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MALI’S MISSION CIVILISATRICE 129nomads surrounding the kingdom were lazy, anarchist and dangerous. 33 Bothadministrators and scientists alike reinvigorated the idea of the lazy nomad incolonial times. 34 Early literature on pastoralism notes a nomadic preoccupationwith quantity in neglect of quality. A pastoralist’s primary concern is the steadyincrease of numbers of the herds. When beset by catastrophe, numerous headsof cattle save nomadic existence. Herdsmen do not want to increase lactationyields or improve meat-build in animals; they simply want loads of them, at allcosts. This is what is generally called ‘contemplative pastoralism’. It is seen asirrational, inspired only by the love of herds, without regard to their conditions.Pastoralists are also seen as defiant of profit maximizing strategies. They onlysell their animals when in need of cash to pay taxes or to acquire some basicmaterials, without further plans for investment since their herds are the onlyinvestment known to them. 35 Beside this laisser faire attitude in stockbreedingnomads are often accused of having a laisser faire attitude in general. Thenomad is contemptuous of hard agricultural labour, ‘(...) all alike regard horticultureas toil forced on them by poverty of stock, for at heart they are herdsmen,and the only labour in which they delight is care of cattle’. 36 These ideasare basically false and the described attitudes are non-existent, but that did notmake this perception less persistent among anthropologists, development specialistand colonial and post-colonial administrators until well in the 1990s. 37The idea that nomads are disinclined to engage in any activity other than contemplativeherding, caravan trade, and warfare, are hard to root out, despite themany detailed ethnographies depicting pastoral life as one of constant toil andlabour. 38Scientific and colonial ideas about contemplative pastoralism and nomadanarchy informed the Keita Regime’s policy in the North with respect to thenomad Kel Tamasheq. But not only their mentality with regards to raising cattlehad to change, their whole way of life needed to. In his opening speech to thesecond regional social economic conference in Gao in 1962, governor Bakary333435363738Klengel, H. 1972.Camel, F. 1996.The fact that in many African societies cattle form the main investment for sedentaryfarmers, to the point of becoming nomads themselves, is overlooked. Haaland,G. 1969Evans-Pritchard, E. 1940: 16.For an excellent analysis of pastoral flexibility and operation in the high risk environmentthat is usually theirs, see Bruijn, de, M. & H. van Dijk 1995. For an analysisof Tamasheq pastoral trading patterns and profit maximisation, see Swift, J. 1979.The most detailed work on pastoral work, concepts of labour and work ethic relevantfor this study is Klute, G. 1992. But see also Bernus, E. 1981, 1990; Bourgeot,A. 1995.; Spittler, G. 1990, 1998.