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MOVING TO STAY : IKLAN SPATIAL STRATEGIES TOWARDS SOCIOECONOMIC EMANCIPATION IN NORTHERN MALI, 1898–1960*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2012

AURELIEN MAUXION
AURELIEN MAUXION*
Affiliation:
Columbia College
*
Author's email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article explores the strategies of emancipation of former Tuareg slaves (iklan) in the Gao region of northern French Sudan (present-day Mali) during the late 1940s and 1950s. In the wake of the war effort and shifting colonial policy, and in spite of colonial tolerance toward vestiges of slavery, iklan engaged in local and long-distance migrations aimed at achieving emancipation. The article argues that the most successful spatial strategies were new migratory patterns in the Gao region through which iklan appropriated productive resources (herds and pastures) that were previously controlled by their ex-masters. More than labor migrations to cities, these local trajectories destabilized Tuareg hierarchies, forcing colonial administrators to address demands of the iklan emancipation movement.

Keywords

West AfricaMalislaveryabolitionmigration
Type
Mobility, Slavery, and Freedom in Mali and the Gambia
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , July 2012 , pp. 195 - 213
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Footnotes

*

Several people have provided insightful comments on earlier drafts of this article. I would especially like to thank Charles Grémont, Robert Launay, André Marty, Bernedetta Rossi, as well as the three anonymous reviewers.

References

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21 ANM Fonds Numériques (FN), Cercle de Gao, rapport politique, 2ème trimestre 1934, 1E 376.

22 In 1899, the villages of Fafa and Ouatagouna were victims of raids by the Tuareg Iwellemendan: see ANM Fonds Anciens (FA) Cercle de Gao, rapport politique, 1899, 1E 36–37. In 1904, the villages of Gargouna, Gao, and Lotokoro were also attacked: see ANM FA Cercle de Gao, rapport politique, 1904, 1E 36–37. Tuareg domination did not only rely on coercion but also on cooperation and diplomatic alliances with the population of the Niger River valley; see Grémont, C., Marty, A., ag Mossa, R., and Touré, Y. H., Les liens sociaux au Nord-Mali: entre fleuve et dunes (Paris, 2004), 83–130Google Scholar.

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29 ANM FR Recensement des bellas de Bourra, 1956, 1E 4.

30 ANM FR Cercle de Gao, rapport politique et rapport de tournée, 1920, 1E 17 (1).

31 ANM FA Cercle de Gao, rapport politique, 1912, 1E 36–37.

32 ANM FR Cercle de Gao, rapport politique annual, 1935, 1 E 17 (I). The demographic report of 1935 is the first one that the French considered reliable for the entire Gao cercle.

33 ANM FR Cercle de Gao, rapport politique, 1920, 1E 17 (1).

34 ANM FN Cercle de Gao, bulletins de renseignement, 1M 238.

35 ANM FR Cercle de Gao, rapport politique, 3ème trimestre 1932, 1E 17 (1).

36 Hall, A History, 220.

37 Hall, A History, 224–37.

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42 Archives du Cercle de Gao, Gao (ACG) Subdivision de Gao, rapport politique annuel, 1948; ACG Subdivision de Gao, rapport politique annuel, 1951.

43 ACG Rapport sur la question Bellah, par le commandant de cercle Raynaud, 1954.

44 ACG Subdivision de Gao, rapport économique, 1947.

45 ACG Subdivision de Gao, fiche de recensement, Gao ville, 1954.

46 Rouch, J., ‘Migrations au Ghana (Gold Coast): enquête 1953–1955’, Journal de la Société des Africanistes, 26:1/2 (1956), 33–196CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The first report of this Songhay migration in the colonial archives dates from 1926: ANM FR Rapport politique, cercle de Gao, 1926, 1E 17 (1).

47 ACG Subdivision de Gao, rapport politique, 1948.

48 ACG Lettre du chef de subdivision de Gao au chef de subdivision d'Ansongo, 1955.

49 ACG Cercle de Gao, bulletin trimestriel de renseignement, 3ème trimestre 1949.

50 ANM FR Subdivision de Gao, rapport du recensement de la tribu Tengaregadash, subdivision de Gao, 1958, 1E 17 (2).

51 ACG Cercle de Gao, rapport sur la question Bellah, par le commandant de cercle Raynaud, 1954.

52 J. Gallais, Pasteurs et paysans du Gourma: la condition sahélienne (Paris, 1975), 46–7. Jean Gallais specifies that these categories are not fixed, and that an iklan could move from one group to another, sometimes seasonally. See also E. Bernus and S. Bernus, ‘L'évolution de la condition servile chez les Touaregs sahéliens’, in C. Meillassoux, L'esclavage en Afrique précoloniale (Paris, 1975), 33–9.

