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VIOLENCE AND REGULATION IN THE DARFUR-CHAD BORDERLAND c. 1909–56: POLICING A COLONIAL BOUNDARY*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2013

Christopher Vaughan
Christopher Vaughan*
Affiliation:
Durham University
*
Author's email: christopher.vaughan@durham.ac.uk
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Abstract

Recent literature has emphasised the political and economic opportunities afforded to peoples living in African borderlands by the existence of permeable inter-state boundaries. This article examines the history of the Darfur-Chad borderland under colonial rule and finds that serious risks existed for those attempting to circumvent state authority in order to take advantage of such opportunities. State-led attempts to control these borders, though always incomplete, were often characterised by considerable violence. The limits of state power did not therefore straightforwardly translate into an accommodation with border societies. That said, this was also a border zone characterised by complex interaction and negotiation between state and local forms of regulation, and by multiple forms of sovereignty. This led to the emergence of plural and hybrid forms of authority, now repeatedly observed in studies of contemporary African borderlands, but rarely fully historicised.

Keywords

Northeastern AfricaChadSudancolonial administrationstateviolence
Type
Negotiating Colonial Boundaries and Ethnic Identities
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , July 2013 , pp. 177 - 198
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Cherry Leonardi, Baz LeCocq, and Justin Willis for comments on earlier versions of this article. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for The Journal of African History for useful comments and suggestions. Research for this article was supported by an AHRC Doctoral studentship and by an award from the Royal Historical Society.

References

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2 The National Archives, London (TNA) War Office (WO) 33/999, Sudan Intelligence Report 354 (SIR), Jan. 1924; NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 59/3/7, Bence-Pembroke, Governor Darfur to Civil Secretary, 15 Dec. 1925.

3 Movement from French to British territories has been noted repeatedly in histories of West Africa; for examples, see Asiwaju, A. I., ‘Migrations as revolt: the example of the Ivory Coast and the Upper Volta before 1945’, The Journal of African History, 17:4 (1976), 577–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Asiwaju, A., Western Yorubaland under European rule, 1899–1945: A Comparative Analysis of French and British Colonialism (London, 1976)Google Scholar; Miles, W. F. S., Hausaland Divided: Colonialism and Independence in Nigeria and Niger (Ithaca, NY, 1994), 78–81Google Scholar; and Nugent, P., Smugglers, Secessionists and Loyal Citizens on the Ghana-Togo Frontier: The Life of the Borderlands since 1914 (Oxford, 2002), 102Google Scholar.

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31 TNA FO 141/737/2, MacMichael to Assistant Director of Intelligence, 24 Apr. 1917.

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35 ANOM AEF GGAEF 4/(4)/D17, Rapport Trimestriel, 1er trimestre 1917, Territoire du Tchad; TNA FO 141/426/9 Kelly to Wingate, 1 Feb. 1917.

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37 TNA FO 371/3199, Record of a conversation between Saville and Tilho, 11 July 1917.

38 SAD 680/6/34, Sarsfield-Hall, Diary of Northern Patrol 27A.

39 For the history of attempts to control the Goraan, see TNA FO 867/24 passim; TNA WO 33/997 Sudan Annual Intelligence Report, 1921; School of Oriental and African Studies, London (SOAS) Arkell papers, box 3, file 1, Darfur Province Annual Report 1937.

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43 This phrase was coined by Jamie Monson to describe the complex interaction between German colonialism and local politics in early colonial southern Tanganyika. Monson, J., ‘Relocating Maji Maji: the politics of alliance and authority in the southern highlands of Tanzania, 1870–1918’, The Journal of African History, 39:1 (1998), 95–120CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

44 For the native courts system, see Daly, Sorrow, 125–7.

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46 NRO Darfur 5/5/15, Bence-Pembroke, Governor Darfur to DC NDD, 23 Oct. 1926.

47 NRO Darfur 5/5/15, Melik Mohammedein to DC NDD, 30 Mar. 1932.

48 NRO Darfur 5/5/15, Dupuis, Governor Darfur to Civil Secretary, 16 Apr. 1932.

49 NRO Darfur 5/5/15, Moore, DC NDD to Governor Darfur, 6 June 1932.

50 NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 27/14/48, Governor Darfur to Governors Kordofan and Northern, 25 July 1936.

51 TNA WO 33/999, SIR 373, Aug. 1925; NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 59/2/5, DC Southern Darfur District (SDD) to Governor Darfur, 10 Nov. 1925.

52 SAD 734/10/23, Lampen memoirs.

53 NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 59/2/4, Passport Officer El Tereifi Mohammed to Resident Dar Masalit, 14 July 1947.

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55 TNA WO 33/999, SIR 372 July 1925.

