Sara people

Last updated
Sara
Chadgirl.jpg
A Sara woman
Total population
~4 million
Regions with significant populations
The Republic of Chad, the Central African Republic, and the Republic of Sudan
Flag of Chad.svg  Chad 5,311,303 (30.5%) [1]
Flag of the Central African Republic.svg  Central African Republic 423,281 (7.9%) [2]
Languages
Sara languages, French
Religion
Christianity, Sara animism (traditional African religion), Islam
Related ethnic groups
Bilala people and other Central Sudanic peoples

The Sara people are a Central Sudanic ethnic group native to southern Chad, the northwestern areas of the Central African Republic, and the southern border of North Sudan. [3] They speak the Sara languages which are a part of the Central Sudanic language family. [4] They are also the largest ethnic group in Chad. [5] [6]

Contents

Sara oral histories add further details about the people. In summary, the Sara are mostly animists (veneration of nature), with a social order made up of several patrilineal clans formerly united into a single polity with a national language, national identity, and national religion. Many Sara people have retained their ethnic religion, but some have converted to Christianity and Islam. [7]

Overview

Many Sara people live in the region southeast of Lake Chad, which is irrigated by the Chari and Logone rivers. Charirivermap.png
Many Sara people live in the region southeast of Lake Chad, which is irrigated by the Chari and Logone rivers.

In Chad

The Sara (Kameeni) are the largest ethnic group in the Republic of Chad, they're concentrated in the Moyen-Chari, the Logone Oriental, the Logone Occidental, and parts of the Tandjile regions. After their arrival, they continued to be the target of violent raids by northern Fulani and Arab people. [7] [8] [9]

Body scarring rituals have long been a part of Sara culture, affirming community solidarity; both men and women subscribe to it. COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Twee Sara mannen met gezichtsscarificaties TMnr 60033953.jpg
Body scarring rituals have long been a part of Sara culture, affirming community solidarity; both men and women subscribe to it.

The local Muslim groups of what is now Chad, referred to the Sara as "Kirdi", with the term "Kirdi" denoting a non-Muslim person. The Muslim raiders of what is now Chad were autonomously called "Bagirmi", and this geo-political conflict between the Kirdi and the Bagirmi continued through the nineteenth century. [11] [12]

The French colonial empire entered the ongoing hostilities in the early twentieth century, and the Sara people became a part of the French Equatorial Africa, more specifically as part of the "le Tchad utile". The Sara society was transformed by this development, both in terms of culture such as French-based education and training, but also socio-economically because of forced labor and conscription to serve the French military during the World Wars. [11] At the time of independence from France in 1960, the southerners of Chad were more assimilated into French institutions than the northerners. [11] This led to their political dominance of the country after 1960. They were also a part of the civil war with populations in north and central Chad, each population aligning with a different ideology. [12]

In the Central African Republic

The Sara people make up ten percent of the population of the Central African Republic, making it the fourth largest ethnic group in the country. They live in the northwest part of CAR.[ citation needed ]

Languages

The Sara people natively speak the Sara languages. This dialect cluster belongs to the Nilo-Saharan family.[ citation needed ]

Religion

The Sara people are mainly Christian and animist, with a minority of Muslims.[ citation needed ]

Genetics

Analysis of classic genetic markers and DNA polymorphisms by Excoffier et al. (1987) found that the Sara are most closely related to the Kunama people of Eritrea. Both populations speak languages from the Nilo-Saharan family. They are also similar to West African populations, but biologically distinct from the surrounding Cushitic and Ethiopian Semitic Afro-Asiatic-speaking groups. [13]

Notable Sara people

See also

Related Research Articles

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The Sara languages comprise over a dozen Bongo–Bagirmi languages spoken mainly in Chad; a few are also spoken in the north of the Central African Republic. They are members of the Central Sudanic language family. Greenberg (1966) treats all varieties as dialects of a Sara language, whereas Tucker and Bryan (1966) consider the Sara to be a dialect cluster of several languages. Most members of the different Sara languages/dialects consider their speech form distinct languages, but there is currently insufficient language information to determine which speech varieties need to be considered distinct languages, and which are dialects of other languages.

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References

  1. ↑ "Chad" . Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  2. ↑ "Central African Republic" . Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  3. ↑ Sara people, Encyclopædia Britannica
  4. ↑ Sara languages, Ethnologue
  5. ↑ Chad: Society and People, CIA Factbook, US Government
  6. ↑ Christine Zuchora-Walske (2009). Chad in Pictures. Twenty-First Century. p. 47. ISBN   978-1-57505-956-3.
  7. 1 2 3 James Stuart Olson (1996). The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood. p. 510. ISBN   978-0-313-27918-8.
  8. ↑ M. J. Azevedo (2005). The Roots of Violence: A History of War in Chad. Routledge. pp. 10–11. ISBN   978-1-135-30080-7.
  9. ↑ Kevin Shillington (2013). Encyclopedia of African History 3-Volume Set. Routledge. p. 228. ISBN   978-1-135-45670-2.
  10. ↑ Mario Zamora et al (1981), Image and Reality in African Interethnic Relations: The Fulbe and their Neighbors, US Department of Education, pages 136-137, 162-167
  11. 1 2 3 David Levinson (1996). "Sara". The Encyclopedia of World Cultures - 10 Volume set, 1st Edition . Gale. ISBN   978-0816118403.
  12. 1 2 Anthony Appiah; Henry Louis Gates (2010). Encyclopedia of Africa. Oxford University Press. pp. 253–256. ISBN   978-0-19-533770-9.
  13. ↑ Excoffier, Laurent; et al. (1987). "Genetics and history of sub-Saharan Africa". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 30: 151–194. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.1330300510 . Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  14. ↑ ETH Zurich (2021). EPR Atlas: Central African Republic (PDF) (Report). p. 341. Retrieved 25 July 2023.

Bibliography

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