Disputed Desert. Decolonisation, Competing Nationalisms and Tuareg
Rebellions in Northern Mali
Baz Lecocq
Leiden: Brill, Afrika-Studiecentrum Series; vol. 19, 2010.
ISBN 978-90-04-13983-1 Although often declared to be in decay, nationalism remains
a strong political force, even in Africa, and it certainly was so in the
early 1960s. This book deals with the relation between the Malian state and
the Tuareg people in the late 20th century, which has been characterized by
two attempts by Tuareg nationalists to secede the North of the country from
Mali and to create their own nation-state. The first attempt was made in
1963 by a small group of ill prepared warriors, and was crushed swiftly,
heavily and in silence. The second attempt in 1990 was made by an army of
seasoned fighters, which resulted in the fall of the Traoré regime and led
to democratization and the political decentralization of the country. In
presenting a detailed history of these particular conflicts between state
and society, a number of social and political tensions are brought to the
fore which haunt all of the Sahel from Mauritania to the Sudan: The heritage
of slavery, racism, colonial rule, decolonization, and the rise of competing
nationalist forces within demarcated but arbitrary borders in its wake. It
also shows the problems that beset a society based on hierarchy and the
fundamental belief in inequality in social relations, in its conceptions of
and dealing with political models based on equality.
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