Am Timan

Am Timan grew where the Bahr Azoum comes down from the east and spreads into the Salamat floodplain, a place with water, grazing and a crossing point on the routes between the Ouaddaï sultanate to the north-east and the Baguirmi lands to the west. The plains around it were a frontier country of Arab herding groups and settled farming villages, and were raided for slaves by the stronger states on either side through the 18th and 19th centuries — a history that left the region thinly populated and its communities mixed.

French forces reached the Salamat in the first years of the 20th century, as part of the slow conquest of what became Chad, and Am Timan was made the administrative seat of the district. Colonial rule brought little beyond a small garrison, an administration and a hunting reputation: the game country west of the town became Zakouma National Park by presidential decree in 1963, the first and oldest national park in the country. A cotton plantation and processing plant outside the town were destroyed in the fighting of the later twentieth century.

Since independence the town's story has been the region's. Rebellion and civil war in the later 20th century reached Salamat as they reached most of the country, and the park lost most of its elephants to heavy poaching in the 2000s. Management of Zakouma passed to African Parks in 2010 in partnership with the government, and intensive anti-poaching work allowed the herd, down to some 450 animals, to stabilise and start breeding again. Am Timan, as the nearest town of any size, became the road gateway to that recovery, and remains the administrative and market centre of a province where most people live from cattle and millet.

Salamat is a meeting ground of peoples. Arab herding groups, who speak Chadian Arabic as a first language, share the province with settled farming communities including the Runga, Sara-related groups from further west and families drawn in by trade, and its southern edge shades into Chad's Christian and traditional south. The town itself is predominantly Muslim, and the mosque, the Quranic school and the two Eids give the year its shape.

The culture of the province is pastoral above all. Cattle and camels are wealth, status and inheritance, and the long seasonal movement of herds — south towards the rivers as the pastures dry, north again with the rains — sets the calendar for whole families. Wedding and naming ceremonies are the great occasions, marked with drumming, praise singing and, in the countryside, displays of horsemanship; horses are still kept and valued here.

Hospitality is a firm obligation rather than a courtesy: a visitor is offered tea poured in rounds and a bowl of food whatever the household has. Manners are formal and unhurried, elders are greeted first, and food is taken with the right hand from a shared dish. Dress is modest for everyone, and women in the town usually cover their hair. Relations between herders and farmers over crops, water and grazing routes are the region's most sensitive everyday subject.

Upwards of 50,000 people live in Am Timan, which makes it one of the larger towns of south-eastern Chad and the administrative centre of Salamat. Its economy is farming and livestock: millet, sorghum and sesame grown in the rains, gardens of vegetables worked in the drying riverbed, and cattle, sheep and goats brought in for the market. Fish from the floodplain, honey and gum arabic add cash income, and the provincial offices, the hospital, the schools and a handful of aid organisations provide most of the salaried work.

Houses are compounds of mud-brick, banco and straw behind low walls, with doum palms for shade and open sandy ground between the quarters. The day starts before the heat, empties in the early afternoon and comes back to life at dusk around the market and the tea stands. Water comes from wells and pumps, electricity is limited and intermittent, and most cooking is done on wood or charcoal.

The seasons dominate everything. In the rains the plains flood, tracks close, the town can be cut off for weeks and malaria rises; in the dry months the herds move through, the riverbed gardens are planted, and traders and vehicles move freely again. Drought years, crop failure and competition for grazing are the recurring pressures, and the presence of Zakouma to the west, with its rangers and its visitors, is one of the few outside sources of work and money.

Am Timan eats the Sahelian staples. The centre of every meal is boule, the stiff millet or sorghum porridge known in Chadian Arabic as esh, eaten by hand from a shared bowl and dipped into sauce. Sauces are of okra, fresh in the rains and dried and powdered the rest of the year, of baobab leaf, of dried tomato and onion, or of charmout, sun-dried strips of beef or mutton pounded into the pot. Daraba, a mix of vegetables with peanut, is common where the south's influence is felt.

Being on a floodplain gives the town more fish than most of Chad. Catches from the Bahr Azoum and the seasonal pools are eaten fresh in the rains and smoked or dried for the dry season, when they are broken into sauces. Meat is grilled over charcoal for guests and festivals, milk — fresh, soured or clarified into cooking butter — is central to the herding families, and dates come up from the market traders who bring them south from the oases.

Drinks are non-alcoholic in the town: strong sweet tea poured in several rounds, karkanji made from dried hibiscus flowers, and a tart drink from baobab fruit pulp. Peanuts, sesame and honey are sold by the measure in the market, and bread and fried dough appear wherever there is a town oven.