The Zaghawa people , also called Beri or Zakhawa , are an ethnic group primarily residing in southwestern Libya , northeastern Chad , and western Sudan , including Darfur .
31-564: Zaghawas speak the Zaghawa language , which is an eastern Saharan language . They are pastoralists, and a breed of sheep that they herd is called Zaghawa by the Arabs. They are nomadic and obtain much of their livelihood through herding cattle, camels and sheep and harvesting wild grains. It has been estimated that there are 384,150 people who belong to the Zaghawa ethnicity. The royal history of
62-576: A blacksmith one will always be a blacksmith". Non-blacksmith castes of Zaghawa neither eat nor associate with the blacksmith castes. The lowest strata has been the slaves. The social stratification and castes such as for the leatherworker strata within the Zaghawa people is similar to those found in nearby Fur people . While they are not very powerful in Sudan, they politically dominate Chad. The former president, Idriss Déby and several former prime ministers of Chad are Zaghawa, as well as many other members of
93-593: A computer font by Seonil Yun in cooperation with SIL International and the Mission Protestante Franco-Suisse au Tchad. There is also an Arabic script alphabet under development, based on the Tijani system of writing African languages in the 13th century. Endogamous Endogamy is the cultural practice of mating within a specific social group , religious denomination , caste , or ethnic group , rejecting any from outside of
124-547: A considerable portion of the lands lying east of Kanem, and it is only in the late 14th century that Darfur is mentioned as an independent state by the Mamluk Sultanate historian and geographer al-Maqrizi . Following the rise of Darfur and the Kanem-Bornu Empire, the Zaghawa appear to have controlled only desert areas and ceased to be a major regional power. The traditional Zaghawa society has led
155-440: A long time as distinct communities within societies that have other practices and beliefs. The isolationist practices of endogamy may lead to a group's extinction, as genetic diseases may develop that can affect an increasing percentage of the population. However, this disease effect would tend to be small unless there is a high degree of close inbreeding, or if the endogamous population becomes very small in size. The Urapmin ,
186-607: A memoir about Darfur called The Translator and a Zaghawa woman named Halima Bashir co-authored a memoir with Damien Lewis called Tears of the Desert , which both spread knowledge about the atrocities in Darfur. Among Sudan's ethnic minorities, Zaghawas Islamists were also one of the most active within the al-Bashir regime at its beginning, participating in security, police and the Popular Defense Forces . After
217-593: A predominantly pastoral life, made up of nomadic clans with horse, donkeys, goat and sheep herd keeping focus. At their peak strength before the Sayfawa dynasty displaced and disbanded them, they were noted merchants and traders with camels and horses, controlling some of the Trans-Saharan trade routes . They accepted the Maliki school of Sunni Islam but retained some of their pre-Islamic rites such as karama ,
248-404: A ritual sacrifice of animals to ward off evil spirits. The century in which they converted has been a subject of debate and little consensus, with estimates ranging from the 13th to the early 17th century. In contemporary times, they lead a sedentary lifestyle, growing staples such as millet and sorghum, and other foods such as sesame, melons, pumpkins, peanuts and okra . Roger Blench notes that
279-648: A small tribe in Papua New Guinea , practice strict endogamy. The Urapmin also have a system of kinship classes known as tanum miit . Since the classes are inherited cognatically , most Urapmin belong to all of the major classes, creating great fluidity and doing little to differentiate individuals. The small community on the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha are, because of their geographical isolation, an almost endogamic society. There are instances of health problems attributed to endogamy on
310-423: A variant of /s/ appearing before /i/ . The phonemic status of the rhotics are unclear: Osman states that [ɾ r] may be exchanged without any change in meaning, yet maintains that they are distinct phonemes. Of the obstruents , /p/ may not occur word-initially, and only /p t k s/ may occur word-finally, with /b/ in final position in some dialects. /r/ may not occur word-initially, and /f ɾ/ only appear in
