Baggara

Also known as: Baqqara; "cattle Arabs"

Language family: Arabic

"Baggara" (cattle-herders) describes a group of related Arabic-speaking tribes — including the Rizeigat, Messiria, Habbaniya, Ta'isha and Hawazma — who settled the savanna belt of southern Darfur and Kordofan and took up cattle herding after migrating south from drier camel-herding country. Baggara culture is thought to have formed around the 17th century through contact between Arab camel-herders and Fula cattle-herders further west. Baggara fighters formed the backbone of the Mahdist revolt against Turco-Egyptian rule in the 1880s. In more recent decades, some Baggara groups were armed by the Sudanese government as militias in conflicts against the SPLA and in Darfur, though involvement has varied widely by tribe and area.