Waja

Abubakar Garba
Centre for Trans-Saharan Studies,
University of Maiduguri,
Email: [email protected]
[email protected]

Abstract
The Chad Basin covers an area of about 2.4million sq.km, but the conventional
basin which is under the jurisdiction of Lake Chad Basin Commission is about
1.00million sq km and hosts about 30 million inhabitants from five member
countries, namely; Nigeria, Niger, Central African Republic, Chad and Cameroun.
Agriculture, fishing and livestock rearing that rely on the water resources of the
basin are the primary sources of income for this population. The region provides a
fascinating scenario with regard to abundant archaeological, historical and living
cultural resources. Archaeologically, it is a region with vast archaeological
resources some of which made a great imprint not only within the sub-region but the
world at large. The Daima excavations of 1965-66 by Graham Connah were a case
in point. The Dufuna canoe with an antiquity of over 8000 years, so far the oldest
canoe in Africa and the third oldest in the world also speaks of the antiquity of the
region in terms of human activities including water transportation. Historically,it is
a crossroads of many cultures while linguistically,it is a zone of convergence and
divergence of most ethnic groups we found today in the North-Eastern region of
Nigeria.The Chad basin is a huge landmass which witnessed a series of depositions
and activities, and is rightly referred to as a cultural watershed, and an interface of
four major cultures of the world the Eastern, the western, the Saharan and Sudanic
(Alkali, 1991). The region accommodated one of the largest dynasties in Africa, the
Sayfawa (Alkali and Yusuf 1991). The methodology adopted adopted for this
research involved literature review of past and recent archaeological activities
undertaken by Graham Connah, some research projects results within the
framework of the University of Maiduguri-Frankfurt Joint Research project, and
the Wandala project with the University of Calgary,Canada.
Keywords: Chad Basin, Scenario, Daima, Dufuna, Dynasty, Sahara, Sudanic,
Wandala.