Bargos

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The Maba, also called Bargo or Wadai people, are a Sunni Muslim ethnic group found primarily in the mountains of Wadai region in eastern Chad and southern Sudan. Their population is estimated to be about 542,000. Other estimates place the total number of Bargo people in Sudan to be about 28,000. The Bargo today primarily adhere to Islam, following the Maliki school of Sunni Islam. They supported the Sultans of Abeche and the Sudanic kingdoms, who spoke their language. Little is certain about their history before the 17th century. They are noted as having helped expel the Christian Tunjur dynasty and installed an Islamic dynasty in their region in the early 17th century. Their homelands lie in the path of caravan routes that connect the Sahel and West Africa with the Middle East. The Bargo people are an African people. They are traditionally pastoral and farmers who are clan-oriented. The Bargo people have also been referred to as the Wadai, an alternate spelling for Ouaddaï. They speak Maba, a Nilo-Saharan language, of the Maban branch. Locally this language is called Bura Mabang. The first ten numerals in Bargo language, states Andrew Dalby, are "tek, bar, kungal, asal, tor, settal, mindri, rya, adoi, atuk", and this is very distant from other Nilo-Saharan languages. Although an ethnic group, their Bargo language was the state language of the Islamic Wadai Empire, and continued to be an important language when the Islamic Bornu Empire conquered these lands. Many Bargo people also speak Arabic, as their traditional trade language. The Bargo people rebelled against the tribute demands of the Bornu Empire, and became sovereign people. They then led raids to southern regions for plunder and slaves from non-Muslim African ethnic groups. The African slaves of the Bargo people were absorbed in the Bargo tribal culture,...