عرب البقارة | |
|---|---|
 Caravan of Baggara Arab nomads in Chad | |
| Total population | |
| 6,080,000+[citation needed] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Sudan | 3,700,000+[1] |
 Chad | 2,230,000+[2] |
 Cameroon | 204,000[citation needed] |
 Niger | 150,000[3] |
 Central African Republic | 107,000[citation needed] |
 Nigeria | 100,000[4] |
| Languages | |
| Arabic (Chadian Arabic, Sudanese Arabic) | |
| Religion | |
| Sunni Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Sudanese Arabs, Nilo-Saharans, Nubians, Arabs | |
The Baggāra (Arabic: البَقَّارَة, romanized: al baqqāra "heifer herder"[5]), also known as Chadian Arabs, are a nomadic confederation of people of mixed Arab and Arabized indigenous African ancestry,[6][7] inhabiting a portion of the Sahel mainly between Lake Chad and the Nile river near south Kordofan, numbering over six million.[8] They are known as Baggara and Abbala in Sudan, and as Shuwa Arabs in Cameroon, Nigeria and Western Chad.[4] The term Shuwa is said to be of Kanuri origin.[9]
The Baggāra mostly speak their distinct dialect, known as Chadian Arabic. However the Baggāra of Southern Kordofan, due to contact with the sedentary population and the Sudanese Arab camel herders of Kordofan, has led to some Sudanese Arabic influence on the dialect of that zone.[10] They also have a common traditional mode of subsistence, nomadic cattle herding, although nowadays many lead a settled existence. Nevertheless, collectively they do not all necessarily consider themselves one people, i.e., a single ethnic group. The term "baggara culture" was introduced in 1994 by Braukämper.[5]
The political use of the term baggāra in Sudan is to denote a large group of closely related cattle-owning Arabic speaking tribes that reside traditionally in the Southern parts of Darfur and Kordofan who mixed extensively with the native people they live with in the region, in particular the Fur people, Nuba peoples and Fula people.[11] The bulk of Baggara Arabs live in Chad and Sudan, with small minorities in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Central African Republic and South Sudan. Those who are still nomads migrate seasonally between grazing lands in the wet season and river areas in the dry season.
Their common language is known to academics by various names, such as Chadian Arabic, taken from the regions where the language is spoken. For much of the 20th century, this language was known to academics as "Shuwa Arabic", but "Shuwa" is a geographically and socially parochial term that has fallen into disuse among linguists specializing in the language, who instead refer to it as "Chadian Arabic" depending on the origin of the native speakers being consulted for a given academic project.
- ^ Flint, Julie (2010), The Other War: Inter-Arab Conflict in Darfur (PDF), Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, retrieved 23 November 2020,
Although the most recent census, conducted in 2008, puts Darfur's population at 7.5 million, the NCP of President Omar al Bashir insisted that tribe and religion be omitted from the database, reportedly for fear that Sudan would no longer be defined as an Arab, Islamic state. Estimates of the Arab population of Darfur range from 30 per cent, based on the census of 1956, to the 70 per cent claimed by Arab tribal leaders in a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in September 2007. Given that many Arabs from Chad have settled in Darfur in the last several decades, and that the rate of migration to Sudan's more developed centre is higher among non-Arabs, who are less dependent on pastoralism, a figure of 40 per cent is probably closer to the mark."
- ^ "Chad". 2 October 2023.
- ^ "Africa | Niger's Arabs to fight expulsion". BBC News. 25 October 2006. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
- ^ a b Adam, Sirajudeen; Adebisi, AbdulWahid (2012). "Teaching Arabic as a second language in Nigeria". Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 66 (66): 127. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.11.254.
- ^ a b Owens 1993, p. 11.
- ^ Al-Rahim, Muddathir 'Abd (1970). "Arabism, Africanism, and Self-Identification in the Sudan". The Journal of Modern African Studies. 8 (2): 233–249. doi:10.1017/S0022278X00019649. JSTOR 159386. S2CID 154443608.
- ^ "Baqqārah | people | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
- ^ Adam 2012, p. 17.
- ^ Owens 1993, p. 12.
- ^ Manfredi 2012, p. 6.
- ^ Macmichael 1922, p. 271.