Take a look at this painting from the 1700s
It's called A Journey to Egypt and the Near East. It depicts William George Brown, a famous English traveler
meeting the Sultan of Darfur, al-El Rashman, in 1793. At this time, Darfur was its own nation
an independent sultanate in the heart of Africa. Today, it's only a part of Sudan
a troublesome part where war seems to have taken up a permanent residence
Sudan is in a civil war. Even after the South became independent, the internal conflict of the
country hasn't died down and the previous North-South divide seems to have turned into what is
essentially a East-West one. Today, the RSF forces control much of West Sudan, including key areas of
Darfur. They have also very recently taken control of the Eglik oilfield, the largest one in the
country, while the National Army controls the East, the Nile River, and access to the
Red Sea, as well as the capital of Khartoum. In the middle of this are small armed groups that control their respective small regions There is a place a bit like Asterix in Darfur which is right at the middle It a volcano right at the middle called the Jebel Mara which is not controlled by the RSF
And it's going to be very difficult to be controlled by the RSF. And that place is controlled by the Zagawa, it's called SLM, Sudan Liberation Movement
And that is always going to be an area that is going to be kind of a little focus of independence inside Darfur
So that might be interesting. It's, by the way, the Sudan has never been able to conquer that area
Even with a unified Sudan, they have never been able to pacify or control that area
which has the most delicious oranges I have ever tasted in my life
But Darfur is the focus for this video, because if the war goes a certain way
it could end up breaking away and becoming a new country. While researching for this video, I had the chance to speak to Pedro
He's a humanitarian aid worker who spent years in Sudan and knows a lot about this
I lived in Darfur for four years in Niala in South Darfur and in Janina on West Darfur on the border with Chad I lived there for four years and then I came back and lived another two years in Khartoum recently just before the war this latest war that broke out
So through his experience and additional research, let's find out how Africa might be gaining a new country in the near future
I think the best way to start is always at the beginning
And what better place to go than first understand the origin of the name of the region
Dar means out, home, like Dar es Salaam means the home of peace
So the Darfur is the home of the Fur. The Fur is the main ethnic group in Darfur, but there's more
There's Zagawa and there's Masalit. And those are the three main ethnic groups of Black African, like Bantu origin
The name of the people themselves dates back a long time. The first historical mention is from 1664 when J. M. Wonsleb, a German traveler, wrote about his trip there
Food would be the name given by the arriving Arab elite to the original inhabitants of the country and it would have meant something like those with very dark skin Most of the region consists of a semi plain which typically isn great to
live in but the Mata mountains offer plentiful water and by the 12th century the Daju people
created the first kingdom of the region. At least the first one that we know about in historical
records. It was called precisely the Daju kingdom. We can see its name on this old 12th century map
by Al Idrisi. It lasted for a few hundred years, changing names and rulers and coexisting with
other tribal rule, depending on the areas within Darfur and Sudan themselves. But then came our
big reference for a potential new independent country, the old Sultanate of Darfur, the one
we mentioned at the start. You see, while the Daju were locals, in around the 14th century
the Tunjur people began to arrive. They were Sunni Muslim and of Arab descent
Their ancestors had come from the Arabian Peninsula and slowly made it to central Sudan
via the north of Africa. And after arriving, they slowly took power away from the Daju
Speaking of power, you might be able to listen to the power of the Srain outside
I don't know if it comes across in the recording. In this case, there doesn't seem to have been a war of conquest