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500 MASALIT
The Masalit, and a group of the same people called "Masalat," number more
than 300,000. The largest group straddles the Chad-Sudan border, with some
200,000 Masalit speakers in Dar Masalit District of Northern Darfur Province,
Sudan, and 50,000 in the Adre District of Chad. To the west in the Oum Hadjer-
Am Dam area of Chad live approximately 23,000 Masalat. To the southeast of
Dar Masalit, in the vicinity of Gereida, Southern Darfur, live Masalit and Masalat
numbering in the tens of thousands. In recent decades, Masalit populations have
grown up in Khartoum, the Gedaref-Kassala area and other eastern Sudan locations
as a result of migration and resettlement.
It is unclear whether the Masalit/Masalat distinction represents a significant
ethnic or linguistic difference or a mere linguistic artifact due to Arabization of
names. The Masalat of Gereida and the people of Dar Masalit are in contact;
they have some common clans and recently joined in paying compensation for
an act of homicide against a non-Masalit in Southern Darfur.
Although French sources consider the Masalat of Chad an offshoot of the Dar
Masalit people, the oral traditions of Sudanese Masalit trace Masalat origins to
the west. The Masalit and Masalat of Sudan consider that the original Masalit
population migrated from Tunis and came to Sudan via present-day Chad. Linguistically,
Masalit is part of the Maba branch of Nilo-Saharan, and languages
of this branch are spoken in the Am Dam area. This fact, in combination with
oral traditions, suggests that Masalit and Maba languages became distinct in the
Am Dam area of Chad; thereafter, some Masalit migrated to the current Dar
Masalit and Gereide locations and populated them. Linguistic research is needed
to unravel the sequence and timing of events (see Maba).
Masalit are in contact with Arab and non-Arab populations in all regions, and
Arabic is widely used as a lingua franca. This is especially true of townspeople
in all areas and of the Gereida and Am Dam populations generally. Within Dar
Masalit many women and children speak only the Masalit language, but men
tend to learn more Arabic in the course of labor migration to eastern Sudan.
The use of Arabic appears to be spreading, especially in towns where children
attend school and market activities bring different language groups together.
In Dar Masalit the Masalit are the majority ethnic group, outnumbering the
Gimr, Jebel (Mileri), Sinyar and Arab populations (see Sinyar; Tama-speaking
Peoples). They inhabit most of the southern part of the Dar, a Sahelian region
with mean annual rainfall of approximately 20 inches in recent years. This
represents a decline of over 4 inches average rainfall since 1969 and appears to
be a permanent condition in spite of the widely accepted view that the Sahel
drought ended in 1974. The area appears to be in a process of desertification,
as are other areas of Sudan.
Masalit engage in mixed agriculture, primarily cultivation of millet and peanuts
in the northern sandy areas and sorghum in the southern wadis. They keep
moderate numbers of cattle, sheep and goats and are able to manure some of
their fields. In recent years camels purchased from Arab nomads have become
an important form of transport, supplementing the large number of donkeys.