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38 CHAPTER 1school and a madrasa was founded in the late 1930s. The Kel Intessar were seenas an example of the adequacy of the French mission civilicatrice. 38 However,Mohamed Ali initially encountered administrative resistance to his plans forhigher education. In 1942 he requested that his younger brother MohamedElmehdi be admitted to William Ponty in Dakar. His request was denied, likeall his other requests for higher education. Mohamed Ali then started what hewould later term a ‘crusade’ for education abroad. In 1948 he left his position asConseiller Territorial to his brother Mohamed Elmehdi to perform the hajj. Hetravelled the Middle East and the Maghreb throughout the 1950s. During theseyears he managed to enroll some of his sons, which he officially took alongwith him to perform the hajj, in educational institutions in Saudi Arabia, Egypt,Libya and Morocco. 39 Long after his resignation as tribal chief in 1948, theFrench would again change policy. Around 1947 a number of écoles nomadeswere created in the North. The ideal was to have one school per tribe or evenper fraction. It was however very hard to find enough qualified personnel tostaff these schools. Hence, by 1952 a number of former Kel Intessar school pupilswere employed as teachers. Their level of education being low, the Frenchfounded the so-called Collège Moderne under the immediate direction of theInspector of Education in the North, Henri Combelles. 40 The Collège Nomade,as the school became quickly known, was situated in Diré, one of the mainvillage in the Kel Intessar area. Most pupils at this college were trained tobecome either teachers themselves to staff the expanding number of écolesnomades in the North for Tamasheq and Bidân pupils or as veterinary assistants,which was in line with French colonial views on improving nomad existence.The Kel Tamasheq educated at the Collège Nomade in Diré would laterrise to administrative posts and join in party politics, such as Commandant deCercle in Kidal, Mohamed ould Najim, and Muphtah ag Hairy, Commandant deCercle in Bourem. 41 A number of these French educated Kel Tamasheq were ofslave origins, which made their new position in society hard to accept for thenobility.In the first elections for the Territorial Assembly in 1946, we find twoTamasheq candidates. Mohamed Ali ag Attaher Insar presented himself as aPSP candidate. Sidi Mohamed ag Zocka, chief of the Shoukhan wan Ataram38394041Dossier Mohamed Ali ag Attaher Insar. ANSOM – 14 MIOM 2276.For a full account of Mohamed Ali’s education troubles, see ag Attaher Insar, M.A.1990. This account is complemented by further study on the education of MohamedAli’s sons in the Middle-East in Brenner, L. 2000: 96-101.Cercle de Goundam, rapport politique annuel 1955. ANM – FR 1E 18/4.Dossiers de personnel de l’enseignement. Dossiers de Moulaye Ahmed ould Assadek,Moulaye Mohamed ould Moulaye, Meynet Mind Hoddya, Muphtah ag Hairy1920-1957. ANM – RNII – 1C-145.