• The lake Chad area, according to Fra Mauro - around 1450.

Mega-Chad
research network

Méga-Tchad
MSH Mondes
21, Allée de l´Université
92023 NANTERRE Cédex
FRANCE

Téléphone: ++33 +1 46 69 26 27
Fax: ++33 +1 46 69 26 28
E-mail: megatchad.net@gmail.com
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Recent
publications

Christian Seignobos, Henry Tourneux, 2025. Aux marges des grands royaumes. Une histoire orale de Maroua, Afrique centrale.
Paris, CNRS Editions, 572 p.
Aux marges des grands royaumes. Une histoire orale de Maroua, Afrique centrale.

Barbara Cooper, 2025.
Inestimables richesses : une histoire des grossesses et des naissances au Sahel.
Laval, Presses de l'Université de Laval, 440 p.
Barbara Cooper

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Mega-Chad
conferences

The 17th Mega Chad Colloquium, held in Nice (France) in 2017, resulted in two publications :

  • 2020 − Conflits et violences dans le bassin du lac Tchad.
     E. Chauvin, O. Langlois, C. Seignobos, C. Baroin (ed.). 2020.
     Marseille : IRD, Collection Synthèses, 360 p.

    • The 18th Mega Chad Colloquium was held from 29 to 31 January 2020 in N'Djamena (Chad) on the theme "Times of changes. Ruptures and continuity in the Lake Chad basin".
    The program is available here as well as the summaries of the presentations and the introductory and concluding speeches of the conference.
    A book is scheduled for 2025 at IRD Editions.

    No conference is planned at the moment. An online seminar will be organized in 2026 on the theme: 'Living and coexisting in the Lake Chad Basin.'
    Contact : seminaire.megatchad@gmail.com

    » more conferences

    Images of Mega Chad

    What is Mega Chad?

    The Mega-Chad network presentation brochure

    Mega-Chad is an international network concerned with multidisciplinary research on the history and evolution of societies in the Lake Chad basin.

    Following a first multidisciplinary meeting held in Paris in 1984, the network has grown progressively to its present total of about 400 members in some twenty countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Japan, Netherlands, Niger, Nigeria, Russia, Switzerland, USA and others.

    The network name "Mega-Chad" evokes the maximal extension of Lake Chad several millennia ago and refers to a vast area extending over much of Niger, Chad, northern Nigeria and northern Cameroon and the CAR within which are many shared cultural traditions, influences and patterns of exchange.

    Its role involves:

    • Facilitating contacts between researchers of various disciplines, countries and institutions
    • Keeping them informed of work already carried out and of projects in progress
    • Stimulating research on the region by the organization of international conferences and colloquia and by publication of proceedings
    • Promoting international cooperation and particularly north-south relationships
    • Assisting development through realization of the potential of the regional cultural heritage