Moundou

Coke

Moundou is the second largest city in Chad and is the capital of the region of Logone Occidental.

The city lies on the Mbéré River (a tributary of the Western Logone) some 475 kilometres south of the capital N'Djamena. It is the main city of the Ngambai people. Moundou has grown as an industrial centre, home to the Gala Brewery, which produces Chad's most popular beer and the cotton and oil industries.

History

The city was created on 8 November 1923 by the French sergeant and administrator Joseph-François Reste, Lieutenant-General of Chad from 1923 to 1926 and future Governor General of French Equatorial Africa, who, from the whaleboat upon which he navigated the Logone, found the site pretty. By 1916, the military conquest of Chad was completed, however movements of resistance to the colonial regime took place. It was especially in the southwest of the country that dissensions continued until about 1930. He decided to found the post of Moundou in the centre of the rebellious zone. The rebellious situation did not change much with the arrival of Lieutenant Robert Reverdy. Chief of the district of the Middle Logone in 1925, Reverdy, who became a director in 1927, completed an uninterrupted stay for five years and eight months. He moved the chief town of the district to Moundou in 1927. Riding the country, on horseback and by litter, he subjected the organisation of strong chieftains, first of village then of township.

On 20 April 1930, Governor Georges Prouteaux of Oubangi-Chari (the district was attached to Oubangui-Chari in 1926) signed a decision reorganising the "indigenous of the Middle Logone" by creating 40 cantons, divided into five subdivisions. Reverdy had his right-hand man, local chief Hassan Moundou or Hassan Baguirmi, of Baguirmian or rather Baguirmianised Dekakire Arab origin, installed as chief of the township of Moundou. Not all chiefs were of traditional origin. In the animist country, custom only recognised clan chiefs or war or initiation leaders, who were strictly specialised and temporary. However, the system was accepted by the population, and some chiefs remained in office for more than a quarter of a century. Their descendants are still in place today.

Reverdy (called Baoguel, the "Left-Handed", in the Ngambay language) urbanised the post of Moundou that he established. He planted the flowers (from February to May) that line the roads of Moundou, which became the origin of the nickname of the city during the colonial period, "Moundou-la-Rouge".

In 1926 the Cotton Company of the Congo installed a ginning factory in Moundou. The cotton company later became Cotonfran in 1928 and then CotonTchad in 1972.

The first cadastral map of the town of Moundou was manufactured on 2 February 1926. Since there were not, at the time, the materials for substantial topographical surveys, the drainage pipeline of the town was facing the river in the belief that the natural inclination would head toward the river, when in reality the river level is higher than the level of the city. In 2012, the mayor of Moundou, Laoukein Kourayo Médard, said that "every time there was a flood, all the waters of the Logone discharged to Lake Wey (in the West), which in turn sprays its water into the city, flooding Moundou entirely."

Geography

Municipal districts

There are four quarters or municipal districts of Moundou, further subdivided into 20 neighbourhoods:

First district:

DOMBAO neighbourhood
DOYON neighbourhood
TAYE neighbourhood (also spelt Tayeh)
BEBANDJI neighbourhood
KOUDJIRIKO neighbourhood
NGARA neighbourhood

Second district:

NGUELBE neighbourhood
BAGUIRMI neighbourhood
BOURNOU neighbourhood
HAUSA neighbourhood

Third district:

GUELKOURA neighbourhood
QUINZE ANS (fifteen years) neighbourhood
DOUMBEUR I neighbourhood (also spelt Dombeur)
DOHERI neighbourhood
MBAGUE neighbourhood

Fourth district:

MBOMBAYA neighbourhood
GUELDJEM neighbourhood
DOMBEUR II neighbourhood (also spelt Doumbeur)
KOUTOU GUELMBAGUE neighbourhood
MADANA neighbourhood

Demographics

Year	Population
1993	99,530
2008	142,462

Places of worship

Among the places of worship, they are predominantly Muslim mosques. There are also Christian churches and temples : Roman Catholic Diocese of Moundou (Catholic Church), Evangelical Church of Chad, Christian Assemblies in Chad (Plymouth Brethren).