Adventures with Julia

Dinner together at 37,000 feet enroute to London

March 10, 2018

At long last, a British Airways 747 is lofting us over the polar route from San Francisco to London. Mark and I had a delightful dinner sitting opposite each other at a table in his seat.  The meal was mediocre, but desert was wonderful – sticky toffee pudding with toffee sauce. I polished it off with a shot of Johnny Walker Blue. Two sins I “never” let myself indulge in on long flights. What a delicious disgrace!

I am finally celebrating after months of intense distress and effort expended on my Hurricane Harvey flooded Texas property, which is now completely recovered and very possibly, just as the airplane door closed and I lost communication, about to become fully leased – a happening I hope to have confirmed when we get to London and have internet again; other pesky business issues about which I won’t bore you, but never seem to go away; and many hours, weeks and months spent creating, organizing, planning, detailing and marketing a special trip to Uganda, Rwanda and, most particularly, the Kellernann Foundation facilities in SW Uganda in support of Scott Kellermann and his 16 years of work with the pygmies. Happily, a small group of intrepid travelers are fully booked for the adventure, which Mark and I will accompany in September. As I was saying, I am finally celebrating.

Now about this adventure Mark and I are embarked upon. We will start slowly by spending a couple of days in London to adjust to the time change and take in a play and some good food before flying south on March 13 to N’Djamena, Chad.

The plan there is to stay overnight at the Hilton Hotel in the capital, a large town of approximately 960,000, which we may not visit for safety reasons. Here we meet our fellow travelers. All we know is far is there are 8 Americans, including 5 women and 3 men. Mark and I seem to be the only couple. Should I be surprised there are more women than men? We will also meet our two guides who, from their description and photos, look like they will keep us enthralled with tales of past adventures, even if we saw and did nothing but listen to them talk.

The next day we fly SE to Zakouma National Park, where we will camp and hang out with our two guides, wild animals and birds for 8 days. We may be safer with them in the wild than with the town folk. At the end of the week there, we fly back to the capital and stay another night in the Hilton.
Before the activity starts and I have less time, I’d like to share some of what I have learned about Chad to give those of you who are unfamiliar a sense of the place. For starters, it is a landlocked country in Central Africa that is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest and Niger to the west. It is the 5th largest country in Africa and more than twice the size of Texas or 3 times the size of California, with an estimated population between 13 and 14 million. More than 47% of the population is under 15 and life expectancy is 48-52 years.

It is divided into zones: a desert zone in the north where many archeological sites have been found that indicate a large population dating back to before 2000 BC; an arid Sahelian zone in the middle of the country which supported the first and longest lasting regional empire, the Kanem Empire, and was a crossroads of trans Saharan trade routes during the first millennium AD; and a fertile Sudanian sevanna zone in the south where the majority of the current population lives.

Lake Chad, after which the country is named, is the remains of an immense lake north of N’Djamena, that once occupied 130,000 sq mi 7000 years ago. Today it has shrunk to about 6,800 sq mi and fluctuates seasonally. Even so, it is Africa’s second largest wetland.

French colonial expansion led to France becoming a military protectorate of Chad in 1900. By 1920, France was in full control of the colony. French rule was characterized by an absence of policies to unify the territory and by sluggish modernization. The French viewed Chad as a source of untrained labor and raw cotton, introducing large scale production in 1929. The administration in Chad was understaffed and lax. The French presence in the Islamic north and east was nominal. The education system suffered from neglect. Nevertheless, 15,000 Chadians fought in WWII to help free France.

After the war, Chad became an oversees territory. Chadians were granted the right to elect representatives to the national Assembly and form a Chadian assembly. Political parties formed, with the largest being the Chadian Progressive Party (PPT), based in the Christian/Animist southern half of the colony. Chad was granted independence August 11,1960. The leader of the PPT, Sara Francois Tombalbaye, became the first president. Within 2 years he banned opposition parties and became an autocratic ruler who’s insensitive mismanagement exacerbated inter ethnic tensions. Civil war broke out in 1965 and he was finally overthrown and killed in 1975. 10 years of war for no good reason.

In 1979 a rebel leader, Hissene Habre took over and consolidated his dictatorship with a power system that relied on corruption and violence. Thousands were killed under his rule. He was also hated for favoring his own ethnic group and discriminating against former allies. In 1990 Habre was overthrown by his general, Idriss Deby. Hebre was eventually arrested, tried, found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in 2016 for crimes against humanity, rape, sexual slavery and ordering the death of 40,000 people. Another nice guy.

At first Debby attempted to reconcile the rebel groups and reform the multiparty system. Chadians approved a constitution by referendum and in 1996 Debby easily won the competitive presidential election. Then he won a second five year term. Oil exploitation began in 2003 and people hoped the country would have some peace and prosperity. Instead tensions worsened and civil war broke out again. Deby unilaterally changed the constitution and eliminated the 2-term limit. He was not popular any more. In 2006, he won a mandated election with the opposition groups boycotting the poles. Coups were attempted and failed. Fighting continued until 2010 when an agreement was made between Chad and Sudan that marked the end of the war and Chadian rebels went back to Sudan. Deby continues to rule Chad even as the country continues to deteriorate. He, like his predecessors, has not helped improve life for the people.

