Katana VentraIP

Sara people

The Sara people are a Central Sudanic ethnic group native to southern Chad, the northwestern areas of the Central African Republic, and the southern border of North Sudan.[3] They speak the Sara languages which are a part of the Central Sudanic language family.[4] They are also the largest ethnic group in Chad.[5][6]

Total population

5,311,303 (30.5%)[1]

423,281 (7.9%)[2]

Sara oral histories add further details about the people. In summary, the Sara are mostly animists (veneration of nature), with a social order made up of several patrilineal clans formerly united into a single polity with a national language, national identity, and national religion. Many Sara people have retained their ethnic religion, but some have converted to Christianity and Islam.[7]

Languages[edit]

The Sara people natively speak the Sara languages. This dialect cluster belongs to the Nilo-Saharan family.

Religion[edit]

The Sara people are mainly Christian and animist, with a minority of Muslims.

Genetics[edit]

Analysis of classic genetic markers and DNA polymorphisms by Excoffier et al. (1987) found that the Sara are most closely related to the Kunama people of Eritrea. Both populations speak languages from the Nilo-Saharan family. They are also similar to West African populations, but biologically distinct from the surrounding Cushitic and Ethiopian Semitic Afro-Asiatic-speaking groups.[13]

Chadian-born German track and field athlete

Sosthene Moguenara

Prime Minister of Chad in 1993, president of Action for Unity and Socialism

Fidèle Moungar

who overthrew Tombalbaye during the 1975 coup

Noël Milarew Odingar

only woman in Chadian National Assembly in 1968

Kalthouma Nguembang

first President of Chad

François Tombalbaye

Japhet N'Doram

President of Central African Republic from 1993 to 2003

Ange-Félix Patassé

Former Prime Minister of Central African Republic[14]

Martin Ziguélé

Demographics of Chad

Demographics of the Central African Republic

The Politics of Sara Ethnicity: A Note on the Origins of the Civil War in Chad, in: Cahiers d'Études africaines, Vol. 20, Cahier 80 (1980)

René Lemarchand

René Lemarchand, Chad: The Misadventures of the North-South Dialectic, in: African Studies Review, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Sept., 1986)

The Human Price of Development: The Brazzaville Railroad and the Sara of Chad, in: African Studies Review, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Mar., 1981)

Mario Azevedo

Mario Azevedo, Power and Slavery in Central Africa: Chad (1890-1925), in: The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 67, No. 3 (Autumn, 1982)

La Mort Sara, Paris, 10/18, 1971 (1967)

Robert Jaulin