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220 CHAPTER 5belonging to a state. Kel Alger, Kel Libya, Kel Mali, Kel Niger, or Kel Burkina:Those from Algeria, Libya, Mali, Niger, or Burkina Faso. The Tanekra movementsought to counter this idea of state belonging by developing the idea oftheir own country through the term akal, earth, ground or political territory. Inthe latter meaning it could indicate the territory of a tribal federation. The titleof the federation’s paramount leader, the amenokal, literally means the ‘ownerof the land’. But akal could also denote the whole space inhabited by the KelTamasheq: Akal n Kel Tamasheq, or akal n temust, the land of the people. Inthis meaning too, it had political connotations. Akal n Kel Tamasheq meant thecountry where the Kel Tamasheq rule. This idea can be taken in two ways. Itcan mean the whole territory where Kel Tamasheq exercise some form ofpolitical power. It can also mean a part of the Tamasheq country where afederation or confederation exercises power, independent of other parts of theTamasheq world. Within the Tanekra movement the idea of akal came toembody the territory of all the Kel Tamasheq on which an independent statewas to be created. This idea was already expressed in 1978, at the start of theTanekra, in one of the oldest al-guitara songs:Friends, hear and understand meYou know, there is one countryone goal, one religionAnd unity, hand in handFriends, you knowthere is only one stake to which you are fetteredand only unity can break it 61The concept of akal did not only come to mean country in the sense of aunified political territory. The concept came to mean home country or fatherlandin the nationalist sense: A country where one’s ancestors had lived, wherehistory had been acted out, from which one was now driven away, but to whichone should return from exile, a fatherland to be loved despite its shortcomings.In al-guitara songs, it was referred to as ‘the desert’, ténéré.I live in desertswhere there are no trees and no shadesVeiled friends, leave indigo [turban] and veilYou should be in the desertwhere the blood of kindred has been spilledThat desert is our countryand in it is our future 6261Poem by Intakhmuda ag Sidi Mohamed, 1978. Klute, G. 2001, poem 1, Belalimat,1996, poem 1. In lines 7 and 8, the poet invokes the idea that the Kel Tamasheq arefettered to a stake, which is customarily done with young goats or animals in lactation.It is an idea of imprisonment.