Borkou (region of Chad)

Not to be confused with the region of Nigeria and Benin also known as Borgu.

Borkou بوركو
Region
Inner crater of Emi Koussi, highest mountain in Chad, located in Borkou
Map of Chad showing the Borkou province
Country	Chad
Departments	2
Sub-prefectures	4
Province	2012
Capital	Faya-Largeau
Area
• Total	271,513 km2 (104,832 sq mi)
Population  (2009)
• Total	97,251
• Density	0.36/km2 (0.93/sq mi)

The Borkou region (Arabic: بوركو) is a province of Chad which was created in 2008 from the Borkou department of the former Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti region. Its capital is Faya-Largeau.

Geography

Borkou is located in the Sahara Desert, and contains parts of the Tibesti Mountains in its north. The highest point in Chad, Emi Koussi, is located in Borkou. The Bodélé Depression lies in the south-central portion of the region.

The province borders Libya to the north, Ennedi-Ouest Region to the east, Wadi Fira Region, Batha Region, Bahr el Gazel Region and Kanem Region to the south, and Niger and Tibesti Region the west. The region's northern border lies within the Aouzou Strip, historically a point of dispute between Chad and Libya.

Settlements

Faya-Largeau is the provincial capital; other major settlements include Gouro, Kirdimi, Koro Toro and Yarda.

Demographics

As per the census of 2009, the population of the region was 97,251, 46.6% female. The average size of household as of 2009 is 6.00: 6.00 in rural households and 5.80 in urban areas. The total number of households was 16,191: 10,584 in rural areas and 5,607 in urban areas. The number of nomads in the region was 8,221, 2.1% of the population. There were 96,459 people residing in private households. There were 47,285 above 18 years of ages: 24,775 male and 22,510 female. The sex ratio was 114.00 females for every hundred males. There were 89,030 sedentary staff, 0.80 of the total population. The Dazaga and Tedaga Toubou are the dominant ethnic group in the region.

Administration

As a part of decentralisation in February 2003, the country is administratively split into regions, departments, municipalities and rural communities. The prefectures which were originally 14 in number were re-designated in 17 regions. The regions are administered by Governors appointed by the President. The Prefects, who originally held the responsibility of the 14 prefects, still retained the titles and were responsible for the administration of smaller departments in each region. The members of local assemblies are elected every six years, while the executive organs are elected every three years. As of 2016, there are totally 23 regions in Chad, which are divided based on population and administrative convenience. The Borkou region is divided into two departments, namely, Borkou (capital Faya-Largeau) and Borkou Yala (capital Kirdimi, also called Kirdi). On 10 August 2018, a new ordinance divided Chad into 23 provinces, 107 departments, and 377 communes. The names of the former regions remained the same but were now called provinces.

History

The historical region of Borku (French: Borkou) or Borgu (Borgou), mostly in Northern Chad, formed part of the transitional zone between the arid wastes of the Sahara and the fertile lands of central Sudan. It was bounded to the north by the Tibesti Mountains, and is in great measure occupied by its foothills. These hills to the south and east merge into the plains of Ouaddaï and Darfur. South-west, in the direction of Lake Chad, is the Bodele basin. The drainage of the country is to the lake. The northern valleys are inhabited by a settled population of Gourans, known as the Daza.

A caravan route from Barca and the Kufra oasis passed through Bourku to Lake Chad. The country long remained unknown to Europeans. Gustav Nachtigal spent some time in it in the year 1871, and gave a valuable account of the region and its inhabitants in his book, Sahara and the Sudan (1879–1889).

The German explorer G. Nachtigal's works were used by the French in their conquest of Chad in the late 19th century. the German King of Prussia (the precursor to modern-day Germany) has sent Nachtigal to the Bornu Kingdom during the period when a series of sheikhs ruled the Kanem-Bornu Empire, following the collapse of its Mais (Kings). Nachtigal met with Sheikh Omar, gifting him in appreciation for the warm reception that the Sheikh provided to the German explorers. However, Nachtigal’s true mission was to gather information about the regions to aid the German government in their colonization efforts. When the European powers divided the African continent, Chad fell under French control, and as a result, the French utilized Nachtigal's works. The Waddai King had previously forbidden early European explorers from writing about the areas' history and documenting the regions between Kanem and Waddai, which was under his domain at the time. Hence, as a result, when the French began their conquest of Chad, they lacked sufficient information about certain regions. Nachtigal’s accounts served as a critical resource, helping guide French military actions in those regions and enabling them successfully in conquering the regions. The French colonial officers took advantage of any limitations or gaps in Nachtigal's works to manipulate the history of the tribes and regions, using his documentation as a strategic tool, they maliciously manipulated and distorted the history of some communities. This exploitation of Nachtigal's accounts allowed them to reshape narratives about the peoples and territories they sought to control, furthering their colonial agenda. Such distortions and selective uses of information are well documented in their own early colonial writings, where they framed these regions and their histories to suit their imperial interests.