Chad’s official languages are Arabic and French, with Arabic becoming the lingua franca due to the importance of itinerant Arab traders and settled merchants in local communities.

The country is very diverse regarding religion. The 1993 census found that 54% were Muslim, of which 48% were Sunni, 21% Shia, 4% Ahmadi and 23% just Muslim. 20% were Roman Catholic, 14% Protestant, 10% animist and the rest nothing. I was surprised to learn that 55% of the Chadian Muslims practiced Sufism, a moderate branch of mystical Islam. Christianity arrived with French and American missionaries. Muslims were largely concentrated in the north and east of Chad, with Christians and animists living primarily in the southern Chad. Saudi Arabian funds support social and educational projects and mosque construction.

There are more than 200 distinct ethnic groups in Chad. Next to the immediate family, the local or regional society is the most important influence. Efforts by colonial (1900-1960) and independent (1960-present) governments to impose a national society have not faired well. The nation’s main ethnic group, the Sara, are sedentary and live in the south. In the Sahel sedentary people live along side nomadic people, such as the Arabs, the country’s second major ethnic group. Nomads, mostly a tribe called Toubous, live in the north.

According to the UN, Chad has been affected by a humanitarian crisis since at least 2001. As of 2008 the country hosted over 280,000 refugees from Sudan’s Darfur region, over 55,000 from the Central African Republic, as well as over 170,000 internally displaced people. All this disruption has generated increased tensions throughout the region.

Another issue that I find bothersome and disruptive is the treatment of women throughout the country. For starters, polygamy is common. I read that 39% of women live in such unions, which are sanctioned by law. Although female genital mutilation is forbidden by law, the practice is wide spread and rooted in tradition – 45% of Chadian women undergo the procedure. Women lack equal opportunities in education and training, making it hard to get jobs. Although the French based laws do not discriminate against women, local leaders decide inheritance cases in favor of men “according to tradition”.

Education is a really sad situation. Although attendance is compulsory in primary school, only 68% of boys attend. A percentage for girls was not even mentioned. Many parents are reluctant to send their kids to school. More than half the population is illiterate. At 33%, Chad has one of the lowest literacy rates of Sub-Saharan Africa. Child labor in Chad is really high. In 2013, the US Dept of labor Findings on Child Labor reported 53% of Chadian children aged 5 to 14 were working. A more recent report listed cattle herding as a major agricultural activity that employed underage children.

Infrastructure has not fared well either. Although we have not seen the roads yet, I understand that the network is limited and often unusable several months of the year with not many miles paved. The country has no rail of its own and depends on Cameroon’s rail system for the transport of imports and exports to and from the Atlantic seaport in Douala. There are 59 airports, of which 9 have paved runways. Due to years of mismanagement only about 15% of people in N’Djamena have power and only 1.5% of the nations population have it. Most Chadians depend on wood and dung for fuel. 14,000 fixed telephone lines, provided by the state owned phone company, SotelTchad, serve all of Chad. This is one of the lowest telephone density rates in the world. Chad’s Ministry of Posts, Information & Communication Technologies announced in 2013 that they were looking for a fiber optic partner. Don’t know what has happened with that. There is only one TV station, state owned by Tele Tchad, and it is only available to N’Djamena audiences. Radio has a far greater reach with 13 private radio stations.

Corruption is rampant at all levels. Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index named Chad as the most corrupt country in the world, along with Bangladesh, in 2005. As of 2013 it ranked 5th. Critics of Chad’s President, Idriss Deby, have accused him of cronyism and tribalism. The Fund for Peace lists Chad as a failed state.

The UN Human Development Index ranked Chad as the 7th poorest country in the world, with 80% living below the poverty line. At one point in the 60’s, the mining industry produced sodium carbonate, or natron. There were reports of gold bearing quartz. Then years of civil war scared away foreign investors. In 2000 major direct foreign investment in the oil sector began and now there is a pipeline that takes oil from the oil fields, through Chad and Cameroon to the port at Douala, hopefully boosting economic prospects. Nevertheless, more than 80% of Chad’s population relies on subsistence farming and livestock raising for a livelihood. If Chad could maintain a semblance of stability, foreign investors might eventually return, but after 28 years since the last successful coup that brought President Idriss Deby to power, investors are still wary.   It is no wonder that the people of Chad are distresses, frustrated and angry.  They, like the people we have seen and met in most countries in Africa, deserve better governance than they have received.

That’s enough sad and bad news for now. Much of what I have written comes from Wikipedia and is not necessarily current. I hope to fill in the gaps as we travel and learn first hand.

Several of you wonder how and when I manage to do this blog. Well, this time it has happened in flight after dinner. I just start reading and writing and several hours later, Mark is asleep along with the rest of the passengers, and I am still at it. Now, I am finally tired too. This was not so easy going as I wanted to provide you with some information about this little known country without being boring or too long winded. I am not sure I succeeded. Hopefully, you have enjoyed learning a bit about Chad. Our story will become more personal as we spend time in the country. I am somewhat concerned about having free time, electricity and a comfortable environment in which to write.

Whatever we experience will be part of our story.
So for now, good night,
Julia