Understanding Distributions of Chadic Languages

Author(s):  
Scott MacEachern

The distribution of Chadic languages in Africa is extremely diverse, including the widely dispersed Hausa language, the more restricted Central Chadic languages in the southern Lake Chad Basin, and the poorly understood Eastern Chadic languages in Chad. These distributions are disjunct in complex ways, and the relationships between Chadic and neighboring language families is extremely complicated. The genesis of these distributions lies in the mid-Holocene, with the occupation of the Lake Chad Basin by populations faced by the desiccation of the Sahara and the opening of arable lands further south. Further differentiation of Chadic languages appears to be associated with sociopolitical developments in the region, especially over the last 1,000 years. This chapter will consider the methodological challenges associated with studying the history of these populations using archaeological, linguistic, and genetic data, as well as providing an initial framework for understanding the social dynamics within which these linguistic distributions emerged.

2004 ◽  
Vol 39 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 81-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.D. Evans ◽  
I.F. Jefferson ◽  
R. Kumar ◽  
K. O’Hara-Dhand ◽  
I.J. Smalley

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Oyosoro ◽  
Robert Tayimlong ◽  
Innocent Pikirayi

<p>The Lake Chad Basin is one of the most fragile and politically unstable regions in Africa. This is largely due to the insurgency of Boko Haram which broke out in Nigeria’s north-eastern region and later spilled over to northern Cameroon, western Chad and south-eastern Niger. By 2020, approximately 37000 people had died and 2.6 million displaced as a consequence of the crisis. The conflict has undermined security in vast human habitats, destroyed billions of dollars’ worth of critical public goods, damaged livelihoods and left millions of affected populations without access to basic services. The challenge in academic and peacebuilding spaces has been to dissect and tackle the principal causes of the conflict. Whereas there is substantial literature on the religious, political, social, economic and environmental drivers of the insurgency in Nigeria, much is not known about the governance environment that facilitated its outbreak and spread. To understand this, this article adopts the social contract theory to critically examine the correlation between bad governance, ungoverned spaces and the insurgency in the affected countries. The paper uses secondary sources to supplement primary data from key informant interviews and focus group discussions in Nigeria's Borno State, Chad's Lake Province, Cameroon's Far North Region, and Niger's Diffa Region.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Oyosoro ◽  
Robert Tayimlong ◽  
Innocent Pikirayi

<p>The Lake Chad Basin is one of the most fragile and politically unstable regions in Africa. This is largely due to the insurgency of Boko Haram which broke out in Nigeria’s north-eastern region and later spilled over to northern Cameroon, western Chad and south-eastern Niger. By 2020, approximately 37000 people had died and 2.6 million displaced as a consequence of the crisis. The conflict has undermined security in vast human habitats, destroyed billions of dollars’ worth of critical public goods, damaged livelihoods and left millions of affected populations without access to basic services. The challenge in academic and peacebuilding spaces has been to dissect and tackle the principal causes of the conflict. Whereas there is substantial literature on the religious, political, social, economic and environmental drivers of the insurgency in Nigeria, much is not known about the governance environment that facilitated its outbreak and spread. To understand this, this article adopts the social contract theory to critically examine the correlation between bad governance, ungoverned spaces and the insurgency in the affected countries. The paper uses secondary sources to supplement primary data from key informant interviews and focus group discussions in Nigeria's Borno State, Chad's Lake Province, Cameroon's Far North Region, and Niger's Diffa Region.</p>


Author(s):  
Christy Constantakopoulou

This chapter provides a methodological discussion on how to use the evidence included in the Delian inventories in order to write the social history of the dedicants. The inventories were produced by the Delian hieropoioi and recorded on an annual basis the dedications kept in the Delian treasuries. The chapter focuses particularly on dedications which are attached to named individuals and communities. It then discusses the material according to the parameters of gender, individual versus community dedications, elite dedicants, and distance of travel. Using the inventories we are able to reconstruct who came to the Delian sanctuary to dedicate objects.


Earth ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 340-356
Author(s):  
Forrest W. Black ◽  
Jejung Lee ◽  
Charles M. Ichoku ◽  
Luke Ellison ◽  
Charles K. Gatebe ◽  
...  

The present study investigated the effect of biomass burning on the water cycle using a case study of the Chari–Logone Catchment of the Lake Chad Basin (LCB). The Chari–Logone catchment was selected because it supplies over 90% of the water input to the lake, which is the largest basin in central Africa. Two water balance simulations, one considering burning and one without, were compared from the years 2003 to 2011. For a more comprehensive assessment of the effects of burning, albedo change, which has been shown to have a significant impact on a number of environmental factors, was used as a model input for calculating potential evapotranspiration (ET). Analysis of the burning scenario showed that burning grassland, which comprises almost 75% of the total Chari–Logone land cover, causes increased ET and runoff during the dry season (November–March). Recent studies have demonstrated that there is an increasing trend in the LCB of converting shrubland, grassland, and wetlands to cropland. This change from grassland to cropland has the potential to decrease the amount of water available to water bodies during the winter. All vegetative classes in a burning scenario showed a decrease in ET during the wet season. Although a decrease in annual precipitation in global circulation processes such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation would cause droughts and induce wildfires in the Sahel, the present study shows that a decrease in ET by the human-induced burning would cause a severe decrease in precipitation as well.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document