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MALI’S MISSION CIVILISATRICE 123and the rural brigades would remain dead letters of modern economics in nomadterritory. 15The Malian leaders might well have wanted to rid themselves of the lastremaining chiefs, but they soon felt they needed them. ‘Because of their knowledgeof the country and the people, and because of their personal influencethey could and should be valuable collaborators to the administration’. 16 Despiteall Marxist rhetoric against the ‘traditional feudal chiefs’, they were maintainedfor some time to come. This double attitude is nicely evoked in a circular on therole and status of the chiefs written by Minister of the Interior Madeira Keita in1961:The heads of the administrative circumscriptions should never forget that the maintenanceof the tribal chiefs can only be justified by their conversion to democraticdevelopment, and to justice in progress. In our daily actions we should not give theimpression that the tribal chiefs do not participate in our work. But it is even moreimportant not to let the population get the impression that these traditional ranks aretolerated against their interests. 17This double attitude also existed among local administrators. On the onehand they were (or pretended to be) convinced of US-RDA-cum-Marxist doctrinesprescribing the abolition of social inequality, and hence of the chiefs. Onthe other hand, the administrators knew perfectly well that they needed thechiefs to have access to the nomadic population. Despite the increase in staffsince colonial times, the administration was still too short-handed to effectivelycontrol the North. The chiefs were welcome extra manpower who knew thepopulation and the area, which the administrators of Southern origins did not.The chiefs on the other hand were caught in the same dilemma they faced incolonial times. They needed to juggle the roles of assistant to the administrationin its policies on the one hand, and representing their subjects on the other. In amid-way attempt to (not) deal with the dilemma of the chieftaincy, the KeitaAdministration resorted to the simple tactic of not officially replacing deceasedtribal chiefs. The policy towards the tribal chiefs was first seriously tested inlate 1962, early 1963, with the death of Attaher ag Illi, amenokal of the KelAdagh; a test with serious consequences for the region in the years to come.The following narrative on the chief’s question in the Adagh is of major im-151617Barate, C. 1977.Ministère de l’intérieur et de l’information: Circulaire à mm. les Cdts. Cercle Gao,Goundam, Tombouctou, et les Chefs de Subdivisions de Bourem, Ansongo, Kidal,Ménaka, Gourma-Gharous, concernant le rôle des chefs traditionels defini par la loi59-63 du 30 décembre 1960, portant organisation des fractions et créant des Conseilsde Fractions. Bamako 06/02/1961. ACK.Ibid.