Mega Chad is an international network concerned with multidisciplinary research on the history and evolution of societies in the Lake Chad basin.
Following a first multidisciplinary meeting held in Paris in 1984, the network has grown progressively to its present total of about 400 members in some twenty countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Netherlands, Niger, Nigeria, Russia, Switzerland, USA and others.
The network name "Mega-Chad" evokes the maximal extension of Lake Chad several millennia ago and refers to a vast area extending over much of Niger, Chad, northern Nigeria and northern Cameroon and the CAR within which are many shared cultural traditions, influences and patterns of exchange.
The network has as its aims the encouragement and support of multidisciplinary research on the societies and environments past and present of the Lake Chad basin, and the dissemination of research results.