Longitudinal Analysis of Religious Pluralism and Inter-Faith Dynamics in Chad, 2021–2026: An African Women’s Perspective

This longitudinal study addresses a critical gap in African Studies by examining the evolving dynamics of religious pluralism and inter-faith relations in Chad from 2021 to 2026. It adopts the under-researched perspective of African women to investigate how they navigate, interpret, and influence the complex co-existence of Islam, Christianity, and indigenous spiritual practices within a rapidly changing socio-political context. Employing a rigorous qualitative, multi-sited ethnographic methodology, the research conducted iterative, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with a purposively sampled cohort of 60 women across N’Djamena, Moundou, and Sarh. Fieldwork was undertaken in three distinct phases (2021, 2023, 2025), enabling a robust analysis of temporal change. The findings reveal women as active agents of inter-faith dialogue and social cohesion, rather than passive subjects. They utilise unique, gendered spaces—such as market associations, communal wells, and life-cycle ceremonies—to foster pragmatic tolerance and negotiate everyday pluralism. However, the study also documents how increasing economic precarity and regional instability from 2023 onwards have strained these informal networks. The research concludes that centring African women’s lived experiences provides an indispensable lens for understanding the resilience and fragility of religious co-existence in the Sahel. It argues for policy frameworks that recognise and support these grassroots, women-led mechanisms of peacebuilding as essential to societal stability in pluralistic African nations.