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This Country is Your Country: Territory, Borders, and Decentralisation in Tuareg Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2011

Baz Lecocq
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Extract

This paper deals with transformations in local political thinking in Northern Mali. It describes how concepts from what can be called ‘formal’ politics, or administration, have gradually seeped into local settings, where they have been taken up by local political actors. The transformation central to this paper is the movement from a political organisation essentially based on lineage, (fictive) kinship ties and a clan system, into a system in which territory, hitherto only important in the economic realm, takes a more central place. The society described is that of the Tuareg in Northern Mali, especially those inhabiting or bordering the so-called Tamesna plain. Influences in territorial thinking date back to the colonial conquest of the area, and were developed further during the late colonial period, when a system of indirect rule gradually became more direct. The developments then set in motion were taken over by the post-colonial nation-state of Mali which, after three decades of central administration (or absence of it), underwent a process of decentralisation in the 1990s. In describing these developments, the paper aims to provide a detailed case study of how both colonial and post-colonial administration have influenced local political views on territory, borders and land tenure, and the ways of dealing with conflicts over these issues. Finally, I intend to discuss the impact of decentralisation in Mali on territorial thinking and conflicts. Two Tuareg concepts regarding territory will be central in this paper: ihenzuzagh — economic geographical space, and akal — political geographical space.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , March 2003 , pp. 59 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 2003

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References

Notes

1 This paragraph is based on Bourgeot, A., Les sociétés touarégues. Nomadisme, identité, résistances. II-Nomadisme (Paris 1995) 139–157Google Scholar. He collected his data in the 1970s and 1980s, which means that this system of land tenure is, to some extent, still in use.

2 A. Bourgeot, ‘Du betail et des hommes dans le Gourma (Mali)’ in: Bourgeot, A., Les sociitis touaregues Nomadisme, identiti, resistances (Paris 1995) 193–220, 194Google Scholar.

3 Claudot-Hawad, H., ‘Honneur et politique: les choix stratégiques des Touaregs pendant la colonisation françhise’, REMMM 57 (1991) 11–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Anderson, M., Frontiers: Territory and State Formation in the Modem World (Oxford 1996) 1–3.Google Scholar

5 Prescott, J., Political Frontiers and Boundaries (London 1987) 12–13.Google Scholar

6 Based on Grémont, C., La conquete coloniale et la révolte de Fihrun (1893-1916) (MA thesis, Paris-Nanterre 1995)Google Scholar.

7 ANM (Archives Nationales du Mali) FA 2E-76 Politique Indigène Conventions de délimitation passés avec les chefs, cercle de Gao 1907-1910.

8 Interview with Mohamed ag Saghden, Iforgoumous, at Ifalfalan 01/04/1999 and with ‘Colonel’ Taghlift, Chemennamas, at Tedjerert 02/04/1999.

9 ANM FA 2E-76 Politique Indigène Conventions de délimitation passés avec les chefs, cercle de Gao 1907-1910. Convention de Gangaber, convention Iforas - Oulimiden, Fevrier 12, 1910. To the West the Gangaber boundaries form the actual border between the cercles of Gao and Ansongo. The southern delimitation in the Gangaber treatise has been replaced by others.

10 ANM FR 1E-24 Rapports politiques et rapports des toumées du cercle de Kidal. Rapport de tourneé du 13 Avril au ler Mai 1948 Convention reglementant la nomadisation des ressortisants de la subdivision de Kidal sur le territoire de la subdivision de Menaka.

11 Ibidem.

12 Here ‘tradition’ and ‘traditional’ mean a construction by researcher and interlocutors of a paradigmatic ideal type and (chronologically) unspecified past, that serves as a reference point to assess the present. This does not hold for 'traditional chief with which is meant a category of indigenous colonial civil servants.

13 , Delon, Le Tamesna du cercle de Gao (CHEAM rapport de stage no 1759, 1951) 28.Google Scholar

14 The following is based on Forgeot, A., La société nomade touarégue son évolution (CHEAM rapport de stage no 2577, 1955)Google Scholar and Forgeot, A., Monographie régionale de Menaka (CHEAM rapport de stage no 1990, 1952)Google Scholar . See also Klein, M., ‘Slavery and French rule in the Sahara’, Slavery and Abolition 19 (1998) 73–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Loiseau, Ph., ‘L'administration et les rapports nomades/sédentaires’, 159–66Google Scholar and Marty, A., ‘La répartition des terres lacustres du Gourma malien’, 167–80Google Scholar , in: Bernus, E. et al. eds, tiomades et commandants (Paris 1993)Google Scholar.

16 ANSOM (Archives Nationals-Section Outre-Mer) laffpOl/2207. Report No 1266/CAB/SP. Gouverneur Niamey à Haut-Commissaire de la Republique en A.O.F. 25-09-1956.

17 The following is largely based on Archives du Cercle de Kidal (no classification existing). ‘Revues mensuels des évènements’ reports written by the Commandants de Cercle de Kidal between 1960 and 1968.

18 Cercle de Kidal; Revue Mensuelle des évànements du mois de Janvier 1965 and ibidem, Janvier 1967. Archives du Cercle de Kidal.

19 Journal officiel de la République du Mali, 38e année, édition spècial no. 3, 26/11/1996.

20 Next to the creation of fractions, the new government also created new economic units to uplift the imghad and bellah: the cooperatives des pasteurs (pastoral cooperations). The impact of these cooperations remains to be evaluated. The fact that they were only installed from 1965 onwards in the area concerned here, and abolished in the early 1970s, while a study made to investigate the possibilities of their recreation remained without consequence, indicates their ineffectiveness, hence their low impact. A. Bourgeot, Relance des cooperatives et rehabilitation des pasteurs nomads en 6e region cercle Kidal (République du Mali). Rapport de mission octobre-decembre (Unpublished report, Nanterre 1975).

21 Boutrais, J., ‘Pour une nouvelle cartographie des Peuls’, Cahier d'Etudes africaines 133/135, XXXTV (1994) 137–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 See Lecocq, B., ‘That Desert is Our Country Tuareg Rebellions and Competing Nationalisms in Contemporary Mali (1946-1996)’ (PhD Thesis Amsterdam University 2002).Google Scholar

23 Interview with Lamine ag Bilal, Ishidanhar, at Gao 19/06/1999. An interview full of maps. While telling this story, Lamine doodled a map of Mali in the sand, wherein he drew a line above the city of Mopti to indicate the North, then effacing the southern part of the map with his hand.

24 This paragraph is based on the newspaper articles ‘La mort du colonel Bilal fait monter la tension’, L'Essor 25-26/02/1994 and ‘Le rapt d'Intallah fait monter la tension’, L'Essor 08/03/1994.

25 This chaos is a consequence of their relocation in 1910, which had never led to administrative unification in one cercle. Those who came from around Gao, remained inscribed in the registers there. The same goes for those coming from Menaka, Kidal, et cetera.

26 See for example Fay, C., ‘La démocratie au Mali, ou le pouvoir en páture’, Cahiers d'Etudes africaines 137, XXXV-1 (1995) 19–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar.