These five southeastern prefectures of Chad are in the Sahel(2), the tansition zone south of the Sahara Desert(3) where animal herding or some cultivation is possible. Northern Batha and Biltine are desert. Most of the rest would, in the absence of man, have short grasses (steppe), but southern Salamat would have taller grasses and scattered trees (savannah).
There are three important highlands: in eastern Biltine, over 1,300 meters; in center-east Ouaddia, almost as high, and in a C-shape in eastern Guera, over 1,600 meters. The land falls off from these heights, generally toward the west.
Seasonal tributaries of the Chari flow southwest, or from the Guera Massif. The Aoukale forms part of the nation's southeastern border and the Salamat gives its name to the prefecture it starts in.Further north the seasonal Batha system flows from Ouaddai into Lake Fitri in southwest Batha Prefecture.
The two million people who live here do not have a majority first language. Chadian Spoken Arabic, also known as Shuwa, is probably the mother tongue of less than one in four, but is learned by many others. Some Moslems also learn Standard Arabic, the religious language. Probably a few also learn French, the former colonial language.
Over half of the people in the area speak Nilo-Saharan languages, and about four in ten Afro-Asiatic languages. The Maban language in the Maban division of Nilo-Saharan languages accounts for about 17 percent and the Naba language in the Central Sudanic division of those languages for about 15 percent. Chadian Spoken Arabic is the only local language in the Semitic branch of Afro-Asiatic, and Masana, spoken by about seven percent, is the only local representative of the Chadic branch.
As to religion, most people include some local practices and beliefs in their lives, even if they call themselves Christians or Moslems. Beyond that, generalizations are tricky. Moslems are not the majority, though they are more numerous than native Shuwa Arabic speakers and are probably growing.(4) Christians are numerous, though probably a dwindling minority. Followers of local religions, animist or place-centered, are also probably a minority, though perhaps more numerous than the Christians.
There are no large or even moderate-sized cities. The administrative centers of Batha, Ouaddai, Guera and Salamat have between 20 and 80 thousand people, but no city is predominant beyond its prefecture.
Nilo-Sharan languages have been spoken here and elsewhere for at least 10,000 years, and are possibly related to the 'aquatic' physical culture of the eighth millenium B.C.E.(5) The ancestor of Masana probably arrived here many thousands of years ago when Chadic languages split from Proto-Afro-Asiatic(6) and moved westward from east Africa. Arabs began arriving from the north in the seventh century, and, besides introducing Islam, their language evolved into its local form over succeeding centuries. Christianity arrived with French conquest in the 19th century.
northwest of Batha, and north of Batha and Biltine
east
southeast
southwest of Salamat, and south of Guera
west of Guera and southwest of Batha
(1) Tchad in French.
(2) Tansliterated Arabic; it means 'shore'.
(3) The world's largest desert.
(4) Non-Moslem birth rates are higher, however.
(5) Theory of J.E.G. Sutton and Patrick Munson.
(6) The Omotic and Cushitic branches split off earlier.