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The Sara people, also called Kirdi, are an African ethnic group found in southern Chad, northwestern Central African Republic and southern border of Sudan. With origins in the Nile valley (Nilotic), they speak the Sara languages, which belong to the Nilo-Saharan family. They are the largest ethnic group in Chad.
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During the medieval and colonial era, the Sara people were victims of repeated slave raids by the Fulani and Arab ethnic groups, which has been one of the roots of the historic animosity between them. Many Sara people have retained their Animist faith, but some have converted to Christianity or Islam.
In Chad
The Sara (kameeni), descendants of the Sao, are the largest ethnic group in Chad. Located in the south, especially in the Moyen-Chari, Logone Oriental, Logone Occidental, and parts of the Tandjile regions, they are Nilotic people (or from the Nile) who are believed to have migrated westwards to the Chad during the sixteenth century, as they sought refuge in the south against northern Muslim slave raiders. After their arrival, they continued to be the subject of violent slave raids by northern Fulani and Arabic people.
They were called "Kirdi" by the Chad ethnic groups that raided them for slaves, with the term "Kirdi" meaning a non-Muslim person. The raiders were called "Bagirmi", and this geo-political conflict between the Kirdi and the Bagirmi continued through the nineteenth century.
French colonial empire entered the ongoing hostilities in the early twentieth century, and the Sara people became a part of the French Equatorial Africa, more specifically as part of the "1e Tchad utile". The Sara society were transformed by this development, both in terms of opportunities such as education and training, but also exploited as forced labor and with conscription during the World Wars. At the time of independence from French colonialism in 1960, the Sara were more aligned with Western institutions, than did the northern populations that had formerly viewed them as a source of slaves and raided them. This and their being the largest ethnic group led to their dominance in Chad politics after independence. They were also a party to the civil war with the Islamic populations of the north and central Chad, each with a different ideology.
In the Central African Republic
The Sara people make up ten per cent of the population of the Central African Republic, making it the fourth largest ethnic group in the country. They live in the northwest part of CAR.
Languages
The Sara people natively speak the Sara languages. This dialect cluster belongs to the Nilo-Saharan family.
Genetics
Analysis of classic genetic markers and DNA polymorphisms by Excoffier et al. (1987) found that the Sara are most closely related to the Kunama people of Eritrea. Both populations speak languages from the Nilo-Saharan family. They are also similar to West African populations, but biologically distinct from the surrounding Cushitic and Ethiopian Semitic Afro-Asiatic-speaking groups.