ASC-075287668-2887-01

REVOLUTION: TESHUMARA AND TANEKRA 231Elledi reached Algeria, where he was welcomed by his former brothers in armsIssouf and Amegha. Shortly after Elledi’s arrival, a meeting was held inOuargla at the house of Amegha ag Sherif. The meeting was attended by a fewyoung Kel Adagh in exile in Algeria and the former leaders of Alfellaga. Themain issue was the continuation of the struggle for independence from Mali.This meeting was the informal foundation of the Tanekra movement.Tanekra and Teshumara were not uniform. One cannot speak of one Tanekraor one Teshumara movement, but of a number of them. Nigerien ishumarhad their own networks and their own plans. Dissidents or opponents of theMalian and Nigerien regimes from other walks of life were sometimes involvedin the Tanekra too, while pursuing their own goals again later on. The Tanekrain the late 1970s should be seen as a network of like-minded men, who travelledfrom job to job, from town to town. Those ishumar who at one moment lived inLibya could live in or travel to Algeria, or to their families in Mali, at another.One should not look at the movement as based at a location. Structuresremained in flux until the 1980s, when they became more fixed. I here presentthe story from the perspective of a Kel Adagh-centred Tanekra, with othergroups joining them at various times. But a variety of different stories of theTanekra could be told from different perspectives.In the early 1970s no formal structure existed yet. The former leaders ofAlfellaga informally held leadership, particularly Issouf ag Cheick. The maindecision made at the initial meeting was that a new rebellion should beorganised in an unspecified future, and that the Kel Tamasheq should be madeaware of their situation. To these men, the situation was one of egha with Mali.It was not taken for granted that all ishumar or refugees would have a politicalunderstanding of their situation. Therefore they needed to be made aware. Theverb used in Tamasheq to describe the process of raising awareness is sefham:To make understand, from the Arabic fahima, to understand. In French the verbsensibiliser and its noun sensibilisation were used. It meant invoking thememories of Alfellaga and exposing the current situation the Kel Tamasheqfound themselves in. The concept of egha was then put in the context of thecurrent situation. Consider the following excerpt from an interview with Sallah,a cousin to Younes ag Ayyouba, one of the leaders of Alfellaga and one of thefirst organisers of the Tanekra.maining rebels were formally tried and sentenced to death. They were not executed.Instead, they were immediately liberated under the same national reconciliationprogramme.