Nova Southeastern University NSUWorks Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses CAHSS Theses and Dissertations and Dissertations 1-1-2015 Between Warrior and Helplessness in the Valley of Azawa - The trs uggle of the Kel Tamashek in the war of the Sahel Patrick James Christian Nova Southeastern University, [email protected] This document is a product of extensive research conducted at the Nova Southeastern University College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. For more information on research and degree programs at the NSU College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, please click here. 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This Dissertation is brought to you by the CAHSS Theses and Dissertations at NSUWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of NSUWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Between Warrior and Helplessness in the Valley of Azawaɤ The struggle of the Kel Tamashek in the war of the Sahel by Patrick James Christian, Lieutenant-Colonel, USA A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences of Nova Southeastern University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Nova Southeastern University 2015 Copyright © by Patrick James Christian, Lieutenant-Colonel, USA February 2015 Nova Southeastern University Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences This dissertation was submitted by Patrick James Christian under the direction of the chair of the dissertation committee listed below. It was submitted to the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences and approved in partial fulfillment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Conflict Analysis and Resolution at Nova Southeastern University. Approved: ____________________ _____________________ 27 February 2015 Ishmael Muvingi, LLB, PhD Chair _____________________ Jason Campbell, PhD _____________________ Howard F. Stein, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Department of Family & Preventative Medicine, University of Oklahoma School of Health Sciences . _____________________ _____________________ 27 February 2015 Ishmael Muvingi, LLB, PhD Chair Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to the families in the touchetts of the Kel Tamashek who brought me into their homes and allowed me to enter into the secret spaces of their historical narrative and existential identity. Tanimert. Acknowledgments This research was made possible by the pioneering work of Dr Howard F Stein, Professor Emeritus, University of Oklahoma, Department of Family and Preventative Medicine; the faculty of George Mason University and Nova Southeastern University’s programs in conflict analysis and resolution; the Deputy Commander of the United States Special Operations Command, Lieutenant General John Mulholland; and the Commander of USAFRICOM’s Special Operations Command, Major General James Linder. I began following Dr Stein’s work as an undergraduate student at the University of South Florida, after reading his research paper “Adversary Symbiosis and Complementary Group Disassociation: an analysis of the US//U.S.S.R. conflict” (Stein, 1982). The Poynter Institute for Media Studies was so impressed with Dr Stein’s analysis that they published his entire research paper across multiple editions of their Sunday issues of the St. Petersburg Times in the late 1980s. This was my first exposure to the psychological factors that underlay multi-party conflict, ideas that I explored during my subsequent work in the US Army Special Forces in Central and South America. My research here and over the past several years has been guided by the courses and faculty mentoring of George Mason University’s School of Confict Analysis & Resolution (where I started my post graduate work) and by the doctoral program of Nova Southeastern University’s Department of Conflict Analysis & Resolution where I completed my doctorate in ethnic and cultural conflict. The examination and resolution of unmet psycho-social-emotional human needs as underlying drivers of violent communal conflict and inhibitors of conflict resolution has become a central line of effort for the United States Special Operations Command. Most recently, USSOCOM Commander, Admiral Wiliam H. McRaven and USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah concluded an interagency partnership to study and wargame these drivers of conflict and inhibitors of resolution as part of programming and policy development. This partnership became the impetus for LTG Mulholland and MG Linder to deploy me into the trans- Sahara region of northern Niger and support this research into the drivers of conflict and inhibitors of resolution amongst the Tuareg peoples of the Sahel and Sahara in north-west Africa. Most importantly, I would like to thank my wife Barbara for her patience and perseverance in this four year endeavor that dominated our lives and partnership. Table of Contents Table of Figures ................................................................................................................. vi Abstract ............................................................................................................................ viii Chapter 1: Introduction and Justification of Study ..............................................................1 United Nations in the Sahel: more questions than answers for international peace- builders .............................................................................................................................2 The need for deeper psycho-sociocultural research in planning, programming, and executing international peace operations in communal conflict ......................................9 Chapter 2: Literature and Research Review ......................................................................18 Part I of the Case Study: Assembling and Reviewing Literature and Past Research....18 Anthropological studies of Kel Tamashek, the Tuareg of Mali .................................20 Environment-geographical, sociological and psychological context research and literature review ..........................................................................................................23 Tribal context literature from Africa and Arabia ........................................................25 Developing a model of Tuareg sociological construction, psychological organization, and emotional emanation ............................................................................................27 The effects and conditions of sociological and psychological traumatization on tribal society .........................................................................................................................30 Cross cultural mediation and facilitation of conflict in tribal society to include systems of indigenous justice and conflict resolution ................................................36 Chapter 3: Research Methods ............................................................................................39 Mixed methods case study with field research using ethnographic observation and phenomenological inquiry ..............................................................................................39 i Ethnographic mapping of the sociological structure and phenomenological understanding of psychological organization .............................................................42 Phenomenological inquiry in the praxis of tribal engagement ...................................43 Access to the ethnographic and phenomenological research setting in zones of violent conflict ............................................................................................................48 Data collection; ethnographic modeling, phenomenological interviews, oral histories, and poetry readings .....................................................................................................51 Research methods in dangerous research settings and the use of gatekeepers in tribal conflict zones..................................................................................................................64 Mitigating the possible effects of transference and counter-transference during research .......................................................................................................................66 Chapter 4: Data Presentation & Analysis of Psychological Organization, Sociological Construction, and Emotional Conjugation .........................................................................70