53 CAOM FP F. Reeb, Les noirs au sein de la société touarègue, CHEAM, 1291, 9 avril 1948.

54 ACG Twelve transcribed interviews, dating from January 1957 (more than one year after Ibrahim left the Kel Temokassin fraction with the animals).

55 ANM FR Subdivision de Gao, rapport politique, 1956, 1E 17 (2).

56 Winter, M., ‘Slavery and the pastoral Twareg of Mali’, Cambridge Anthropology, 9:1 (1984), 4–30Google Scholar.

57 ACG Cercle de Gao, Trial report, 11 juin 1956.

58 ACG Cercle de Gao, audience foraine publique par le tribunal du 2e degré de Gao concernant le différent Imrad Ikaolaten/Bellah Norben, 11 juin 1956.

59 Ibid.

60 This strategy was particularly common among the iklan who moved towards the Niger River Valley and adopted a more sedentary lifestyle: see ACG Cercle de Gao, bulletin trimestriel de renseignement, 3ème trimestre 1949. We see here how problematic the terms bella or iklan become as the emancipation process unfolded: see footnote 5.

61 ACG Subdivision de Gao, revue mensuelle, juin 1956.

62 Clauzel, ‘Evolution’, 301.

63 Bernus, E., Boilley, P., Clauzel, J., and Triaud, J.-L. (eds.), Nomades et commandants: administration et sociétés nomades dans l'ancienne A.O. F. (Paris, 1993)Google Scholar.

64 ACG Subdivision de Gao, rapport politique, 1955.

65 ACG Subdivision de Gao, rapport de tournée, 12 septembre 1950; ACG Subdivision de Gao, rapport de tournée, 7 mai 1956.

66 For the Sheriffen: ACG Subdivision de Gao, revue mensuelle de renseignement, novembre 1956; For the Kel Assakane: ACG Subdivision de Gao, compte rendu de tournée, 2 mai 1956.

67 ACG Subdivision de Gao, compte rendu du recensement relatif à la tribu Kel Assakane, 1956. This particular relationship between ineslemen and their iklan has also been observed in other areas of northern Mali and Niger. See Clauzel, ‘Evolution’, 297 and 299; and Boyer, ‘L'esclavage’, 782.

68 ACG Note sur la tension entre Bellas Norbène et Imrad, fraction Ikaolaten, par le chef de subdivision Henri Leroux, 24 Aout 1956; ACG Subdivision de Gao, revue mensuelle, décembre 1956.

69 ACG Cercle de Gao, rapport sur la question Bellah, par le commandant de cercle Raynaud, 1954.

70 ACG Subdivision de Gao, rapport politique, 1953.

71 The Sheriffen tribu was registered in 1954: see ACG Compte-rendu de la tournée de recensement, tribu Cheriffen, octobre 1955. The Ibohanen, Shamanamas, Tengaregadash, Kel Gossi, Kel Egheris and Kel Assakan tribus tribu were registered in 1955. ACG Compte-rendu de recensement, tribu Ibohanen, 7 mai 1956; ACG Fiches de fractions, tribu Chemenamas, 1955; ACG Rapport de recensement Kel Rheris, 1955; ACG Comte rendu relatif au recensement de la tribu Kel Assakane effectué du 7 au 17 octobre 1955, 2 mai 1956; ANM FR Cercle de Gao, rapports politiques annuels, 1956, 1957, 1E 17 II.

72 The Gao chef de subdivision noted during a census among the Kel Egheris tribu in 1958 that in three years only the total population significantly decreased (from 3,771 to 3,487 inhabitants; −7.5 per cent). He explained this decrease by the massive departure of iklan for Gao, Niamey, and the Gold Coast.

73 ACG Subdivision de Gao, compte rendu relatif au recensement de la tribu Kel Assakane, 2 mai 1956.

74 Lecocq, ‘The bellah question’.