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REVOLUTION: TESHUMARA AND TANEKRA 197efforts in the latter. This policy and the growing agricultural possibilities onmarginal lands probably inspired the Keita Regime’s agricultural efforts in thedesert as well. Growing disputes over land tenure in these marginal areas werealmost always settled in favour of the new farmers and to the detriment of thenomad rights to pasture, which, in turn, forced the latter to turn to previouslymarginal, now more promising, but still very insecure pastures in an increasinglyfragile ecosystem. 8 During the 1960s, this favourable trend reversed, slowlydeveloping towards a catastrophic period of drought in the early 1970s, reachingits peak in 1974. As the details of climatology and ecological impact havebeen well covered elsewhere, I will here briefly sum up the cycle of devastatingeffects. 9 Alfellaga had provoked a dramatic slaughter of animals by the Malianarmy in the Adagh, leaving herds depleted. Under the most favourable conditions,a camel reproduces every two years. Therefore, the herds of the mostlycamel breeding Kel Adagh had not yet recovered from the impact of Alfellagawhen the drought hit hardest only ten years later. The annual decline in rainfallslowly but surely dried up wells and temporary lakes, while pasture decreased.Periods of poorer climatic conditions are normal in the Sahara, and reactingto them in a timely and adequate way is an integral part of nomadic life. In aperiod of drought, families or clans would normally first settle around temporarywells, and in the case of continuing drought, they would normally eithermigrate southwards to the Azawad or Niger Bend areas with their herds, ormove northwards towards Algeria to sell surplus animals. The revenues wouldbe spent on extra grain stocks replacing the falling lactation yields of theundernourished herds. But conditions had changed considerably. First of all, inthe past decade many nomads had been forced away from their pastures thathad been brought under cultivation. When rains failed, these more marginalpastures were the first to be depleted, while the former pastures brought undercultivation would not yield harvests or grow pasture. Hence, more pastureswere in fact lost than would have been the case if the previous abundance of the1950s had not led to expanded agriculture. Second, transhumance was morestrictly monitored by the authorities in the years after Alfellaga than it had beenbefore, which hampered movement and caused many to wait until the lastmoment before moving out of their own area. Herdsmen had to compete withthe few agriculturalists for water at the permanent wells, with favour beinggiven to the latter. They also had to compete with each other over access to asmaller number of wells and pastures. Third, the Azawad and Niger Bend areas89Lecocq, B. 2003.For detailed analysis of the economic and ecological impact of the droughts onpastoral existence in Northern Mali and Niger, see: Ag Foni, E. 1978; Boilley, P.1999; Bruijn, de, M. & H. van Dijk 1995; Glantz, M., ed., 1976; Spittler, G. 1993;Stol, A. 1975; Swift, J. 1979.