Toubou people

The Tubu or Toubou (Old Tebu: "Rock People;" also written Tibu, Tibbu, Tebu, Tubu, Tebou, Umbararo) are Nilotic people that live mainly in northern Chad, but also in southern Libya, northeastern Niger and northwestern Sudan. They speak Tebu, in the Saharan subfamily of the Nilo-Saharan languages language family.

The majority of Toubou live in the north of Chad around the Tibesti mountains (Old Tebu: "Rocky Mountains," whence the Toubou's own name.) Numbering roughly 350,000, they are mostly Muslim. Most Toubou are herders and nomads, though many are now semi-nomadic. Their society is clan-based, with each clan having certain oases, pastures and wells. They are divided in two closely associated people, the Teda and the Daza.

Many of Chad's leaders have been Toubou, including presidents Goukouni Oueddei and Hissène Habré.

Society

Toubou life centers on their livestock (their major source of wealth and sustenance) and on the scattered oases where they or their herders cultivate dates and grain. In a few places, the Toubou (or more often members of the Haddad group who work for them) also mine salt and natron, a salt like substance used for medicinal purposes and for livestock.