To understand the tensions between various cultural groups as portrayed in French colonial writings and how these writings were used to manipulate the history of Borkou, it is crucial to analyze the core issue: the encounters between foreign writers and local cantons (communities). This is particularly significant because the French relied on the works of Nichtiagl to exploit gaps in knowledge, presenting a distorted and malicious view of history between ethnic groups. In some instances, they reproduced Nichtiagl's accounts without analyzing his writings, who, in turn, which were conveyed to him via the accounts of informants. Moreover, Nichtiagl’s writings on the history of Borkou and Ennedi offer an inaccurate portrayal, filtered through informants, despite his having never visited Ennedi, yet he wrote the entire history about it. The following account corroborates that, upon the arrival of one of the elders of the Senussites from the King of Waddai, a significant event unfolded in Borkou. The Senussites Sheikh, upon seeing Nichtiagl, issued a warning to the local population, urging them to kill him due to his status as "kafir "(The term "kafir," refers to a non-believer or infidel). According to Nichtiagl’s account, even the unaware Daza sought to kill him. However, an elder from the Awlad Souleman, a Libyan Arab tribe intervened on his behalf, ensuring his safety. Despite this, the Senussite elder continued to warn the Daza, asserting that if they did not kill the 'kafir,' he would bring disaster upon their lands—a statement that Nichtiagl recorded. This claim proved to be prescient, as the Germans did not have the opportunity to colonize these regions, but the French ultimately seized control and used Nichtiagl’s writings to support their colonial endeavors in Africa.

In the 1980s, Catherine Baroin, a French researcher, sought permission from the French authorities in Chad to conduct research on the Toubou. However, due to the ongoing wars between the revolutionary military factions FAN (led by Goukouni Oueddei) and FAP (led by Hissène Habré), her request was not granted. The reference for the history of Borkou became from the writings of French colonial military officer Jean Chapelle, who completed a colonial book in 1957, but it was not published until 1982 in Paris, France. Borkou's history had been writtern periodically, with key dates spanning from 1907 to 1913. Six colonial documents were written, of which four were intentionally and maliciously distorted targeted a certain canton (community), while two were solid enough to refute the others. One of these was written by the same lieutenant Feriendi who is one of the responsible for the distorted writings.

These colonial officers had close ties with two communities in Borkou, particularly one that brought the French from south to north Borkou and acted as guides for the French during war expeditions, As documented in their colonial writings, figures such as Djmie Hamidi, who laughed while conversing with Lieutenant Feriendi, were described by Feriendi as cunning and clever, although Feriendi himself was malicious. Hamidi played a key role in manipulating the historical narrative. He was the first person to lead the French invaders from Oum Chalomba (present-day Kalait) to Faya, where they entered the Faya oasis peacefully, significantly influencing the portrayal of events. A report was found in 1934 which was an attempt to mislead a French officer by certain locals into writing an incorrect account of history in Faya, as reported in the colonial archives of Faya that was by French and other Europeans.

Along with Jean Chapelle, Albert Le Rovert also wrote a distorted and malicious history of the Borkou communities, roughly in 1949 or during the mid to late 1950s, or possibly beyond. However, when he was interviewed in 1978 by a French ethnologist of Ethiopian origin (who worked closely with Catherine Baroin), Albert revealed much of the true history of Borkou and its people. This interview was recently published. Austrian explorer Peter Fuchs, who was granted a permission from the French colonial authorities to enter Chad between 1953 and 1956, was tasked with exploring the Ennedi region. This was in response to Nichtagl's written history of the area, despite never having visited it. In addition to his research on Ennedi, Fuchs also covered parts of Borkou and Tibesti.

