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RACE, STEREOTYPES AND POLITICS 105If I hadn’t heard the discussion between Abdul Kader al-Aalam, the LibyanMinister of Foreign Affairs and sheikh Mohamed Mehdi, member of the officialMalian delegation to the Casablanca conference, I would have believed that thewhole story was nothing but pure fabrication without foundation. The discussionwas about a man, a Malian citizen, who lived in exile in Libya. It attractedthe attention and the curiosity of those present who heard the questions andanswers. The sheikh Mehdi turned towards those around him and towards theLibyan minister and declared: “We claim this man: Listen to what he did. Hewas the sheikh of a tribe in Mali. Just before Malian independence he called thepeople of his tribe to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca. Many responded to hiscall, among them men and many women who took their children with them onthis holy journey. After many misadventures, they arrived in Mecca (…)[There] he sold the group to a number of slave dealers: Men, women and childrenwere delivered in the hands of slave traders of faraway lands where theywere taken. Having received the money, the price for his own people, of hisown tribe, he left, but he did not return to Mali. He installed himself in Libyaand used the money to set up business. The men of his tribe, in Mali, incidentallydiscovered what their chief had done. One of the pieces of merchandisemanaged to communicate all the details of the case to the tribesmen in Mali.The case has been brought to court and the merchant was judged in his absence.86In the early 1960s, the slave trade problem gained new momentum. Undeniableproof of the trade, although this time organised by less illustrious people,reached Mali in January 1960 in the form of a letter, written from Mecca byAghali ag Nushbighair , a bellah from Diré, to his brother Ibrahim in late 1959.Praise be to God. I let you know that I have been sold in Mecca by Moussa Alhassan.The latter has sold me and collected the sum of the sales. He returned aloneto you; this proves the truth of my declaration. Every one of you slaves who comesto Mecca will be enslaved without exception. 87The letter was translated, photocopied and sent to all the Cercles in theNorth with a warning that all demands to perform the pilgrimage by road, henceescaping the formal control of the ‘official’ pilgrimage, should be thoroughly8687“Extrait d’un article de Mohamed Hasanayn Heikal, conseiller du Président Nasseret rédacteur en chef d’Al-Ahram, quotidien du Caire, 27 janvier 1961”. In Notes surl’actualité politique no 48. Documents sur l’esclavage en Arabie Seoudite et dansd’autres pays Arabes, edited by the Israeli Ministry of foreign affairs, division ofinformation. Jerusalem, June 1961. Documentation française: dossier esclavage.Archives du centre de documentation France-Europe-Monde – microfilm no. 171Photocopy of a letter from Aghali ag Nushbighair with translation. 26/01/1960.ACK.