Disputed desert: decolonisation, competing nationalisms and Tuareg rebellions in Northern Mali Lecocq, B. Citation Lecocq, B. (2010). Disputed desert: decolonisation, competing nationalisms and Tuareg rebellions in Northern Mali. Leiden: Brill. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/18540 Version: Not Applicable (or Unknown) License: Leiden University Non-exclusive license Downloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/18540 Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable). Disputed desert Afrika-Studiecentrum Series Editorial Board Konings Mathieu Posel Vd Walle Watson VOLUME 19 Disputed Desert Decolonisation, Competing Nationalisms and Tuareg Rebellions in Northern Mali Baz Lecocq Brill Cover illustration: painting of Tamasheq rebels and their car, painted by a Tamasheq boy during the mid-1990s in one of the refugee camps across the Malian borders. These paintings were sold in France by private NGOs to support the refugees. Up until that time the D’regs, a collection of cheerfully warlike nomadic tribes, had roamed the desert quite freely. Now there was a line, they were sometimes Klatchian D’regs and sometimes Hershebian D’regs, with all the rights due to citizens of both states, particularly the right to pay as much tax as could be squeezed out of them and be drafted in to fight wars against people they’d never heard of. So as a result of the dotted line Klatch was now incipiently at war with Hersheba and the D’regs, Hersheba was at war with the D’regs and Klatch, and the D'regs were at war with everyone, including one another, and having considerable fun because the D’reg word for ‘stranger’ was the same as for ‘target’. Terry Pratchett, Soul Music This is no affair for a boy who says he studied history and pretends to know Cheick ag Aoussa, F-16 Contents List of photos ix List of tables ix Acknowledgements x On terminology, spelling and pronunciation xii List of terminology xiv Abbreviations and acronyms xviii An overview of the movements xx Sources xxii Map of Northern Mali xxvi INTRODUCTION 1 Kel Tamasheq politics 3 An ethnography of historical research 14 A reader’s guide to this book 19 1. CREATING MALI 23 Competing nationalisms 25 From Soudan Français to the Mali Republic 27 Party politics in Soudan Français 29 International complications 40 Creating Mali 58 Coercion, resistance and control 68 Epilogue 72 2. RACE, STEREOTYPES AND POLITICS 74 Colonial images 77 Race 79 The bellah question 92 The slave trade to Mecca 99 Les guerriers des sables 108 Nomad anarchy 112 Epilogue 113 vii 3. MALI’S MISSION CIVILISATRICE 114 Ruling the North 116 The chiefs’ question 121 The nomad problem 127 The revenues: Cattle and tax 139 Fear and rumours in Kidal: The buildup to rebellion 143 Epilogue 151 4. ALFELLAGA 153 A continuum of resistance 155 Alfellaga 158 Raids, skirmishes and ambushes 169 Aqqa, or the rules of conflict 172 Repression and retaliation 176 The last months 185 Epilogue 187 5. REVOLUTION: TESHUMARA AND TANEKRA (1968-1990) 192 Teshumara 194 Ishumar life 208 Alternatives to the Teshumara 214 Tanekra 218 Organising the Tanekra, a narrative 230 The later years of the Tanekra 246 Epilogue 247 6. REBELLION: AL-JEBHA (1990-1996) 249 The ‘real’ rebellion: June to December 1990 252 The ‘confused’ rebellion: January 1991 to February 1994 263 Masters of the Land: February to October 1994 280 The return of peace: October 1994 to March 1996 298 7. CONCLUSION 308 Decolonisation, the state and nationalism 308 Stereotypes, nation and race 311 A last question 314 EPILOGUE 316 References 341 Index 359 viii List of photos 1.1 Bouyagui ould Abidine, founder of the Nahda al-Wattaniyya al- Mauritaniyya 58 3.1 Bakary Diallo, Governor of the Gao Région, in 1963 130 4.1 Captured rebel leaders Zeyd ag Attaher, Ilyas ag Ayyouba and Mohammed Ali ag Attaher Insar’s messenger Mohammed Ali, are paraded in victory through Kidal 182 4.2 Mohammed Ali ag Attaher Insar shortly after his extradition from Morocco in 1964 182 4.3 Captain Diby Sillas Diarra 184 5.1 Two young ishumar have their picture taken, somewhere in Libya in the mid 1970s: Mohamed Lamine ag Mohamed Fall and Iyad ag Ghali 209 6.1 Negotiations for the National Pact, January 1992. Edgar Pisani in conversation with Adberrahmane ag Galla 271 List of tables 3.1 Cattle tax in Soudan Français and Mali 1955-1963 in CFA Francs and Franc Malien 141 3.2 Numbers of livestock and budgeted cattle tax revenues per Cercle, Région of Gao, 1963 141 3.3 Regional per capita tax, Région of Gao, 1963 141 3.4 Average number of heads of livestock per taxable head of population and average amount of cattle tax to be paid sum total in Région of Gao, 1963 142 4.1 Number of Malian forces employed in the Adagh during Alfellaga 168 6.1 Estimated number of civilian