341-542: Is referred to as pedigree collapse . This may cause relations along multiple paths between a person's autosomal-DNA matches. It creates stronger DNA matches between the DNA matches than expected from the nearest path. Cousin marriage should not be confused with double cousins , which do not cause a pedigree collapse. Certain levels of sibling marriage and cousin marriage is prevented by law in some countries, and referred to as consanguinity . A long term pattern of endogamy in
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#1732766249232372-589: The 1989 coup , Khalil Ibrahim , a Zaghawa from Tina, was placed at the head of the tanzim in Darfur. Other Zaghawas, such as Adam Tahir Hamdoun , Yusuf Libis , Sulieman Jammous or Khalil's brother, Gibril Ibrahim , will also play key roles in the new regime. However, after al-Turabi 's break with al-Bashir and the crisis of '98, most of the Islamist Zaghawas will defect from the NCP and become anti-regime activists, with many of them aligning themselves with
403-648: The Hajj , the Zaghawa leadership converted to Islam . In the 1940s, the Zaghawa began to turn to Islam from their traditional religion en masse . In Darfur, the Zaghawa are well-known for their piety. Due to the fighting in the War in Darfur , where they are targeted by the Janjaweed Arab militias due to their ethnic heritage, 100,000 have become refugees across the border in Chad. A Zaghawa tribesman named Daoud Hari wrote
434-641: The Kanem–Bornu Empire , the Girgam , refers to the Zaghawa people as the Duguwa . Today, Zaghawa refer to themselves as the Beri , while Arabic speakers and literature refer to them as "Zaghawa". In literature related to African ethnic groups, the term Beri (sometimes Kegi ) includes Zaghawas, Bideyat, and Bertis peoples, each clustered in different parts of Chad, Sudan and Libya. The earliest recorded mention of
465-455: The camel alphabet , he based the phoneme choice on the Arabic language rather than on Zaghawa. Also, some of the marks were longer than others, which made it harder to use it as a computer font. In 2000, a Beri veterinarian named Siddick Adam Issa prepared an improved version of the alphabet which is named Beria Giray Erfe (Beria Writing Marks). In 2007, this system of writing was turned into
496-569: The Nile region and the Maghreb regions by the 1st millennium . The earliest references to them in 8th-century texts are made jointly with the Toubou people of northern Chad and southern Libya, and scholars believe the two are related ethnic groups. The 11th century texts mention that the kings of the Zaghawa kingdom had accepted Islam, and were at least nominally Muslims. Early Arabic accounts describe
527-500: The Zaghawa comes from the 9th century Arab geographer Ya'qubi , who wrote of them as the “Zaghawa who live in a place called Kanem”, and proceeded to list a string of other kingdoms under Zaghawa rule. Historically, the Zaghawa people held a sort of hegemony over most of the smaller societies that stretched along the Sahel between Lake Chad to the Nile valley kingdoms of Nubia , Makuria and Alwa . The Zaghawa people were trading with
558-525: The Zaghawa people, and a , Zaghawa for "mouth". It has been estimated that there are about 447,400 native speakers of the Zaghawa language, who primarily live in Chad and the Darfur region of Sudan. It is also spoken by a smaller number of people in Libya. Zaghawa clans are: Zaghawa dialects, which do not always correspond to clan divisions, are: Zaghawa has a nine-vowel system with advanced-tongue-root vowel harmony . The vowels fall into two sets: with
589-472: The Zaghawa society as dirty and of inferior status, being people from different pagan and Jewish roots who slowly assimilated into the Islamic society. Some of the early Arab texts refer to the Zaghawa royalty as "blacksmith kings with inconceivable arrogance". The term "blacksmith" has been derogatory in Zaghawa culture, states Anne Haour , a professor of African Studies and Medieval Archaeology, and "if born
620-403: The Zaghawa to be "black nomads". The 12th-century geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi and the 13th-century Yaqut al-Hamawi describe the Zaghawa influence around an oasis-centered system and mention the towns of Kanem, Manan and Anjimi. However, ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi , writing in 1270. states that Manan was the capital of Kanem kingdom until the Sayfawa dynasty rulers converted to Islam, conquered
651-465: The al-Turabi's Popular Congress Party , participating in the publication of The Black Book or leading the al-Fashir protests in September 2000. Zaghawa language Zaghawa is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Zaghawa people of east-central Chad (in the Sahel ) and northwestern Sudan ( Darfur ). The people who speak this language call it Beria , from Beri , the endonym of
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#1732766249232682-592: The appearance of Nilo-Saharan speakers is associated with the green Sahara . Zaghawa society has been socially stratified and has included castes. The upper strata has been of nobles and warriors, below them have been the traders and merchants, below whom have been the artisan castes called the Hadaheed (or Hadahid ). These castes have been endogamous and their inherited occupations have included ironwork , hunters, pottery, leatherwork, and musicians such as drummers. The artisan work has traditionally been viewed within
713-421: The convert, by accepting the partner's religion, becomes accepted within the endogamous group. Endogamy may result in a higher rate of recessive gene –linked genetic disorders . Endogamy can encourage sectarianism and serves as a form of self-segregation. For instance, a community resists integration or completely merging with the surrounding population. Minorities can use it to stay ethnically homogeneous over
744-551: The government. Thus the Chadian Zaghawa have been influential people in the regional politics. In contemporary wars in Chad, Libya and Sudan, the Zaghawa ethnic group has been deeply involved, particularly through strategic alliances with other ethnic groups such as the Fur people . However, in Sudan, the Zaghawa are caught up in the Darfur crisis, and have suffered much loss from the troubles there. The Zaghawa of Sudan are among
775-486: The group or belief structure as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships. Its opposite, exogamy , describes the social norm of marriage outside of the group. Endogamy is common in many cultures and ethnic groups. Several religious and ethnic religious groups are traditionally more endogamous, although sometimes mating outside of the group occurs with the added dimension of requiring marital religious conversion . This permits an exogamous marriage, as
806-461: The island, including glaucoma and asthma as research by the University of Toronto has demonstrated. Endogamic marriage patterns may increase the frequency of various levels of cousin marriage in a population, and may cause high probability of children of first, second, third cousins, etcetera. If a cousin marriage has accrued in a known ancestral tree of a person, in historical time, it
837-417: The middle of words, as in /tòrfù/ ' bird ' . There are five tones , high, mid, low, rising, falling, all of which may occur on simple vowels, for example in /ɪ́ɡɪ́/ I watered , /ɪ̌ɡɪ̂/ I said , /ɪ̀ɡɪ̀/ right (direction) . Tone distinguishes words, but also has grammatical functions; for example, the plural of many nouns is formed by changing the tone of the final syllable from low to high, and
868-413: The peoples living in the refugee camps in Darfur and eastern Chad where the recruitment of child soldiers into rebel movements is an ongoing problem. The Zaghawa have been among the tribes in Darfur who have been referred to as "African" even as other tribes that have fought with them have been called "Arab". As a result of Tijani Muslim missionaries from West Africa traveling through their area to make
899-426: The perfective aspect of many verbs is similarly formed by changing the tone of the final syllable from low to high. Words tend to be short, often CV and CVCV. The most complex syllables are CVC and CRV, where R is either of the two rhotics . In the 1950s, a Zaghawa schoolteacher named Adam Tajir created an alphabet for the Zaghawa language that was based on the clan identification marks (brands). Sometimes known as
930-540: The region, and thereafter the capital shifted to Njimi . The Zaghawa continued to live in Manan, wrote ibn Said. The records of Kanem do not mention Zaghawa, and they were likely displaced and they then moved into the region they are currently found. This region is called Dar Zaghawa , or the "land of the Zaghawa". Although Zaghawa power was broken by the rise of Kanem in the Lake Chad region, Zaghawa retained control over
961-472: The vowels of affixes depending on the set of vowels in the stem, and with /a/ functioning in both sets. There is some variation among dialects as to the presence of a tenth vowel, /ə/, which in some dialects functions as the +ATR counterpart of /a/. Diphthongs are /ei əu iə/ and /aɪ aʊ ɔɪ/ . Consonants are simple: Osman also includes /ʒ ħ/ in this list. /ʃ/ occurs primarily in the Sudanese dialect as