Examining conflict and warfare in Chad from both historic and contemporary perspectives, Azevedo explores how violence has permeated the fabric of central-eastern Sudanic societies, and how foreign interference has exacerbated rather than suppressed violence. Although the main objective of this volume is to understand present Chad, the analytical discussion aims to go beyond the unwise and ethnic policies of people such as Francois Tombalbaye or Felix Malloum. Instead, the text clarifies the role of violence in both pre- and post-colonial Chad, in the hope of demythologizing many commonly held assumptions on the subject.