Tchad Ma Culture
Glossary
The words of Chadian heritage, explained simply: royal titles, dishes, festivals, places.
- Banco
- Raw earth mixed with straw, used to build houses, palaces and mosques across the Sahel. [UNESCO, Massif de l’Ennedi]
- Boule
- Thick paste of millet, sorghum or maize served with a sauce; the basis of the daily meal.
- Charmout
- Meat dried in thin strips, then rehydrated and cooked in a sauce.
- Dary
- National arts and culture festival bringing together the cultures of Chad’s provinces in N’Djamena. [Festival Dary]
- Gerewol
- Gathering of the Wodaabe (Mbororo) at the end of the rainy season, where adorned young men dance to be chosen. [RFI, Le Guéréwol (2025)]
- Guelta
- Permanent waterhole in a Saharan massif, such as the Archei guelta in Ennedi. [UNESCO, Massif de l’Ennedi]
- Karkanji
- Drink made from dried hibiscus flowers (bissap), often flavoured with ginger; served to welcome guests.
- Kisra
- Very thin fermented sorghum flatbread cooked on a griddle.
- Kotoko
- People of the Logone-Chari delta, organised in city-states; regarded as the cultural heirs of the Sao. [Encyclopædia Britannica, Sao]
- Mai
- Title of the rulers of Kanem and later Bornu, under the Sayfawa dynasty. [Hiribarren V., Kanem-Bornu (2016)]
- Mbang
- Title of the rulers of the Baguirmi kingdom, whose capital was Massenya. [Encyclopædia Universalis, Royaume du Baguirmi]
- Sao
- Ancient civilisation south of Lake Chad, known for its terracottas, burial jars and oral tradition; its chronology is debated. [Encyclopædia Britannica, Sao]
- Sayfawa (Sefuwa)
- Dynasty that ruled Kanem-Bornu for nearly a thousand years. [Hiribarren V., Kanem-Bornu (2016)]
- Toumaï
- Nickname of the Sahelanthropus tchadensis skull (about 7 million years old), found in 2001 in the Djurab. In Goran, “hope of life”. [Brunet M. et al., Nature, 2002]
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