ASC-075287668-2887-01

MALI’S MISSION CIVILISATRICE 121was locally seen as one of the signs that independence would not bring whatwas hoped for, liberation from foreign rule. Worse, where they previously wereruled by a people who had defeated them militarily and politically, they werenow ruled by people who had done nothing to earn their supremacy and who, inthe eyes of many, were mere slaves.The chiefs’ questionIronically, although tribal societies are often portrayed as pre-modern, they arein fact essentially modern. In many places, tribalism was created during the firstfew decades after colonial conquest and where it pre-existed, such as among theBerber and Arabs, it was thoroughly reconfigured. The colonial tribu and fractioninto which the Kel Tamasheq and Bidân were organised in colonial timeswere based on the French understanding of the Tamasheq social-political system.The term tribu was believed to be the proper translation of the term ettebel,or clan federation, the highest level of Tamasheq political organisation. Fractionwas seen as the proper translation of the term tewsit, or clan. The tribeswere headed by chiefs. A number of these chiefs were given jurisdiction over alarger group of tribes as amenokal or chief over a set of tribes. These chiefswere salaried administrators, with their own ranks and salary scales, and thepossibility to be promoted or demoted. In French West Africa, the MoghoNaaba of Ouagadougou was the highest ranking traditional chief, while inNorthern Mali amenokal Attaher ag Illi of the Adagh was the highest rankingand best paid traditional chief after the cheick of the Kounta tribes; Badi ouldHammoadi. 11In the African socialist language of the Keita Regime, before independencethe oppressors of the masses had been, of course, the French colonialists. Butthey had been assisted by the traditional chiefs who had been integrated in thecolonial system. Therefore, in order to ensure the successful emancipation ofthe people, these chiefs had to be abolished and their feudal power over themasses had to be broken. This administrative and political elimination of thechiefs could start the moment the US-RDA leaders wielded some effectivepower, which they did after the Loi-Cadre came into effect in 1956. By 1958,the Cantons – the administrative unit under the rule of a chief in sedentary areas– and the Canton Chiefs themselves, were formally abolished. 12 However, thenomadic tribus, the administrative equivalent to the canton and their chiefs hadbeen maintained. At that time, dissolving the power of the nomad chiefs wasthought unwise, since they still effectively controlled a population hostile to1112Chefferie, Correspondance et Divers: 1918-1961. ANM – FR 2E-258.Ernst, K. 1976: 93.