Chad | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

The Muslim north took slaves from the southern traditionalist populations.

The French entered Chad in the 1890s but discouraged Christian activity until the 1920s, favoring Islam (despite its strong resistance to colonialism) as a stabilizing and civilizing religion. Only after World War I did France support missionary work, and then only in the south, with its more promising economic resources. Leaving the social and political structure of the north almost intact, France subjected the south to forced labor, military recruitment, and porterage and their assimilationist "civilizing mission," entrusting Evangelical, Baptist, and Roman Catholic missionaries with the education of the population.

Chad achieved its independence in 1960. Violent civil conflict prevailed from 1965 to 1990. Though religion was not the primary cause, it exacerbated the geoeconomic and ethnic differences between north and south, as have the policies of Christian presidents N'Garta (François) Tombalbaye (1960–75) and Félix Malloum (1975–79) and Muslim heads of stateGoukouni Oueddei (1979–82) and Hisseine Habre (1982–90). Muslim Idris Deby (born in 1952) has been Chad's president since 1990.

Since the 1970s the country has seen the emergence of Jehovah's Witnesses and the Bahai faith, but these groups have remained insignificant.

Religious Tolerance

According to the 1996 constitution, Chad is "a sovereign, independent, and secular republic," whose inhabitants have freedom of "opinion and expression, of conscience, and religion." The country's turbulent religious history has prevented an ecumenical movement from forming.

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