Doba, city in southern Chad, capital of Logone Oriental prefecture, 400 km (250 mi) south of the Chadian capital, N'Djamena. Located on the eastern branch of the Logone River, Doba is the center of a farming area cultivating cotton, peanuts, and rice. Most of Doba's inhabitants are Sara, the largest ethnic group in Chad. Prominent in Chadian government service, the Sara speak a Nilo-Saharan language and practice animism (the belief that nature and natural objects have a conscious life). Influenced by the Sao culture around AD 1000, Doba was founded by the Bedjond, a Sara clan that moved into the area from the east. Today the city is inhabited primarily by the Sara's Doma and Gaberi clans. The town and surrounding region were targets of Bagirmi, Arab, and Fulani slave raids and French forced labor policies up to the end of the 1800s. In 1938 a Roman Catholic mission was established in Doba. Since the 1960s, the area around the city has been explored as a possible source of petroleum, but without significant results. Population (1993) 185,461.
