Did You Know

Interesting Facts about Chad

Trivia, oddities, and curious tidbits about Chad.

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Did You Know?

19 curious facts about Chad.

Chad is named after Lake Chad, which is the fourth largest lake in Africa and the seventh largest in the world. It is an extremely shallow lake that has no outlet to the sea and its shoreline changes every year as parts of it dry up.
The lungfish, Protopterus annectens, lives in Lake Chad's floodplains. It is able to survive buried in dried-up mud throughout the dry season, because it can breathe air through its lungs.
At the summit of the Tibesti mountain system stands the dormant volcano Emi Koussi, 3,414 meters above sea level. It is not only the highest point in Chad, but the highest point in the entire Sahara desert.
Chad australopithecine is a type of early hominid identified from the remains of a single body found in 1960 at Koro Toro in southeast Chad. The remains were found close by the teeth of an extinct elephant and are thought to be 200,000 to 500,000 years old.

Families consider children to be insurance for their future and esteem those who have large families. When people die without having had children, they are said to have “ died twice.”
Scarification, the ritual application of scars on the faces of tribal members, is practised by many groups in Chad. Lines and other symbols are made on the faces of young men to mark them permanently as members of a particular tribe. Such markings are perceived as visually pleasing.
In villages throughout the country, markets are held on the same day each week and are important events for villagers and often the focus of the week's activity.
Chad is the world's second largest supplier of gum arabic, after Sudan. Gum arabic comes from certain species of the acacia tree and is an ingredient in foods, soft drinks, pharmaceuticals and glues.
Young girls of the Teda people of the Sahara play with dolls made of mud or wood. The dolls do not have facial features; instead, little beads are placed in a geometric pattern on the face of the doll. The dresses and ornaments on the dolls resemble those of adult women.
Drought can cause malnutrition and widespread famine in Chad. In 1984, the drought was so severe that Lake Chad completely dried up.