Tom McNeely (Canadian, B. 1935) "Chad Native Peoples #2" Signed lower right. Watercolor. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This painting was originally published on the Fleetwood Chad Mint Stamp of the World Panel in 1986. Referred to as Africa's melting pot, Chad is an ethnically diverse nation. Like the other countries in the Sudanic belt, Chad surrounds the cultures of two very distant worlds -- the Semitic-Islamic world of the north, and the Negro world of the south. The Shari River is the approximate line of demarcation between these two cultural and ethnical groups. The main Islamic group includes the Arabs, who are chiefly cattle raisers, while the principal Negro group are the Sara's, who are mainly farmers. Indelibly marked by this dual personality, the nation of Chad actually belongs to neither the Middle East nor the Subsaharan Africa. Other than these two main groups, Chad's people are primarily nomadic. They live either in the desert regions, where their homes are small clay houses, or in the less arid steppe zone, where they build their huts from the surrounding vegetation like acacia and palm trees. In the southern region, the tall grasses and extensive marshes of the semitropical savanna zone make a home for an abundance of wildlife. Here, large mammals such as elephants, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, and lions, coexist with a wide assortment of birds and reptiles. Although fresh fish is all but nonexistent in this desert country, such delicacies as oysters, caviar, and lobsters can be had in the bigger cities where it is flown in from the coast of Brittany. So while fish may be scarce, the fauna of this area alone bring tourists and hunters to Chad from around the world. Image Size: 21.5 x 18 in. Overall Size: 28.75 x 22 in. Unframed. (B10351)