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752 TAMA-SPEAKING PEOPLES
and therefore salaried members of the judiciary and administration. This is
altogether in line with the fate of other pre-colonial traditional ruling families,
who were the first to be trusted and sent to school by their British and French
overlords. The pattern applies to the ruling elites of the Tama, Zaghawa, Maba,
Masalit, Gimr and other populations in the border area of Chad and Sudan. In
Chad, however, their preeminence was short-lived, and many have been forced
into exile by rebel groups against the central government. In Sudan, the authority
which the descendants of the traditional rulers have acquired because of their
education and diplomas is limited to narrow fields in the professional realm. The
decision-making process is no longer the monopoly of traditional rulers but is
shared by professional administrators, by various elected councils and informally
by influential merchants and traders.
Abu Sharib and Mararit
The Abu Sharib of Chad are bounded to the east by the Tama, to the southeast
by the Mararit, to the south and west by the Maba and to the north by the Mimi.
Their area has permanent water resources at a depth of 6 to 10 feet. The predominance
of acacia trees makes it an ideal environment for keeping goats and
camels, but cattle are more numerous. The area is visited by transhuming Arab
pastoralists, but the Abu Sharib themselves do not migrate. In case of emergency,
when droughts or locusts cause a lack of vegetation, they take their livestock to
the area of the Tama and Mararit. The Abu Sharib were Islamized at an early
date, and lay priests from their ranks were chosen in the past by the sultans of
Wadai to convert non-Muslim peoples in the south. Most men manage to perform
the pilgrimage to Mecca. Their main market center is Am Zoer.
The Mararit are bounded to the east by the Masalit, to the south by the Asungor,
to the west by the Maba, to the north by the Tama and to the northwest by the
Abu Sharib. Whereas the Abu Sharib consider themselves an offshoot of the
Tunjur, the Mararit are a mixture of Tunjur and Asungor. Culturally both groups
show many Maba traits, but they do not practice female circumcision. The Mararit
natural resources and means of subsistence are broadly similar to that of the Abu
Sharib and Asungor. They own more cattle but less sheep and goats. Both groups
own a fair number of transport camels (mostly male), bought from Arab nomads
with savings from labor migration. Mabrone is the Mararit capital.
Asungor, Erenga and Mileri
When considered as a single group, the Asungor and Erenga are bounded to
the east by pastoral Arabs, to the south by the Masalit, to the west by the Maba
and to the north by the Mararit, the Tama and the Mileri. The Chadian Asungor
number approximately 56,000, the Sudanese Erenga 33,000. Both Asungor and
Erenga are names given by the French and Fur to a congery of clans which
speak an identical language but which have different traditions of origin. The