Baggara
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The Baggara or Baqqarah are a nomadic Bedouin people inhabiting Africa from between Lake Chad and the Nile, in the states of Sudan (particularly Darfur), Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, and the Central African Republic. They are also known as Shuwa Arabs. They are cattle-herders, migrating seasonally between grazing lands in the wet season and river areas in the dry season. They are mostly speakers of the Shuwa dialect of Arabic. Most are Muslims, thought to be partly descendants of Arab tribes who settled the region during the Middle Ages, descendents of the Juhayna group of Arabs that trace their ancestry to Libya. Their name is a term widely used in western Sudan for Arab pastoralists, meaning literally "cattle herder."
The Baggara of Darfur and Kordofan were the backbone of the Mahdist revolt against Turko-Egyptian rule in Sudan in the 1880s. The Mahdi's second-in-command, the Khalifa Abdullahi, was himself a Baggara of the Ta'aisha tribe. During the Mahdist period (1883-98) tens of thousands of Baggara migrated to Omdurman and central Sudan where they provided many of the troops for the Mahdist armies. After their defeat at the Battle of Karari in 1898, the remnants returned home to Darfur and Kordofan. Under the British system of indirect rule, each of the major Baggara tribes was ruled by its own paramount chief, known as Nazir. Most of them were loyal members of the Umma Party, headed since the 1960s by Sadiq el Mahdi.
The main Baggara tribes of Darfur were awarded "hawakir" (land grants) by the Fur Sultans in the 1750s. As a result, the four largest Baggara tribes of Darfur--the Rizeigat, Habbaniya, Beni Halba and Ta'aisha--have been only marginally involved in the Darfur conflict. However, the Baggara have been deeply involved in other conflicts in both Sudan and Chad. Starting in 1985, the Government of Sudan armed the Rizeigat of south Darfur and the Missiriya and Hawazma of neighboring Kordofan as militia to fight against the Sudan People's Liberation Army in South Sudan and the Nuba Mountains. Known as "Murahaliin", these militia were complicit in many human rights abuses including the abduction and forced labor of women and children. However, by the mid-1990s they had mostly negotiated local truces with the SPLA forces. In Darfur, a Baggara militia known as "Fursan" (horsemen) fought against the SPLA in 1990-91. In Chad, Salamat Baggara were also involved in the 1980s Janjaweed activities.
The Baggara include several tribes, such as the Rizeigat, Ta’isha, Habbaniya in Darfur and Misseiria and the Humur and Hawazma in Kordofan. The Misseiria of Jebel Mun speak a Nilo-Saharan language, Tama (also called Miisiirii.)
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