The Burgu people are a minority ethnic group found primarily in the mountainous Ouaddaï region of eastern Chad and adjacent areas of Sudan. Their population is estimated to be about 300,000 in Chad. Other estimates place the total number of Burgu people in Sudan to be about 700,000. The Burgu today primarily adhere to Islam, following the MalikiSunni denomination. They supported the Sultans of Abeche and the Sudanic kingdoms, who spoke their language. Little is certain about their history before the 17th century. They are noted as having helped expel the Christian Tunjur dynasty and installed an Islamic dynasty in their region in the early 17th-century. Their homelands lie in the path of caravan routes that connect the Sahel and West Africa with the Middle East. The Burgu people are an Arabized African people. They are traditionally pastoral and farmers who are clan-oriented. The Burgu people have also been referred to as the Wadai, a derivative of Ouaddaï. They speak Maba, a Nilo-Saharan language, of the Maban branch. Locally this language is called Bura Mabang. The first ten numerals in Maba language, states Andrew Dalby, are "tek, bar, kungal, asal, tor, settal, mindri, rya, adoi, atuk", and this is very distant from other Nilo-Saharan languages. Although a small ethnic group, their Maba language was the state language of the Islamic state of Wadai, and continued to be an important language when the Islamic Bornu Empire conquered these lands. Many Burgu people also speak Arabic, as their traditional trade language. The Burgu people rebelled against the tribute demands of the Bornu Empire, and became sovereign people. They then led raids to southern regions for plunder and slaves from non-Muslim African ethnic groups. The African slaves of the Burgu people were absorbed in the Burgu tribal culture, and often they converted to escape slavery. In the 19th century, a powerful Burgu Sultanate on slave tradingcaravan route emerged under rulers such as Muhammad al-Sharif and Doud Murra. The Burgu Sultanate was abolished by the French in 1912, and the Burgu people's region thereafter annexed into the Ubangi-Shari colony. The Burgus participated in the efforts to end the colonial rule and then in the civil wars in Chad. The Burgu people are subdivided into many sub-clans, each controlling certain grazing lands and sources of water. Among the various sub-clans, the largest are the Marfa, Djene and Mandaba.
