Haddad people

The Haddad (also known as the Danoa) are a Sahelian Muslim ethnic group found through Nigeria, Chad and Sudan, numbering more than 250,000 individuals. They live in the midst of other peoples and do not have their own language but speak the language of the surrounding community. The traditional employment of the community has always been blacksmithry.

They are universally despised by all other ethnic groups, and live segregated, generally without any land or water rights. They are strictly endogamous and are often considered untouchable by the members of other groups. These sentiments are reciprocated by the Haddad, who maintain a high view of their group. Recently, Haddad members, because of the decline of their monopoly of blacksmithry caused by importation, have started migrating to the Sudanese towns, living beside other ethnic groups.

References

• Olson, James Stuart (1996). The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood Press. p. 216. ISBN 0-313-27918-7.