Author Archives: Cody James Zanaglio

Lake Chad is one of the most important bodies of water in Africa.  Situated in the Western corner of Chad, Lake Chad serves as an important asset to the countries in the region, particularly the countries of Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger that border that lake.  The Chari River south of the lake runs north into Lake Chad providing almost all of Lake Chad’s water.  Lake Chad is a fresh water lake despite being very shallow and having a high level of evaporation.  Many small islands take up much of the area of Lake Chad, as well as swamp land and marshes that are important to the flora and fauna of the lake.  Lake Chad is home to over 100 species of fish, as well as Crocodiles and Hippopotamuses that inhabit much of the small islands and swamplands of the Lake.  Lake Chad is one of the largest lakes in Africa and is what remains of the pre-historic massive water body of Mega-Chad.  Lake Chad has been an important historical asset for civilization around it.  The Kanem-Bornu Empire that rose to prominence around the lake around 800-900 A.D. established themselves as an important and influential part of African trade due to their control of Lake Chad.  Trade between Nile River societies and North African societies went through Lake Chad as well as trade between North African societies and Sub-Saharan African societies.  After the fall of the Kanem-Bornu Empire Trans-Saharan trade continued to go through Lake Chad.  Lake Chad has significantly shrunken in size since the 60’s, almost to one twentieth of its original size, and efforts to reverse this have been put into effect.  Since the Lake plays such an important role to the region, the biggest theory behind the decreasing size has been over usage of Lake Chad’s water supply, to the point where the lake can’t replenish itself fast enough to keep up.  Between the 1960’s and 1990’s this shrinkage had caused much conflict in the region.  Fishers of Lake Chad had conflicts with farmers in the region who were irrigating too much of the water away from the Lake, as the dropping water level impacted the fish in the Lake.  This drop-off in water level had impacted wildlife in the area and put a major strain on food sources in the area.  It was discovered that another big contributing factor to the increasingly shrinking Lake Chad had been shifts in precipitation patterns south that has been contributed to European air pollution.  Since the discovery of this, legislation had been passed to reduce European air pollution that has already shown shifts in precipitation patterns that have already started reversing the trend of a shrinking Lake Chad and have significantly improved its size.  Lake Chad’s importance to the region cannot be understated, both historically and presently, and when it suffered from increasingly depleted water levels in the last half of the 20^th century, it put a great strain on the region that was considered an ecological catastrophe.  However, it has come back from it and has shown vast improvement in the recent decades, showing signs that it will return to size.  Lake Chad has persevered and will continue to play an important role to Chad and the surrounding region

Sources:  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/104179/Lake-Chad#ref417838

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Chad#CITEREFAllAfrica2012

http://www.unep.org/dewa/vitalwater/article116.html

Chad gained its independence in the August of 1960 and ceased being a colony under control of France.  One of the major figures in this decolonization of Chad was a man by the name of Gabriel Lisette.  Gabriel Lisette was born in Panama, in a port city called Portobelo, on April 2, 1919.  Gabriel Lisette, not being a naturally born Chadian, came to become a politician there after he became a Colonial administrator for France.  In taking this role, he was brought to Chad and posted there in 1946.  Gabriel Lisette quickly moved his way up the ladder of French colonial rule.  In the November of 1946, the same year he was brought in to be a colonial administrator, Gabriel Lisette was elected to be a deputy of the French National Assembly.  It would be in the February of the following year, however, that Gabriel Lisette would make moves towards Chadian independence from the country he was brought in to work for.

Gabriel Lisette in the February of 1947 established Chad’s very first African political party.  The political party that he founded was called the Chadian Progressive Party, or PPT for short.  The Chadian Progressive Party, when it was first established, attracted the countries non-Muslim population, particularly those who were considered to be intellectuals.  The Chadian Progressive Party was a branch of African Democratic Rally, an integral entity in the decolonization of French Colonies in Africa.  It was a radical political party that promoted nationalism, and whose radical views was exemplified by its motto “Enough with cotton! Enough with taxes!  Enough with chiefs”.  This radical approach and bias towards the non-Muslim population, which largely inhabited the southern part of the country, spurred the creation of the largely Muslim political party:  Chadian Democratic Union, or UDT for short.

