Daju

The Daju are a cluster of related Nilo-Saharan peoples, their seven groups straddling the Chad-Sudan border, their oldest home the Daju Hills in Darfur's Marrah range.

A Daju kingdom emerged perhaps in the twelfth century; tradition recalls a war with Christian Dongola around 1100, after which King Ahmed al-Daj moved his court to Meri. In the fourteenth century the Tunjur overthrew the dynasty: the fugitive king led followers to Dar Sila in Chad, while other bands drifted east to Kordofan, some later reaching the Nuba Hills around Lagowa under Messiria and Ngok Dinka pressure.

The Tunjur brought Islam and Arabic administration; in 1596 their last sultan married into the Fur Keira line, producing the Darfur Sultanate. Most Daju were Muslims by the fifteenth century, though Dar Fur Daju long kept the cult of high god Kalge; they remained millet and sorghum farmers.