The Teda live in the rugged and remote region of the Tibesti Mountains in northern Chad, north-eastern Niger and southern Libya.

Traditionally, the Teda have been hostile and suspicious of outsiders, but those who are educated are increasingly open to exchanges with outsiders and different viewpoints.

They have been prominent in Chadian politics over the years, and well represented in the leadership of the nation due to their fighting ability.

The Teda see themselves as Muslims. To consider being a Christian as a Teda seems unthinkable.

The Teda are a potentially key people, not only in keeping Chad from following the path of Sudan into an Islamic state, but also providing a doorway for evangelisation of the neighbouring closed country of Libya. The Tibesti extends into Libya and they can cross the border without great difficulty.

In the past the Teda were great raiders, operating over a tremendous area before they were finally brought under control the late 1800s by the Turks, who were in turn succeeded by the French and the Italians. More recently, the Teda have played a key role in Chadian politics in the late 1960s, spearheading a rebel coalition of northern Muslims which led to a Teda chief of state in Chad 1979-1980. The Teda are considered to be a solitary, rather tough mountain and desert people.

It has been suggested that the Teda are a result of groups or individuals over the centuries fleeing to the refuge of the Tibesti to escape justice. Though they have been called the Black nomads of the Sahara, their straight noses, occasionally thin lips and Berber-like blood group pattern as well as their slender bodies, suggest a mixed racial heritage.

There are at least three identifiable Teda castes: the true Teda; the descendants of the former slaves of the Teda (Kamaya); and the blacksmith caste (Duwudi). The blacksmiths are also responsible for the drums and singing at official Teda functions, such as the installation of a new sultan. As for the Kamaya, when legal problems arise it appears that to this day each Kamaya family is still under the protection of a true Teda family.

Although the three castes visit among one another and eat together, intermarriage is very rare and a Teda from a lower caste is never put in a position of authority - governmental or otherwise - over a Teda from a higher caste.

The sultan or head of the Teda is called the Derdai and is chosen from three alternating families of the most important of the 30 Teda clans, the Tomagra. In keeping with the highly fragmented nature of Teda society, he exerts more of a symbolic (rather than a real) authority over the Teda.

The Teda people are closely related to the Daza (sometimes called Gorane), though the historic relationship between the two is far from clear.

The Daza (more numerous than the Teda), generally live below the 18th parallel and often include cattle among their livestock which the Teda (living in the more adverse terrain of the Tibesti) do not have.

One possibility is that originally the Tibesti was the homeland for all, and as certain numbers migrated south, their language transformed to become Dazaga. The Teda and Daza have in common the fact of being war-like Muslim desert tribes and the similarity of their languages. However differences are also clear-cut to the point at which a nine-month civil war in Chad in 1980 featured the Teda and Daza heading up opposing coalitions and resulted in the then Teda Head of State, being deposed by a Daza.

The majority of the Teda still live in the Tibesti, though there are Teda in other major cities of Chad, such as N’Djamena. There is also a significant number of Teda in Libya, especially in the vicinity of Sabha. Also the Teda are present in Niger, primarily in a chain of oases with Bilma as its centre.

Historically, the Teda have cultivated date palms, irrigated garden plots, and maintained herds of goats and camels. The men often left home as members of trading or raiding caravans.

Today, although date palms, goats and camels still play an important role, modernisation has brought significant superficial changes to Teda society. The Toyota truck has replaced the camel for transportation purposes, and macaroni, rice, tomato sauce and other packaged goods smuggled across the Libyan border have greatly added to the diet and supplemented the produce grown in gardens.

The men, as before, remain highly mobile, and it is still customary for men to leave their homes for months at a time. Now the purpose is often to transport goods across the desert between Libya and Chad, to find temporary remunerative work, or to visit far-flung family members.

Despite the advent of the modern era, the heart of the Teda remains unchanged. Raiding no longer occurs but rebellion against the government for the purposes of extracting settlement money is profitably executed. And their ancient system of law (although a very credible attempt to discourage killing and maiming by evoking high penalties for offenders) in the final analysis does not work and instinctive retaliation against a perceived wrong is often accompanied by a maximum of violence.

The women play an active role in the family as the men are frequently gone. If a Teda has more than one wife, generally these wives are widely separated geographically (often by hundreds of kilometres) to avoid intra-familial violence, including knife fights between the wives. The extended family unit provides protection in the case of inter-clan feuds, some of which, despite apparently having been settled through the payment of camels as blood money, can smolder for decades and spring back to life unexpectedly.

Homes built by the men are made of mud bricks or mortarless rocks piled on top of one another. Frequently though, either due to the absence of or unwillingness of the men, the women must build the dwellings, in which case they are hurriedly constructed affairs consisting of branch frames enclosed by reed walls and roof. The roofs primarily provide protection from the sun and are largely ineffectual against the rare rainfall. Inside a Teda home, there is often more evidence of wealth than is visible from exterior appearances, with floors covered with plastic woven mats, blankets or rugs and the walls occasionally adorned with brightly covered material or rugs.

In the larger Teda villages, life is centred around the market and the low-key socialising that occurs. Highlights of the year are the date harvest in early fall, Ramadan, the month-long Muslim fast and the ensuing three-day celebration, and the Tabaski - a feast day of the year that recalls that God provided Abraham with a ram to sacrifice in Ishmael’s stead, a time when each household kills a sheep or goat in this remembrance. Muslim tradition teaches that it was Ishmael that was being sacrificed.

The Teda are 100 percent Muslim, though the introduction of Islam into the Tibesti, a fact clouded in obscurity, appears to be a relatively recent phenomenon. Possibly the Islamisation of the Tibesti did not get under way until 1880, and as late as the 1950s Islam was reported to be very weak among the Teda with most following the principles of their old religion, a perfunctory appeasement worship of the mountain spirits. Even today there is a reticence by the Teda to travel alone at night by certain known habitations of demons. Also retaining their importance in Teda society are pre-Islamic sacrifices to ensure a good date crop or adequate rainfall in the mountains. Today, although remnants of pre-Islamic belief remain, to the extent possible most have been incorporated into the Muslim system and to be Teda is to be a Muslim. The Teda, historically characterised by a lack of religious fervour, are slowly turning into a more austere Islam as Libyan-influenced Teda return to the Tibesti to inform the inhabitants which practices are forbidden by the Koran (such as young women dancing at the date harvest). Also, the number of Teda making the pilgrimage to Mecca is increasing.

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