p. 42
  7. ^ a b c d Jonathan Loeb; Benjamin Naimark-Rowse; Matthew Bowlby; et al. (July 2010). "Darfurian Voices" (PDF). 24 Hours For Darfur. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-25.
  8. ^ a b "Chad: Tama ethnic group; language; population; political affiliations and rebel group support; traditional lands". Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. 1 November 1998. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  9. ^ a b c d e Facts On File, Incorporated (2009). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East. Infobase Publishing. p. 682. ISBN 978-1438126760.
  10. ^ Olson, p. 5
  11. ^ Olson, p. 135
  12. ^ Olson, pp. 168–9
  13. ^ Olson, p. 198
  14. ^ Olson, p. 285
  15. ^ Olson, p. 372
  16. ^ Olson, p. 396
  17. ^ a b c d Human Rights Watch, p. 14
  18. ^ Olson, pp. 198, 396
  19. ^ Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, p. 25
  20. ^ a b c d Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, p. 26
  21. ^ a b Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, p. 66
  22. ^ a b Dennis D. Cordell, ed. (1990). "The Society and Its Environment". Chad: A Country Study. Library of Congress Country Studies (2nd ed.). Library of Congress. p. 37. ISBN 0-16-024770-5. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  23. ^ a b Barth, p. 650
  24. ^ Barth, p. 644
  25. ^ Barth, p. 646
  26. ^ Harold Alfred MacMichael (1922). A History of the Arabs in the Sudan: And Some Account of the People who Preceded Them and of the Tribes Inhabiting Darfur. Vol. 1. CUP Archive. p. 85.
  27. ^ Rex S. O'Fahey (2008). The Darfur Sultanate: A History. Columbia University Press. pp. 74–75. ISBN 978-0231700382.
  28. ^ Said S. Samatar (1992). In the Shadow of Conquest: Islam in Colonial Northeast Africa. The Red Sea Press. pp. 125–6. ISBN 0932415709.
  29. ^ John L. Collier, ed. (1990). "Historical Setting". Chad : A Country Study. Library of Congress Country Studies (2nd ed.). Library of Congress. p. 17. ISBN 0-16-024770-5. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  30. ^ Gérard Prunier (2008). Darfur: A 21st Century Genocide (3 ed.). Cornell University Press. p. 21. ISBN 978-0801475030.
  31. ^ a b "Fighting between president's and defence chief's ethnic groups". WOW, Gambia News Gateway. 27 August 2007. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  32. ^ Human Rights Watch, p. 25
  33. ^ Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, pp. 28–9
  34. ^ Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, p. 32
  35. ^ Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, p. 28
  36. ^ Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, pp. 34–5

Bibliography edit

  • Africa Division of Human Rights Watch (January 2007). Leslie Lefkow; Georgette Gagnon; Aisling Reidy; Andrew Mawson (eds.). ""They Came Here to Kill Us": Militia Attacks and Ethnic Targeting of Civilians in Eastern Chad" (PDF). Human Rights Watch.
  • Henry Barth (1857). Travels and discoveries in north and central Africa, 1849-1855, Volume 2. Harvard University.
  • Human Rights Watch (July 2007). "Early to War: Child Soldiers in the Chad Conflict" (PDF). Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  • James Stuart Olson (1996). The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0313279187.

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