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RACE, STEREOTYPES AND POLITICS 77But issues of race and slavery were not the only stereotypical images existingabout the Kel Tamasheq. Just as important are the images of the KelTamasheq as primarily a war prone, nomad, and anarchist population. The mythof the Tamasheq slave raider is only part of the larger myth of the ‘guerriersdes sables’, the ‘lords of the desert’. The colonial idea that the Kel Tamasheqwere prone to military resistance originated in the period of conquest when theKel Tamasheq did in fact put up heavy armed resistance. It was given furthersubstance by the revolts against colonial rule the Kel Tamasheq organisedduring World War I when Tamasheq fighters under Kaocen ag Kedda, inalliance with remnants of the Ottoman forces and warriors from the SanusiyyaSufi brotherhood, put up resistance against French colonial troops until 1920.These events led the colonial authorities to believe Tamasheq society to beconstantly on the verge of open revolt, a belief that grew again at the outbreakof World War II. This image of the Kel Tamasheq was transferred to the postcolonialauthorities, which linked this idea to the Tamasheq political support forthe political projects described in the previous chapter into a fear for open revoltas soon as independence from France would be reached.As a last important stereotypical image of the Kel Tamasheq, their nomadicexistence itself should be mentioned. It will be argued here that a lack of understandingof nomad social and political organisation from the side of sedentarypeoples leads to the belief that nomads are by definition unruly anarchistsaverse to organisation and control.Colonial imagesThe colonial period in AOF can be divided into three phases: A first phase ofconquest and pacification, followed by a phase of functional administration andexploitation, and a last phase of slow decolonisation and development of thecolonised. During the phases of colonial conquest and pacification, the KelTamasheq put up heavy military resistance with some major successes andheavy defeats at great cost for both the Kel Tamasheq and the French. This ledto the stereotype of noble and fierce warriors discussed below. The memories oftheir defeats and troubles in pacifying the Sahara were at the basis of Frenchpolicy towards the Kel Tamasheq until well in the 1940s, which consistedsolely of keeping la paix française at all costs. During the phase of functionaladministration and exploitation the Kel Tamasheq showed great deference andreticence towards the colonial system. Their attitude was considered as ‘reserved’at its mildest or ‘deceitful’ and ‘medieval’ at its worst. On the otherhand, there existed a great French interest in Tamasheq society during and afterthis period. Certain cultural peculiarities, real or imagined, such as the matrilinealtransfer of power; a certain amount of liberty in gender relations des-