Fuchs relied on colonial documents and his own flawed understanding, particularly in Borkou, where individuals of originless backgrounds fabricated history, leading to errors about the origins of their clans. These clans were essentially originless, but fabricated origins were created for them. It's possible that Fuchs was misled by the clans about their origins, or he may have fabricated these origins himself. However, it is obvious that the clans provided him with false origins, as they had no clear historical roots. This phenomenon also occurred in the writings of colonial officer Albert Le Rovert, who deliberately misrepresented the history of Borkou's cantons by creating false origins for certain clans and adding other fabricated details. He described the clans as if they came from regions like Kanem, Bahr Gazelle, and others. But who provided Albert with these origins and other details? It is clear that the clans themselves gave these fabricated stories. Albert, in turn, played his part in perpetuating this false history between the cantons, simialr to what Nichtgal did with his incorrect descriptions based on unreliable informants. In the end, all these individuals were misled—some deliberately, and others unknowingly. While Fuchs inaccurately described another canton of well-known and identifiable Toubou (Gorane) clans, he characterized their origins as ambiguous and added incorrect information based on his own assumptions, similar to other writers in Borkou, some of whom did so deliberately, while others were misled, and in some cases, both factors were at play. It is obivious that Fuchs did not have the knowledge that the clans he described as their origins ambiguous actually descended from tribes he mentioned in his writings. He was unaware of this connection when discussing their origins and other aspects of their history. Fuchs noted that he sought to confirm the accuracy of a report he found in the Fada Oasis colonial archive, questioning whether the informants who provided information about a certain clan in Ennedi, written in 1933, were reliable. Despite this, he made mistakes regarding the origins of the Borkou clans and other details.

Chapelle's portrayal of the Borkou cantons contained intentional inaccuracies and maliciously distorted views, which seriously harmed the true history of one of Borkou's cantons and the entire region. This canton as result fell and became a victim of these fabrications. Along with the other colonial authors and (explorers, were victims of misinformation from unreliable informants, while also adding their own untrue interpretations and assumptions to the accounts) their writings contributed to a larger body of literature shaped by French colonial interests. This literature consistently framed African societies through a lens that emphasized conflict and exploitation. This was fueled by certain local populations, who were not originally of Toubou (Gorane) origins or any other well-known ethnic groups, and who could not even trace their ancestors' original names or origins. Taking advantage of the ignorance in the societies, they misled the Toubou while wishing to remain concealed by their falsehoods and they misled French officers, writers, and explorers. These groups entered Toubou (Gorane) societies and played a significant role in distorting the history of the noble clans of a Toubou community, after these clans rejected them when they attempted to intermarry. This became the core cause of the tensions. These groups of Borkou intermarriaged within Borkou's Toubou communities only began during the 1950s and onwards. The French, in turn, exploited the existing tensions between communities, using them to divide and control, since Toubou, in general, are difficult to govern.

When Baroin her request was not granted, she traveled to Niger, where she met with members of Toubou Daza Kicherdia clan and the Azza (blacksmiths) of Toubou. After Idriss Déby rose to power in the early 1990s, Baroin gained access to Chad and conducted field research on the Toubous. However, much of her works, like that of earlier colonial authors, relied heavily on colonial-era accounts that misrepresented and distorted the true history of certain ethnic groups, particularly those in the Borkou region.

In one of her writings, Baroin acknowledged that a Toubou canton in Borkou, suffering and lacking from a complex historical erasure linked to their history in 1994. Despite this, she continued to misrepresent their history in her own works, highlighting the lack of critical reflection among these writers. These distortions were intentional and influenced by the colonial mindset between communities, although they were misled by certain local individuals. However, they knowingly continued their actions deliberately, as seen in the writings of Lieutenant Henry around 1908-1910, alongside others.

The Toubou of BET, in particular, are known for being difficult to govern, stand as an example of this, as seen in the reactions of Chad's President François Tombalbaye in the 1960s. Upon visiting northern Chad, Tombalbaye remarked that the Toubou resembled their neighboring Libyans, revealing his ignorance of their culture. This remark reflected broader patterns of misrepresentation and hostility, as the Chadian government at the time committed numerous insulting acts towards the Toubou. Tombalbaye even instructed the French colonial army to remain in BET for an additional five years or so, demonstrating the government's reliance on colonial support to govern its people. French authorities were already well aware of these dynamics and sought to categorize, marginalize, and sow elements of strife among Toubou ethnic groups, particularly in Borkou. These divisions persist to this day as a result of colonial actions, writings amoung others.

