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ALFELLAGA 159The reasons are numerous, but the main ones are:1º We, nomads of the white race, can neither conceive nor accept to be commandedby blacks whom we always had as servants and slaves.2º We Ifoghas, do not accept or conceive of the equality between races and menMali wants to impose on us, starting with taking our imghad and bellah awayfrom us.3º We gain nothing from Malian independence, but heavy taxes and customsduties to pay.4º The Malian Government thinks it is superior to our Chief Zeyd and does notlisten to him.5º The Malian gendarmerie mistreats us irrespective of whether they are wrong orright’. 9The source in question is problematic, as it is a report of interrogation. It isnot unlikely that torture was involved. According to Michel Vallet, a formerFrench colonial officer still serving in Southern Algeria during Alfellaga, commanderDiby Sillas Diarra had been trained in torture in the French colonialarmy while serving in Indo-China. 10 The statements made might very well reflectwhat his interrogators wanted to believe and hear. Part of the statementgiven by Amouksou might be a very loose interpretation of his words by CaptainDiby Sillas Diarra. I must now bring into play the paranoid double boundof stereotypical thinking and its analysis. Diby Sillas Diarra saw the KelTamasheq as intoxicated by neo-colonial racism. 11 Hence, in his analysis therebellion must spring from racism toward the Southern populations, whetherthis was the case or not. The point that one indeed encounters racist discourseamong the Kel Tamasheq makes this analysis more difficult. Does the statementof Amouksou ag Azandeher contain a statement on the racially inspired motivesof the rebellion because Diby Sillas Diarra read that into his words, or becausehe effectively made this statement, and if he did, was it because he knew thatDiby Sillas Diarra wanted to hear this, or because he really meant it? Neverthelessa few observations can be drawn from Amouksou’s statement. Therebellion seemed not so much directed in favour of but rather against something:Malian rule. As former rebel Bibi ag Ghassi later analysed his actions:91011Questions posées par le Capitaine Diarra, Commandant la C.S.M. et le Cercle deKidal, au rebelle Amouksou ag Azandeher. Kidal, 04/10/1963. ACK.Personal communication by Michel Vallet. Paris 18/06/1994.In an interview he gave to the magazine Le Mali, Diarra stated that the neo-colonialenemies of Mali had ‘preached themes of intoxication according to which (…) Theblack man, normally the “slave” of the “Targui”, cannot become his master especiallysince the histories of the two races are totally different’. ‘Interview accordée àla revue “Le Mali” par le Commandant Diby Sillas, Commandant de Cercle deKidal’. Le Mali, 02/02/1966.