In 1999, Bernard Caron arrived in the north of Nigeria on the trail of Zaar, a language that was numerically the most important of the group of Chadic languages about which precious little was known. He has written a story about this research which "Le Gré des Langues" published in French as a series from 1995 to 1997. The text was translated into English by Dr Alex Iwara, from the University of Ibadan.