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118 CHAPTER 3agreement on good terms. We inform you that for our brothers, the Malians, that isto say, our Soudanese Commandants, we are always ready to obey their orders andwe are willing and ready too, for all that Mali needs. (...) We see that they [theCommandants] barely consider us as we consider them, they judge us differently.That is to say, they do not know our character. We would like our leaders [chefs] toorganise the country and to understand that disorder stains everyone’s name. We askyou to appoint one of us, who understands our character, as your representative here,to become our chief [chef]. Our Soudanese brothers do not understand our character,and therefore we fear that disagreement will rule in our country. This serves nopurpose, this only stains the names of some, and if this should continue, there willbe shame. We all follow the same book, and it would bring us shame when you, whoare our chief, will hear about disagreements between us. Or worse, that other nationswill hear about them. We do not want our country to be like the Congo, or like thedisagreement between the Algerians and the French. 6A third letter written that same month by an unknown Kel Intessar, directed tothe Secretary General of Youth Affairs and younger brother to Modibo Keita,Moussa Keita, continued among the same lines:We approve of the promising acts of your executive office. But one thing is indispensable,that is to place a nomad in your executive office for this office to berepresentative of the Malian populations. Mali is a country of racial diversity. It isnormal that all the races partake in political power. We should see all coloursfiguring in all the democratic organisations: Youth, trade unions etc. (...) The suppressionof racism is only possible with the disappearance of patronage. Well, theacts of our sedentary brothers in the Niger Bend towards the nomads are in manyrespects not in this interest. The nomads do not participate in the politics of theirsub-sections. They are not committee members, there are no nomad delegates, nonomad ministers, no nomad ambassadors. Even in the smallest detail the racism ofthe politicians towards the nomads is daily manifested. 7The letters and their authors received ample attention from their respondentswho sent copies to all the Commandants in the North, asking them ‘to attentivelyfollow these young men and to take adequate measures against allattempts to subversion at their part’. 8 The distrust the petitioners had sensed wascertainly present. In a report on the region from July 1960, Governor BakaryDiallo neatly reveals the administration’s attitude to the incorporated KelTamasheq administrators in his discussion of the functioning of Mohamed ould678Lettre de Mohamed Ayoul ag Mohamed, Fraction Kel Kaoukoraï, Tribu Kel Intessar,à Monsieur le Président et Secretaire Général de la République du Mali.Niafunké, 26/11/1961. ACK.Lettre à Secrétaire Général de la Jeunesse et du Sport. Tombouctou, 28/11/1961.ACK.Ministre de l’Administration Territoriale Madeira Keita à Gov. Gao et aux Cdts.Cercles Gao, Ansongo, Bourem, Kidal, Ménaka, Tombouctou, Gourma-Rharous,Goundam, Diré. No2/MIITCAB, 05/12/1961. ACK.