''Authenticité'' was the name given to the
Chad
Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...
ian president
François (Ngarta) Tombalbaye
François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis.
People with the given name
* Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters"
* Francis II of France, King ...
's attempt to remove foreign influence and promote southern Chadian culture throughout Chad during the 1970s. One of its most unpopular requirements was that
civil servant
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
s underwent the ''yondo''
initiation rites common only amongst Tombalbaye's own subgroup of
Sara people in southern Chad.
A similar concept, also called ''
authenticité'', was introduced by
Mobutu Sese Seko
Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (; born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997) was a Congolese politician and military officer who was the president of Zaire from 1965 to 1997 (known as the Democratic Republic o ...
in
Zaïre.
1970s in Chad
François Tombalbaye
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