The town was founded by Emile Gentil on May 29, 1900, on the location of a small kotoko village. It is called Fort-Lamy, in memory of Commander Lamy, who died at the Battle of Kousseri a few weeks earlier; battle during which the great Slave Rabah also found death, which puts a stop to his grip on the country. On September 6, 1973, President Tombalbaye, in the midst of a "cultural revolution" and sought to erase any traces of French influence in the country, renamed it N'Djamena, the name of a neighbouring Arab village. Historically, it should have been baptized from a name kotoko or sao, since it is built on the ruins of a former village of that tribe and surrounded by sao sao (these buttes were bulldozed during the construction of the Novotel and the Embassy of France). I Djamena means in Arabic «the place where you are resting», because there were many trees in the shade of which it was a good thing.The first inhabitants were the prisoners of war of the Rabiste army to whom freedom was granted, accompanied by the former slaves who were inhabited the camp of the great slave and of saras soldiers enrolled in the French army. We also make a few merchants and artisans, to complete the panoply. The Arabic language, the language of the army of Rabah, is therefore required from the beginning as a lingua franca in the city. In 1911, the city already has 4 000 inhabitants, plus 60 whites. The inhabitants are divided into sixteen tribes living in four different districts, the most populated being the Arab and Saras neighbourhoods.The city then becomes a pleasant stop on the north-south caravan. In addition, being located on the road to the pilgrimage to Mecca, taken by West Africa's practising Muslims, she quickly witnessed an influx of Hausa, from Nigeria and Niger, to establish host structures, thereby benefiting the town from the manna represented by pilgrims. Yet the capital continues to falter, with only 4 000 inhabitants in 1927, far less than in its traditional major rivals such as Abéché and Massenya.The year 1920, that of the country's accession to the rank of a civilian colony, saw the construction of the first hospital and school, which will be attended by the children of «Southerners» and those of Sénégalais Senegalese.The city only grew economically from the 1930 s, with the arrival of Lebanese, Greek and Armenian traders, and the development of trade with Nigeria, which already supplies oil to the country and imports livestock, fish and natron.During the Second World War, its strategic situation in the heart of Africa and its early rallying to free France made it the third air base of General de Gaulle.The end of the war leads to the establishment of large European monopolies, which will disappear at the time of the country's accession to independence.It is with the latter that the city takes its real flight and finally plays its role as capital. In 1958, there were 53 000 inhabitants, 180 000, 1978 and 360 000, 1976. The civil war and the battles of N'Djamena, of February 1979 and March 1980, will set the capital ablaze. The Tihibna city is then popularly renamed, "where one suffers". A huge wave of terrorised southern refugees fled the city to Cameroon (Kousseri) and southern Chad, to escape the justice of the new «northerners» leaders.Since then, the city has witnessed the triumphal arrival of the current president, Idriss Déby, on 1 December 1990, and with him the mass influx of Zaghawa and Gorane, until then very little present. This new clan will quickly invade the key sectors of power and customs, become new warlords and enforce their law on fraudulent trade and, by that same, the entire city. Since the stabilisation of 1982 (Hissène Habré's accession to power), money flows into the city, with countless development projects and their desks, staff, and 4 x 4 air-conditioners!Today, N'Djamena has almost a million inhabitants and seems to the entire complexity of the country. While the Muslim neighbourhoods are sober, full of mosques and deserts at night, the southern neighbourhoods are full of bars and nightclubs that the inhabitants are facing after dark, in a tintamarre of songs charged with force grésillements by the radios.

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