It is evident from these accounts that when there was nothing unfavorable about a certain group, misleading, negative and harmful narratives were created and perpetuated, including by Baroin herself. This pattern occurred throughout the history of those who wrote about Borkou and its peoples. This trend is visible throughout colonial, explorers, and post-colonial writings. The history of Borkou has been misrepresented and distorted since the time of Nichtgal to the present day by all outsiders, with its history being deliberately miswritten.

Nichtgal also mentioned that, as a general practice, people wear small wrapped cloths inscribed with verses of a religious or mystical nature, believed to hold spiritual significance. Even during the Toyota War, the Libyan soldiers observed that the Chadians wore these necklaces, a tradition that continues today across Chad and in some other African countries.

The Toubou are known for insulting and challenging each other, as observed by Baroin between the Daza of Kanem and Teda. These negative behaviors occur across all Toubou groups, with individuals often attempting to insult and undermine one another. As a consequence of these actions, a Toubou canton, particularly in Borkou, were severely affected, and their histories were manipulated through lies and stereotypes conveyed to the colonial officers by those who acted as guides during the early French conquest around 1905, extending through Jean Chappelle's time in the 1950s and beyond. The French, in turn, took advantage of these divisions to sow discords among the Toubou groups, while also misleading the explorers within ignorant societies.

French officers like Jean Chappelle and Albert Le Rover left mementos for those from one of the cantons of Borkou who provided them with fabricated accounts of history, as evidenced by their writings. These accounts from this canton can be found on social media through a simple Google search. Given the pervasive inaccuracies in these sources, readers should approach all such writings—whether colonial, explorers, or post-colonial—with caution. These accounts perpetuate incomplete, biased, and intentionally misleading portrayals, particularly of the Toubou cantons of the Borkou region.

In 1899, Borkou was assigned to the French sphere of influence through an agreement with Great Britain. Previously, the region had been intermittently visited by the Awlad Sliman Arab tribe, who came to steal dates from the oases. Then, was governed by the Senussi under name of friendship, The Senussi established Zawiyas in the key population centers in the late 19th century, just before the French arrived. All of the Arab tribes were equipped with firearms and ventured into BET for various reasons: some fleeing from the Ottoman (Turks) Empire, while others migrated due to famine among other factors. These Arabs entered Chad around 1849 and later extended into Sudan and Niger, following the fall of southeastern Libya due to the Arab and Turkish conquests around 1808, as well as the fall of Fazzan at different periods. Before the Arab, Turkish, and other conquests, southern Libya was controlled by the Toubou (Gorane), Zaghawa and Tuaregs. Around the same period of establishing Zawiyas, or possibly shortly before, local chiefs sent a request to the Ottoman Turks in Tripoli, Libya to establish garrisons in the area. However, conflicts erupted when the Turks attacked a local in Faya, leading to fierce clashes with Daza that ultimately drove the Turks out. In 1907, the French launched an expedition towards Borkou, with a column entering Faya from Bir Alali (Kanem). The French enlisted the Teda and Awlad Sliman as guides, leading them into Borkou. A battle ensued between the French and their allies—the Awlad Sliman, who supported the French due to their hostility with the Senussi—as well as the Teda and the Daza, who were divided in their allegiance—some sided with the French, while others supported the Senussi. The French, along with their allies, emerged victorious. On November 27, 1913, the battle of Ain Galakka took place, where French colonel Largeau led a column against the Senussi along their supporters. Following their victory, Largeau returned to Faya peacefully, which Faya subsequently developed into the largest city and capital of the BET region. Meanwhile, other French forces continued their advance towards the Zawiya of Gorou oasis, located just north of Faya.

Note to the Reader:

The history of Borkou has been significantly distorted due to the actions of certain groups who manipulated the region’s past and its noble inhabitants, falsifying the history of innocent clans (canton) who continue to suffer as a result of these deceitful deeds. These falsifications were carried out by individuals of unknown origins who sought to mislead and control the narrative. As a result, there is no reliable account written by Europeans thus far regarding one of the Borkou's cantons. It is highly recommended to read the book produced by the canton of Borkou themselves who are victims—a work authored by the people of Borkou that details their history, identities, and origins—rather than relying on colonial-era sources, explorers, and other accounts that remain tainted by bias and misinformation to this day.