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MALI’S MISSION CIVILISATRICE 115all its subjects the benefits of modernisation. Government and the party presencewere to be strengthened, the feudal rule of the tribal chiefs was to becrushed, schools had to be created to uplift the ignorant masses, productionneeded to increase, and therefore the nomads had to be transformed into productivesedentary ranch farmers. This ambitious project came down to doingwhat the French had neglected to do: Truly ruling the Kel Tamasheq. Thisambitious project could provocatively be described as a mission civilisatrice, toavoid calling it internal colonialism. It is not an exaggerated observation thatthe Keita Government saw the Kel Tamasheq and Bidân as a kind of ‘barbarianothers’ who needed to be integrated in the fabric of national society, whilebeing closely scrutinised as possible traitors of the Malian nation. This doubleattitude did not make for easy relations between rulers and ruled.It has been argued by a number of scholars and by some Tamasheq politiciansthat the Kel Tamasheq did not understand what independence wouldmean. In an article published in 1987, three years prior to the second rebellion,Hélène Claudot-Hawad made the general argument that most Kel Tamasheqsaw ledepadas (independence), as a new form of colonisation. 2 More specifically,Pierre Boilley has argued that the Kel Adagh had not clearly understoodwhat the colonial elections and the 1958 referendum on the CommunautéFrançaise had been about and did not realise quickly enough to what sort oforganisation and to what sort of situation these elections would lead. 3 In a‘Manifesto from the Malian Tuareg appealing to France and the internationalconscience’ written after the start of the 1990 rebellion, the author starts byassessing colonisation and decolonisation.As of 1958, we observed the progressive departure of French troops to Algeria withoutunderstanding its meaning; we had to witness their total retreat from our territoryand their replacement by others whose existence we had not known about, to hearthe word ‘independence’ pronounced. 4I will argue that this argument does not hold true when examined in detail.Not only were the political elite involved in independence politics, but so wasthe average Kel Tamasheq who knew that independence was imminent and thata US-RDA-led Mali would be the incarnation of this independence. However,they hotly debated whether or not they wanted to be part of the new politicalconfiguration, and if so, under what conditions, in the full but erroneous convictionthat conditions could be set. This debate was especially pronounced234Claudot-Hawad, H. 1987.Boilley, P. 1999: 283-284.Anonymous, ‘Nous Touaregs du Mali. Le génocide du peuple touareg. Manifestedes Touaregs du Mali, en appelant à la France et à la conscience internationale’.(n.d. (July) 1990), 2-3. Private Archives.