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RACE, STEREOTYPES AND POLITICS 93After formally abolishing slavery in its African colonial territories in 1905,the French denied its existence in Arab and Tuareg society, thus perpetuating itsexistence. 49 The French denied the persistence of slavery in certain areas of theempire by voiding indigenous terms related to slavery of their meaning, usingthem without any relevance to social practice. During the colonial conquest ofNorthern Mali, the French took up the Songhay term gaabibi, meaning ‘blackperson’, but which they believed to mean slave, to denote all sedentary populationsof the region. Thus, they even reversed local terminology on race andslavery to denote all inhabitants they did not see as ‘white’. Exceptions weremade only for the white Tuareg and Bidân, and for the Songhay Arma, whoclaim descent from the Moroccan army conquering the Songhay Empire in thelate sixteenth century. 50 By the 1930s, the term gaabibi had been replaced withproper ethnonyms. French administrators avoided the term iklan, Tamasheq forslaves, when possible, replacing it with such euphemisms as serviteurs or travailleurscoutumiers. The term bellah, originally a Songhay word for all Tuaregof lower social status or a derogatory term for all Tuareg, quickly gained administrativeand political acceptance to denote Tamasheq slavesThe absence of emancipation policies toward slaves came to an end in 1946with two main events: The election of the first Conseil général; and theabolition of forced labour with the Houphouët-Boigny law. Contrary to theTamasheq of free status, Tamasheq of iklan, or slave, status had not beenexempted from the much-hated forced labour. The abolition of forced labour inTamasheq society was presented as an element of bellah emancipation by thecolonial administration. In fact, the abolishment of forced labour was interpretedas if no forced labour of any kind, including internal to African societies,existed any longer. The terminology used to describe labour relations between(formally former) slaves and (formally former) masters was now even morestrongly rephrased in such terms as travailleur coutumier (‘traditional labourer’),and these labour relations were then presented as normal, which of coursethey were in local societies. But the issue was also picked up by the newlyfounded political parties and presented to the bellah in much the same way.More important were the newly installed electoral policies in AOF. As theywere officially free people, (former) slaves had the right to be enfranchised andcast their vote for the new installed Conseil général. Both PSP and US-RDAcampaigners first brought this to their attention in the Ménaka area. They toldthe bellah population that they could elect an African who would certainlyadvocate for their rights with the administration and their former masters, somethingthey had already proven to be able to do by having forced labour abo-4950Klein, M. 1998.Hall, B. 2005: 224-232.