With one of the most painful histories in Africa, Chad is a nation with its foundations built on conflict. The harsh climate, geographic remoteness, poor resource endowment and lack of infrastructure have combined to create a weak economy susceptible to political turmoil. There’s the promise of a more optimistic future thouge-Chad’s position as one of the world’s poorest nations may change if the country’s oil industry takes off.

December to mid-February, when the days are dry and warm and the nights quite cool

Living it up in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, bars and a thriving live-music scene Photographing the country’s wildlife in Zakouma National Park Chilling out in Moundou’s riverside bars with an icy beer Haggling yourself hoarse in the frontier markets of Mao Witnessing the cultural clash of the old town of Abeche, the gateway to exploring the Sudan Dancing the night away in Sarh, the capital of the south

Read Chad: A Nation in Search of lts Future by Mario J Azevedo and Emmanuel U Nnadozie, presenting an economic, political and social view of the nation

Listen to the lute, a long-necked guitar popular in Chad on Africa: Anthology of the Music of Chad

Watch Abouna (Out Father), a heart-rending feature filmed in Chad in which two boys search for their lost father

Eat a hearty dish of nachif (finely meat in sauce)

Drink a Gala beer in Moundou, straight from the brewery

Harmattan (dry, dusty Saharan wind)

Desert expanses; unpaved roads; unsettled relationship with Libya impoverished citizens; mud-brick architecture

To (legally) take photos in Chad, visitors need a permit from the Ministry of lnformation; an estimated one billion barrels of be extracted from the Doba Basin

Physically you couldn’t mistake Chad for anything except a Sahel country, though in the south the expanses of the landscape are interspersed with incongruously green villages fed by small rivers, giving a welcome quasi-tropical break from the rigours of the road.