Paper short abstract:

The paper studies several cases of migrations among the Tubu Teda Gunna (Niger, Chad) and asks how they may become a means to realize territoriality. Examples from pre-colonial times up to the present are given and the question of historical continuities and disruptions is raised.

Paper long abstract:

The paper wants to ask how migration can become a means to realize territoriality. The history and the present of the Tubu Teda Gunda in Niger and Chad provides several examples to illustrate this approach: The separation of the Teda Gunda from the Tomagra and their following migration from the Tibesti into the Kawar led to a favorable natural environment as a base for prospering nomadic life and to political emancipation. After that, the interactions between the French colonial rulers and the Gunda allowed the latter - especially one sub-group - not only to resolve territorial questions by migrating but in the same to gain the administrative chieftaincy and thus a dominant political position. After the independence and in the present times, new challenges, among others due to recent decentralization, occur and territoriality may again be negotiated. The aim of the paper is to study such territorial dynamics and to ask what historical continuities can be found here and where disruptions occur.