Country Profile: Chad

Chad is one of the largest countries in Africa - about 3 times the size of California. Over 10 million people live there, mostly in the tropical southern half of the country. The northern half is desert and more sparsely populated.

The flag of Chad was modeled after the French flag, but coincidentally it is identical to the Romanian flag:

The official languages are French and Arabic. The country is very diverse linguistically, with over 130 tribal languages. Three of Africa's four major language families are represented in Chad (Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, and Afro-Asiatic). We are working with languages in all three of these families, but we are especially working with languages among the Sara sub-group of the Nilo-Saharan family.

Chad was a French colony which received its independence in 1960. For years, the country has been wracked by warfare and economic strife. Among the factors which have contributed to Chad's troubles are the geographical and ethnic differences between the north and the south, religious strife between Christians and Muslims, and the geographical location of the country (landlocked with vast areas of desert).

In spite of the country's troubles, the population of Chad is growing quite strongly, by some 2% per year. The average number of children born per woman is between 5 and 6 - the 21st highest fertility rate in the world, but the country also has the 11th highest infant mortality rate in the world.

One of the difficulties of doing Bible translation work in Chad is the very low literacy rate - less than 26% of the population can read and write in one the official languages of the country, French or Arabic. Literacy is especially poor among women - the rate for women is less than 13%; while literacy among men is at under 41%. These figures do not include those who can read or write in their own tribal language, such as those who use our Bible translations among their people groups, but you can still see that poor literacy is an obstacle for our work!

Please pray for our ministry among the Chadian people. We currently have 8 translation projects in this country, 6 of which are Old Testament projects and 2 of which are New Testaments that are nearly finished. I am planning to begin my ministry among these projects.


For more information, check out the CIA World Factbook on Chad.