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REBELLION: AL-JEBHA 255traditional swords. To this form of fighting, in which the Tamasheq excelled,the Malian soldiers had no answer.A last, but not the least important element in favour of the rebels was theirmotivation to fight. The Malian soldiers were only professional soldiers in theliteral sense. They were paid for their duty. A stable income, a career prospect,and a few advantages in civil life were the largest instigations for a Malian tojoin the army under the military regime of Moussa Traoré. Patriotic motives oran acutely felt necessity to fight were not considered relevant. The oppositegoes for the Tamasheq fighters. The ishumar did not fight for a salary, but for acause: the liberation of the Tamasheq homeland from Malian occupation.Having started their rebellion without any means at their disposal and with onlya small number of fighters, they had but two options: to fight and win or toperish in retreat and abandon the uprising with all the consequences that wouldbring to the Tamasheq community. Where years of preparation had not beenable to establish unity in the ranks of the Tanekra, the actual fighting in thesefirst months of rebellion succeeded. The ishumar fighting in Northern Maliachieved unity under the pressure of combat and immediate survival. Years ofmilitary discipline, which meant obeying orders when given, did the rest. Asformer rebel Baye ag Alhassan put it with some pride, ‘At that moment, therewas no movement in the country, no way. There was only one thing: TheTamasheq Revolution’. 5The fighters struck up their first base camp in the I-n-Taykaren Mountain, amonolith at the edge of the Tamesna plain near the village of Tejerert. It canonly be accessed through a small number of wadis, passing through a number ofgorges, and embanked by fields of short, sharp stones, cliffs and boulder formationsthat render the terrain virtually impassable by vehicle. It is impossible toreach the interior of the mountain other than through these known passages. Inthe interior of the mountain is a small number of accessible plains surroundedand cross-cut by ridges and heaps of large boulders. A second base was put inoperation at Essali, near Boughessa, in the Adagh, a few weeks later. A thirdone was located at Mount Tigharghar, a place that had already served as thebase for the honour bandit Alla ag Albachir in the 1940s and 1950s, and for theifulagen in 1963 (and it would again host rebels in 2006). In the later stages ofthe rebellion, the number of bases came to around fifteen throughout NorthernMali. 6 Such a base should not be imagined as a classical military base: Astructure concentrated at one point with fortified bunkers and fixed defencelines. Rather, the whole mountain served as a base. Only the outer edges andpassages would be defended if necessary, but they could be abandoned to take56Interview with Baye ag Alhassan. Ménaka, 01/04/1999.Boilley, P. 1999: 507.