Nomadic Connectivity

Based in central Chad, the Walad Djifir are part of extensive socio-economic networks, ranging from local and regional cattle markets, to Western Unions in Libya, and selling merchandise in the Central African Republic. The ferīkh (nomadic camp) is where all of the Walad Djifir's networks meet, and often also begin--providing the departure point of this research. This analytical and methodological approach embraces the intricate relationships between sedentary and mobility, the mundane and the extreme, flexibility and expectations. The Walad Djifir have developed ways of coping and dealing with insecurities, historically interacting with infrastructural, technological, and socio-political developments in specific ways. In exploring how such insecurities and crises become anchored into the everyday, the ferīkh provides answers. It is the mundane elements of daily life which give meaning to, and in so doing, anchor (potential) disruption.