Happy Birthday to Chad!

A Chadian tailor sells traditional dresses. *Photo from Wikipedia

August 11 is: Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Chad from France in 1960.

French colonial expansion led to the creation of the Territoire Militaire des Pays et Protectorats du Tchad (Military Territory of the Lands and Protectorates of Chad) in 1900. By 1920, France had secured full control of the colony and incorporated it as part of French Equatorial Africa.

The French primarily viewed the colony as an unimportant source of untrained labour and raw cotton. Only the Sara (ethnic group who reside in southern Chad and Central African Republic) of the south was governed effectively; French presence in the Islamic north and east was nominal.

After World War II, France granted Chad the status of “Overseas France”, which consists of all the French-administered territories outside of the European continent, and its inhabitants the right to elect representatives to the French National Assembly and a Chadian assembly. Chad was granted independence on August 11, 1960.

Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in northern Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest and Niger to the west.

*Reference: Wikipedia