This week, we had the unique opportunity to greet the new Maba Sultan in Abeche. It was a wonderful way for us to introduce ourselves as learners of his people’s language and culture; to congratulate him on his new position as sultan; to share with him our prayers for wisdom and blessing in his work; to identify ourselves as working with the church and longing to show God’s love to the Maba people. We brought our children along, as well as Abdoulaye who helped secure the appointment. The sultan and his “cabinet” of men loved the children! They received us all with a very warm welcome and gave us an invitation to come visit again whenever we want. One of the men said he wanted to come to our home to visit with us in Maba. Relationships are so important in Chad, so all in all, this provided a wonderful occasion for us to establish a positive relationship with this influential Maba leader; our hope is that in the future he will know of us when we choose to begin work in villages.
Tag: sultan
Visited the palace of the Sultan the other day with some visitors, and I brought Isaac along. The Maba Sultanate dates back nearly 400 years, when it split off from the Sultanate of Darfur which encompassed western Sudan and eastern Chad. When the French finally conquered the region in the early 20th Century, the sultanate was all but destroyed. A puppet sultan was put in place to do the bidding of the French. But after Chad’s independence in 1960, the sultanate was restored. Today it exists, not officially as part of the Chadian government, but alongside the government. The sultan is allowed to run his own Islamic court to decide local matters, and is still very influential in the region. He has the traditional palace, where he no longer lives, but instead lives just across the street. His black Hummer is parked outside. And his pet ostrich is still kept inside the palace walls, fenced in (barely) and strutting around like he owns the place.