Darfur

(Arabic: “House of the Fur”)

also spelled Darfur

historical region of the Bilad al-Sudan (Arabic: “Land of the Fur”), roughly corresponding to the westernmost portion of the present-day Sudan. It lay between Kordofan to the east and Wadai to the west and extended southward to the Al-Ghazal (Gazelle) River and northward to the Libyan Desert.

Darfur consists of an immense rolling plain that has an area of approximately 170,000 square miles (440,000 square km). The volcanic highlands of the Marrah Mountains dominate the central part of this plain. The Marrah Mountains have an average elevation of 7,200 feet (2,200 metres), with the highest peak, Mount Marrah, rising to 10,131 feet (3,088 metres). Elsewhere the sparsely populated plains of Darfur are relatively featureless and arid, particularly in the north, where they merge into the Libyan Desert. Soils, which are generally stony or sandy, support some seasonal grass and low, thorny shrubs with tropical maquis vegetation. The Marrah highlands receive heavier rainfall than other parts of Darfur, and a number of large wadis (seasonal watercourses) rise in the mountains and flow southward across the plains.

Arabs have long constituted the majority of the population in the northern part of Darfur, while Arabs and Fur have predominated in the southern portion. Other ethnic groups have included the Beja, Zaghawa, Nubian, and Daju peoples. Heavy rainfall in the Marrah highlands permits the intensive cultivation of cereals, rice, and fruits. Crops grown at other locations in the southern part of Darfur include sorghum, millet, sesame, peanuts (groundnuts), other root crops, and vegetables. In the arid north, camels, sheep, and goats are raised. Traditional handicrafts include leatherwork, wood carving, and carpet weaving. Nyala and Al-Fashir are the principal towns.

In prehistoric times the northern inhabitants of Darfur were related to the predynastic peoples of the Nile River valley. From roughly 2500 BC Darfur was probably within the sphere of the Egyptian caravans that traded southward from Aswan. Its first traditional rulers, the Daju (Dagu), may have been connected with ancient Egypt, and trade was no doubt conducted from Darfur both with Egypt during the New Kingdom and with the cities of Napata and Meroe in the kingdom of Cush (Kush; now in northern Sudan). The rule of the Daju in Darfur was eventually followed by that of the Tunjur, or Tungur.

The Christian period, which probably lasted from 900 to 1200 in Darfur, was ended by the advance of Islam eastward from the empire of Kanem-Bornu (centred on Lake Chad). By 1240 the king of Kanem was claiming control of a trade route with Egypt that extended eastward as far as Sai, and it is from this date that the influence of Kanem and Bornu on Darfur probably derived. Indeed, Darfur may have been a province of either Kanem or Bornu at one time or another during their great periods.

The Keira, a chiefly clan affiliated with the Fur, ruled Darfur from approximately 1640 to 1916. The first historic mention of the name Fur occurred in 1664. During that period the kings of the Keira sultanate of Darfur apparently used the term Fur to refer to the region's dark-skinned inhabitants who accepted both their Islamic religion and their rule. As the Keira dynasty itself intermarried, its members also became known as Fur. The inhabitants of Darfur were completely Islamized under the rule of the Keira sultans. The sultans fought intermittently with the Wadai kingdom and also tried to subjugate the semi-independent Arab tribes who inhabited the country.

In the 1870s Darfur came under Egyptian rule and was given provincial status. Various revolts were suppressed by the Egyptians, and in 1881 Rudolf Karl Slatin was appointed governor. Though he defended the province against the forces of al-Mahdi, a religious reformer and Sudanese political leader, he ultimately was obliged to surrender to him in December 1883. Darfur was thereafter incorporated into al-Mahdi's dominions. Following the overthrow of al-Mahdi's successor, the khalifah (“caliph”) 'Abd Allah, in 1898, the new (Anglo-Egyptian) government of the Sudan recognized 'Ali Dinar as sultan of Darfur (1899). A rebellion led by 'Ali Dinar in 1915 provoked the British to launch a punitive expedition, in which he was killed (November 1916). Thereafter Darfur became a province (and later three provinces) of the Sudan.

Ethnic tensions, long simmering between nomadic Arab herders and sedentary Fur and other agriculturalists, began erupting into armed conflict in the late 1980s. The violence, although bloody, generally was sporadic until 2003, when rebels from among the agriculturalists attacked government installations. The government in Khartoum responded by creating an Arab militia force in Darfur that began attacking the sedentary groups. Within a year, tens of thousands of people (primarily Fur and other agriculturalists) had been killed, and hundreds of thousands had fled westward to refugee camps in neighbouring Chad.