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REBELLION: AL-JEBHA 251movement progressed from a strengthened unity, which had long been sought,during the first months of the rebellion, towards factionalism over the course ofthe second phase of the conflict, leading to extreme fragmentation on the basisof existing clan and fraction structures, and to increased violence in the thirdphase. Many of these movements were created along the faultlines of the triballandscape in Northern Mali. In order to prevent confusion, I present the mainmovements and the differences that created them in the table on pages xxi-xxii.The violence in the North between rebel movements, the Ganda Koy and thearmy led to a state of general insecurity for all inhabitants of the North, whichbrought civic leaders from all groups involved, notably the Kel Tamasheq andthe Songhay, to undertake measures to improve security conditions, irrespectiveof the state or the movements. A local peace agreement on the initiative of triballeaders and village heads in the Cercle of Bourem would finally form theblueprint for a constructive peace process. The movements’ leaders, realisingthe loss of support for both their own negotiations with the state, and theirviolent encounters with each other, ended up joining this peace initiative at theinstigation of the tribal leaders, which strengthened the latter’s position withinsociety as the rightful mediators between state and society, bypassing the rebelsand thus dealing a final blow to initiatives to change Tamasheq society.The reaction of the Malian Government, army and population oscillatedbetween violent outbursts on the one hand, and reasoned discussions on whatthe rebellion was about and who the rebels were, on the other hand. Within thecontext of the Malian nation-state, its government and its inhabitants, the Tamasheqrebellion provoked a revival of the Malian national imagination, and thereturn of stereotyped images of self and other, of Malian and Kel Tamasheq. Inpractice, but also in national discourse, the rebellion also contributed to achange in the political shape of the Malian state from a dictatorship to a multipartydemocracy. In the last phase of the rebellion, a new movement of the localsedentary population gave birth to a resurgence and reconceptualisation of racein the North. Discourse on inclusion and exclusion in the Malian nation and theimage of the Kel Tamasheq as Malian or foreign was fully developed by theGanda Koy, which can be seen as the vox populi about the rebellion. Startingwith a depiction of the Kel Tamasheq as never having belonged to the Malianhistorical nation and of the rebels as foreign mercenaries, Ganda Koy discoursechanged towards inclusion of the Kel Tamasheq ‘cousins’ within the Maliannation through mythical history and the concept of senankuya – joking relationships– as the process towards peace began in November 1994. Exclusionby the Ganda Koy of the Kel Tamasheq from the Malian nation and depiction ofthe Kel Tamasheq as ‘foreign’ was largely based on a discourse on race and racism.By accusing the Kel Tamasheq of being ‘white slavers’ and as ‘Qhadafi’sArab mercenaries’ they were depicted as foreign elements seeking to dominate