The Masalit (masara in Masalit; Arabic ماساليت) are a people of Darfur in western Sudan and Wadai in eastern Chad. They speak Masalit, a Nilo-Saharan language of the Maba group. They numbered about 250,000 in 1983[1]. Masalit is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Masalit ethnic group in western Darfur. ... The Arabic language (Arabic: ‎ translit: ), or simply Arabic (Arabic: ‎ translit: ), is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... Darfur (Arabic دار Ùور, meaning home of the Fur) is a region of far western Sudan, bordering the Central African Republic, Libya, and Chad. ... Wadai was a former sultanate in northern Chad, located to the east of Lake Chad. ... Masalit is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Masalit ethnic group in western Darfur. ... Map showing the distribution of the Nilo-Saharan languages. ... The Maban languages are a group of Nilo-Saharan languages spoken in Chad, the Central African Republic, and Sudan. ... 1983 is an integer and composite number that represents a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Between 1884 and 1921 they established a state called Dar Masalit.
See also: Darfur conflict. The country of Sudan The Darfur Conflict is an ongoing conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan, mainly between the Janjaweed, a militia group recruited from local Arab tribes, and the non-Arab peoples of the region. ...
The Masalit are often very poor, living in mud huts and surviving by subsistence farming.
The Masalit, however, as well as their other African neighbour tribes, retain many of their traditional practices, in spite of concerted efforts by the Arab-dominated Sudan government to Arabize the peoples.
The Masalit are nominally Muslim but as well as their Friday prayers in the village mosque, they continue to direct prayers to their traditional gods of land and sky.
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