Chad

Discover Chad

Fun Foods

Boule, Kissar, La bouillie

In Chad, there's a festival where men wear makeup and compete in a beauty contest. The women sit back and judge them. It's called Gerewol, and it's one of the wildest traditions on the planet.

The Wodaabe people have held this festival for centuries. Men spend hours painting their faces, lining their eyes, and dressing in their finest clothes.

They dance in a line, flash their teeth, roll their eyes, and try to look as beautiful as possible. The women walk along and tap the men they like best.

Chad is a landlocked country right in the middle of Africa, named after Lake Chad on its western border. Lake Chad was once one of Africa's largest bodies of water, but it has shrunk by 90% since the 1960s. Climate change and overuse are draining it away.

For over a thousand years, the Kanem-Bornu Empire ruled this region and controlled trade routes crossing the Sahara. It was one of the longest-lasting empires in African history.

France took over in 1900 and held on until Chad became independent on August 11, 1960. François Tombalbaye was the first president, but he was killed in a coup in 1975.

Civil war broke out, Libya invaded from the north, and the fighting lasted for years. The country has faced hardship ever since.

In 2002, scientists found a skull in northern Chad that changed everything. It was between six and seven million years old, possibly the oldest human ancestor ever discovered.

They named it Toumaï, meaning "hope of life." The president announced: "The cradle of humanity is in Chad."

Take your family to Zakouma National Park to see elephants, lions, and giraffes in one of Africa's best wildlife reserves. The Ennedi region has ancient rock art showing when the Sahara was green and full of animals thousands of years ago.

Boule is the national dish, a thick millet porridge you eat with your hands. Dip it in sauces made from okra or peanuts. It's filling, it's simple, and it's been feeding Chadians for generations.

Over 200 ethnic groups call Chad home, speaking more than 120 different languages. French and Arabic are official, but the diversity runs much deeper.