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Re: هزيمة المؤتمر الوطني في شخصية التشادي احمد هارون (Re: mwahib idriss)
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BARTH
Quote: ETHNOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT OF WA'DA'Y.
Waday, in every respect, is as yet a young empire, where the most heterogeneous elements subsist together side by side, with almost unrestricted power, weakening and debilitating the whole body. Nevertheless, the variety of those elements, in a territory of so considerable an extent as Waday, is not at all marvelous and extraordinary in this part of the world, the number of the different languages spoken there not exceeding that of the different languages spoken in the circumference of Fiimbina; and even in Bornu, where, by a system of centralization, several tribes have in the course of time been almost entirely annihilated, the number of languages spoken at the present day exceeds fifteen.
As for Waday, there are first to be separated the two large groups of the indigenous or immigrant Negro tribes, on the one hand, and that of the Arab tribes on the other. I shall first consider the Negro tribes, of which I give a complete list, adding in each place a few observations with regard to their strength and their political power. As for their affinity to each other, little can as yet be stated with certainty, vocabularies of their languages not being at hand; and I myself was not able to procure more than three, namely, vocabularies of the language of the principal stock or the Maba, of the Kiika, and of the A'byi or A'bii Sharib. With regard to their dwelling-places, they will be better ascertained from the collection of itineraries than from this account.
I will first consider that body of tribes which inhabit Waday proper, or rather Dar Maba, speaking one and the same language, called Bora Mabang, of which I have been able to collect a tolerably correct vocabulary, comprising more than two thousand words, together with a great many phrases, including the Lord's Prayer. This group consists of the following tribes, or rather sections: first, the Kelingen,* inhabiting several villages, about one day south of Wara; the Kajanga, two days south of Wara; the Malanga,t to the N.E.; the Madaba and the Madala, close to the latter; the Kodoyi, or mountaineers (from " Kodok," the mountain), called by the Arabs "Bu-Senun" (in the singular form Sennawy), on account of their red teeth, which color is said to be produced by the quality of the water in their mountain residences, where they preserve their vigorous bodily frames and their intrepid state of mind, and arc unanimously acknowledged to be the most valiant among all the tribes of Waday. The most conspicuous of their mountain seats, situated one day's march east of Wara, are Kurungun, the residence of their chief; Biimdan, Mugum, Burkuli, Mutiing, and Warshekr. Then follow the smaller sections of the Kuno, the Jambo, the A'bii Gedam, the Ogoddngda, the Kawak, the A'shkiting, the Bili, the Bi'lting, the 'Ain-Gamara, the Koromboy, the Girri, settled in A'm-deklk; the people of Sheferi, the Manga, settled in the district called Firsha; the Amirga, settled in Mashek; the people |
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