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110 CHAPTER 2nearly two months. This tactic proved to be unsuccessful and Kaocen changedhis strategy. His army kept defying French troops in guerrilla warfare until1920, leaving the Aïr in ruins after the crushing French repression. 99 Thenotable exceptions to revolt were the Kel Hoggar and, most important for ourhistory, the Kel Adagh who fought as French allies against the insurgents.Bidân resistance against French conquest was perhaps smaller in scale, but itshowed longer endurance. While part of the Kounta federation in French Sudanallied to the French under their cheick Hammoadi, another part under Abidineould Sidi Mohamed el Kounti resisted French rule in alliance with the Rgaybatof the Western Sahara. Until 1927 Abidine’s men successfully attacked theAdagh and Mauritania from their base in the still unpacified Drâa valley. 100The stereotype of the desert warrior led to a permanent state of distrust andparalysis of the administration. In evaluating French occupancy of the Saharaafterwards, French administrators and scholars attribute French inactivity in theSahara to the respect and sympathy of the ‘victorious warrior for the honourablydefeated warrior’. 101 All the French tried in Saharan affairs was to keep la paixfrançaise at any price.The experience of Tamasheq rebellion during World War I led to a state ofalmost paranoid fear for renewed revolts during World War II. This is wellillustrated by the situation in Gourma Rharous. 102 By the end of 1939 the tribesof the Gourma were buying horses on a large scale. Rumours were circulatingthat the French who were mobilising forces against Germany would soon leavethe country. When they had left, the Kel Tamasheq would take over the countryagain. On these rumours, an inquiry followed, which led to the replacing of thechief of the Kel Ansattafa fraction of the Irreguenaten tribe. In April 1940, agoumier noticed that a blacksmith of the Igouadaren tribe was repairing lancesand that a slave was repairing a shield. On the basis of these rumours, the chiefof the Igouadaren tribe, Ouedan ag Baber, was arrested and relieved fromcommand on charges of plotting a rebellion. Reports were written, asking forreinforced military presence in the area. By 1942, the French Commandant deCercle of Gourma Rharous had become so paranoid, that a gathering of chiefsunder presidency of Cheiboun, amenokal of the Tengueregif and victor overBonnier expedition in 1893, was directly taken as a sign the French were ‘under99Triaud, J-L. 1993.100 Aouad-Badoual, R. 1993.101 Dupuis, J. 1960: 25.102 Based on: Inspection des Affaires administratives, Gourma-Rharous 1926-1953.ANM – FR 2D-15/1939/1941/1942/1944.