Chad

Where the name comes from

The lake’s name comes from Kanuri tsade, “lake”.

First people

People lived here in a greener Sahara, and the 7-million-year-old skull nicknamed Toumaï was found in the north.¹

Known for

Chad is named after Lake Chad, whose shallow waters support fishing, farming and herding; severe droughts in the 1970s and 1980s shrank it sharply.^2,3

Outside contact

From about the 800s, Kanem-Bornu linked Lake Chad with Saharan trade; French conquest began in 1900, followed by a separate colony in 1920.⁴

The modern country

Independence came in 1960.⁴