victims June 1990 – October 1995 259 ix Acknowledgements This book has been long in the making, arguably since 1992 when I first heard of the Kel Tamasheq rebellions in Mali and Niger, but certainly since I started interviewing people on this subject in 1994 during my stay in Paris as an Erasmus student, and definitely since my first visit to Kidal in 1996, shortly after the end of the rebellion. The bulk of research, however, has been done be- tween 1997 and 2000 in preparation of a PhD thesis defended at the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research in November 2002, which was financed by the ASSR, NWO and WOTRO. The material gathered then has been comple- mented by substantive research in 2004 and 2005, carried out as a research fellow at the Berlin Centre for Modern Oriental Studies, financed by the DFG. I would like to thank all my colleagues at both institutions, but especially Chanfi Ahmad, Erik Bähre, Elisabeth Boesen, Britta Frede, Nienke van der Heide, Laurence Marfaing, Dalila Nadi, Farish Noor, Mathijs Pelkmans, Marina de Recht, Oskar Verkaaik and Sikko Visser. I had the fortune to work in a number of archives where the archivists have made my research so much lighter. My thanks go especially to Dr. Aly Ongo- iba, director of the Archives Nationales du Mali, and to the archivists Timothé Saye, Abdoulaye Traoré and Alyadjidi ‘Alia’ Almouctar Baby; and to Idrissa Yansambou, director of the Archives Nationales du Niger. Research in the Ki- dal area would have been impossible without the kind help of Premier Adjoint du Cercle de Kidal Marc Dara and Haut Conseiller de la Région de Kidal Egh- less ag Foni. The growing body of material available on the Internet since the last few years has filled the last gaps, while creating new ones. But the gaps could have been even greater. I thank Nadia Belalimat, Pierre Boilley, Daouda Gary-Toun- kara, Charles Grémont, Bruce Hall, Georg Klute, Ghislaine Lydon, Greg Mann and Mohamed ag Eghless for not only sharing their friendship and intellectual insights with me, but also for giving me the most precious gift one historian can give to another: unused source material. A further number of friends and col- leagues have contributed tremendously to this work with their insights and sup- port. I thank Mariëtte Bloemer, Seydou Camara, Han van Dijk, Isaie Dougnon, Amber Gemmeke, Jan-Bart Gewald, John Hunwick, Paulo de Moraes Farias, Sean O’Fahey, Robert Ross, Benedetta Rossi, Marko Scholze, Paul Schrijver, Anita Schroven, Gerd Spittler, Bonno Thoden, Mahaman Tidjani Alou, Knut Vikør, and R@ Wichers for all they have done to make this book possible. x But of course, most important were the contributions made by Kel Tamasheq themselves. I would have been nowhere, if my ‘older sisters’ ‘Mama’ Alghaliya ouled Mohamed and ‘Agga’ Maghniyya ouled Mohamed had not opened their hearts, minds and houses to me in Bamako and Ménaka, and still nowhere with- out the lessons of my ‘mothers’ Takhnouna in Bamako and Fitou in Ikadewane. Although the voices of these and other women are not always explicitly present in this book full of men, the rough, fast-track education they gave me and the backgrounds they explained to me form the solid basis of this work. On this basis of understanding, Kel Tamasheq actors and historians of the conflict could narrate and explain history as they saw it. I like to thank Abounahya, Ahmad ag Hamahadi, Ahmed Landji, Alghabbas ag Intalla, Alhassane ag Solimane, Alfa- rok ag Hamatou, Ambeiri ag Ghissa, Aroudeini ag Hamatou, Attayoub ag In- talla, Baba ag Intekoua, Baye ag Alhassan, Cheick ag Baye, Ehya ag Sidiyene, Ghissa, Hamma ag M’bareck, Hammedine, Ibrahim ag Litny, Intalla ag Attaher, Keddu ag Ossad, Keyni ag Sherif, Lalla ouled Meddi, Lalla ouled Mohamed, Lamine ag Bilal, Livio Granzotto (yes Livio, you are ou Tamasheq too), Mana- ki, Mariam ouled Intallou, M’bareck, Mohamed Akotey, Mohamed ag Ekara- tane, Mohamed ag Intalla, Mohamed Lamine ag Mohamed Fall, Moussa Keyna, Moustafa Maïga (a true Kel Tabarfouti), Nina ouled Intallou, Nock ag Fathoum, Nouhoum, Rkekli, Saoudata, Sidi Amghar and Sidi Moussa for their friendship, trust and insights. I hope they can find themelves in the interpretation of their history as I present it here. Unfortunately, I need to thank Amegha ag Sherif, ‘Colonel’ Taghlift and ‘Liki’ M’bareck posthumously. Que la terre les soit lé- gère. Last but certainly not least, I sincerely thank Bairbre Duggan and Anne Saint Girons for their editorial skills, Dick Foeken for his patience, and Mieke Zwart for her work on the layout. May all those I have not named take no offense. I am indebted to them for life nevertheless. No acknowledgement is complete without the disclaimer: All errors in this work are mine and mine alone.