The Chadian Democratic Union had gained more power initially than then Chadian Progressive Party did.  The French colonial administration boycotted the radical Chadian Progressive Party, supporting the Chadian Democratic Union instead.  However, the Chadian Democratic Union would lose much of their power once reforms to the electoral system allowed for a larger voter pool, benefiting the Gabriel Lisette lead Chadian Progressive Party, as it allowed much of the non-Muslim population to the south that could not vote before be able to vote.  In 1957 Gabriel Lisette was voted in as Vice-President of the Government Council, quickly moving up to President a little over a year later.

This move to president was a major step to independence, but it was not smooth sailing for Gabriel Lisette after that.  Shortly after his election, Gabriel Lisette was kicked out of his position when a motion of no confidence was put against him.  This brought in a new leader, Ahmed Koulamallah, who Gabriel Lisette had to quickly overthrow his rule, along with another government led by Gontchome Sahoulba.  Once the Chadian Progressive Party regained power, Gabriel Lisette stepped down, letting a native Chadian, Francois Tombalbaye, lead the party.  Just as Chad was about to gain independence, Francois Tombalbaye, who would become the countries dictator exiled Gabriel Lisette from Chad, ending Gabriel’s political career and securing his rule over Chad for years to come.  After everything Gabriel Lisette had done for Chad and for their fight for independence, he was exiled by the very man he chose to replace him.

Bibliography:

“Gabriel Lisette.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Oct. 2014. Web. 17 Oct. 2014.

“Chadian Progressive Party.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Oct. 2014. Web. 17 Oct. 2014.

The history of Modern Africa shares some similarities with the history of the United States of America when it comes to their experience with European Colonization.  Both Africa and The United States were colonized by European powers.  Africa and The United States were both primarily under control of the French and the British, with other European nations controlling a relative minority of the land, and both had to fight for their freedom from imperial rule.  Though the experience that The United States of America and Africa had with European Colonization had some general similarities, they were for the most part fairly different stories and outcomes.

Colonization in the Americas began earlier than it did Africa.  Following Columbus’ voyage in 1492, a race by European nations to colonize the “New World” began, and the colonization of North America by the British began in 1607 at Jamestown.  The colonization of Africa didn’t really begin until after the Berlin Conference in 1885, during the Scramble for Africa.  Although Europeans had a hand in African rule prior, it mostly was ruled by native Africans and African Empires up until the Scramble for Africa and the Berlin Conference.  Colonial rule in the United States not only began earlier than African colonization, also ended before African colonization began.  The United States broke away from British rule with the Declaration of Independence in 1776.  Then the United States moved westward, gaining land from other European colonies, such as the Louisiana Purchase from the French and Spanish controlled colonies, as well as land from the Native Americans.  The United States, following colonial rule, became part of the Triangular trade.  Africa was also a part of the Triangular trade, however it was before they were under colonial rule that they traded with European powers.

Prior to colonization following the Scramble for Africa and the Berlin Conference, Africa was ruled mostly by empires and tribal communities.  These Empires traded slaves with the Europeans for guns that would help them secure and grow their empires.  The slave trade had led to underdevelopment of the continent.  This led to Africa being vulnerable to colonization by European forces in the late 1800’s.  The Scramble for Africa following the Berlin Conference divvied up the continent between the European powers, leading to annexation of the continent.

The impetus for the African colonization of the late 1800’s was much different to that of the colonization of the United States and the “New World.”  American colonization was driven by the desire to conquer this “New World” and to lay claim to as much of the Americas as possible.  The impetus for African colonization was driven by profit, and was done so take advantage of the continent’s resources and to dominate the continent.

It wasn’t until after WWII did African’s begin to make strides towards independence from the European control.  Ghana was the first colonized nation to gain independence from European colonial rule, and did so in the late 50s.  Many African nations followed, but not without armed conflict in many regions, primarily where many European’s had settled.  The creation of the Organization of African Unity came about in the early 60’s and was created to end European continental control.  The ultimate goal of this Organization was to make it so that African nations would work together to unify and remove European control.  Unfortunately, following independence, dictators and tyrants took over leading some of the independent countries, leading to poor economic growth as well as issues with the population and their health.  Now most of Africa has removed such authoritarian rulers, and is no longer under European colonial control.

Both the United States and Modern Africa started with colonial rule from European powers and shared a few similarities of their colonial rule, but ultimately their experiences with colonial rule differed in more aspects than it related.