56 ANOM AEF/GGAEF/4(4)D23, Territoire du Tchad, Rapport Annuel 1925.

57 TNA WO 33/999, SIR 370 May 1925.

58 TNA FO 867/24, Darfur Province Monthly Diary March (DPMD) 1931; DPMD Feb. 1936.

59 M. J. Azevedo, ‘Sara demographic instability as a consequence of French colonial policy in Chad (1890–1940)’ (unpublished PhD thesis, Duke University, 1975), 229 and 233–4.

60 For examples, see NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 59/3/7, Dupuis, Deputy Governor Darfur to Governor Darfur, 18 Feb. 1925; NRO Darfur 3/1/5, Broadbent, Resident Dar Masalit to Governor Darfur, 16 Oct. 1931; and NRO 2.Darfur Dar Masalit 46/1/3, Thesiger ‘Report on camel journey through Wadai, Ennedi, Borku, and Tibesti’, 1938.

61 NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 59/2/5, Grigg, DC Zalingei to Governor Darfur, 5 Mar. 1927.

62 Quoted in NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 59/1/2, Pollen, Resident Dar Masalit to Governor Darfur, 23 July 1924.

63 Ibid.

64 NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 59/3/8, Note on frontier incidents Darfur-FEA 1924–1928, 20 Nov. 1928.

65 NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 59/3/8, Evans, Resident Dar Masalit to Governor, 22 Sept. 1928.

66 NRO Darfur 3/1/5, Governor Darfur to Resident Dar Masalit, 31 Dec. 1925.

67 NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 59/3/7, Civil Secretary to Governor Darfur, 3 Sept. 1925.

68 NRO Darfur 3/1/5, Dupuis, Governor Darfur to Commandant Wadai, 29 June 1931.

69 NRO Darfur 3/1/5, Broadbent, Resident Dar Masalit to Governor Darfur, 20 Aug. 1931.

70 NRO Darfur 3/1/5, Broadbent, Acting Resident Dar Masalit to Governor, 25 Oct. 1929.

71 ANOM AEF GGAEF 4/(4)/D20, Rapport Trimestriel, 2er trimestre 1920, Territoire du Tchad.

72 NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 59/3/8, Dupuis, Governor Darfur to Civil Secretary, 1 Apr. 1931; TNA FO 867/24 Moore, DC Northern Darfur to Governor Darfur, 18 May 1944.

73 NRO Darfur 3/1/5, Evans, Resident Dar Masalit to Governor Darfur, 12 June 1929; NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 59/3/8, Grigg, Resident Zalingei to Governor Darfur, 7 Jan., 1929.

74 NRO Darfur 3/1/5, Broadbent, Resident Dar Masalit to Chef Dar Sila, 1 Apr. 1933.

75 NRO Darfur 3/1/5, Broadbent, Resident Dar Masalit to Governor Darfur, 16 Oct. 1931.

76 NRO Darfur 3/1/5, Note on discussion between Governor General, Governor Darfur and Resident Dar Masalit, 26 Nov. 1928.

77 NRO Darfur 3/1/5, Dupuis, Governor Darfur to Lieutenant-Governor Tchad Colony, 8 July 1928.

78 NRO Darfur 3/1/5, Dupuis, Governor Darfur to Civil Secretary, 30 Oct. 1928.

79 NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 59/3/9, Moore, DC NDD to Governor 18 May 1944.

80 This is a point emphasised by Nugent and Asiwaju, ‘Paradox’, 2. Peter Sahlins also discusses the uncertain mixture of jurisdictional and territorial sovereignty in the eighteenth-century Franco-Spanish boundary. Sahlins, P., Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees (Berkeley, CA, 1989), 6Google Scholar.

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88 NRO Darfur 3/1/5, Broadbent, Resident Dar Masalit to Chef Dar Sila, 1 Apr. 1933.

89 NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 59/1/2, DC Zalingei to Governor Darfur, 31 Jan. 1931.

90 NRO Darfur 3/1/5, Acting Resident Dar Masalit to Governor Darfur, 25 Oct. 1929.

91 NRO Darfur 3/1/5, Evans, Resident Dar Masalit to Governor Darfur, 27 Aug. 1928.

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95 NRO Darfur 47/6/29, Annual Migration Report 1949.

96 NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 47/9/34, Dar Masalit Annual Report 1953–4.

97 Nugent, Smugglers, 274.

98 NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 59/3/9, Moore, DC NDD to Governor Darfur, 18 Mar. 1942.

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103 NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 59/3/9, Petition of Sultan Mohammed Dosa to DC NDD, 20 Mar. 1948.

104 NRO 2.D.Fasher (A) 59/3/9, Lampen, Governor of Darfur, note, 14 Aug. 1948.

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