ASC-075287668-2887-01

CREATING MALI 47According to Bruce Hall, this book is exceptional in two points. The first is thatit contains praise on the merits of French occupation. The second is that itmeticulously ‘whitens’ the history of the lands described, arguing for nomadsupremacy. 64In 1957, the Qadi started a campaign to promote the OCRS among theSaharan chiefs and notables, and to make their support for the OCRS andFrance known to the outside world. His campaign was based on the followingarguments: the inhabitants of the Sahara are full citizens of France according tothe Loi-cadre of 1956; they have become French subjects by signing treatieswith France, and not with the leaders of African independence movements withwhom they feel no affiliation; they are white and do not want to be incorporatedinto a territory or state dominated by blacks; they have their own specificculture and society and do not want to be incorporated into a North Africanstate or territory. The Qadi maintained therefore that the inhabitants of theSahara should either be given their own territory within the Union Française, orshould remain French citizens like they were at that moment. In January 1957,shortly after the creation of the OCRS, the Qadi gave an interview to theParisian monthly Le Télégramme de Paris, in which he explained his point ofview. On 30 October 1957 he wrote a letter of petition addressed to President deGaulle, signed by ‘the notables and merchants of Timbuktu’. This letter waspublished in Le Télégramme de Paris in December 1957.If there exists a right to self-determination for a people, we would like to believethat we are allowed to make our aspirations known. We declare without restrictionsthat we already are, and want to remain French Muslims [Français musulman] 65 andan integral part of the French Republic. We manifest our formal opposition to beingintegrated in an autonomous or federalist Black Africa or North Africa. (...) Wedemand the incorporation of our country in the French Sahara of which we are part,historically, emotionally and ethnically. (...) France has not found us under Sou-6465Hall, B. 2005: 258-261.The Qadi’s revendication that all the inhabitants of the Sahara had the juridicalstatus of ‘French Muslims’ (Français musulman) is both politicallly charged and,strictly juridically speaking, incorrect. Français musulman was a particular juridicalstatus existing only in Algeria, linked to the status of indigène. The Françaismusulman was recognised to be French, but Muslim, hence ruled by Muslim lawand thus witheld from full French citizenship. This status did not exist in AOF, butas the Saharan parts of AOF were now joined with the Saharan parts of Algeria inthe OCRS, the status could possibly be extended to all Saharans. The Qadi's use ofthe term, despite it originally being intended to withold rights from Muslims,apparently perfectly fitted his ideal vision of the Saharan future: French (of coursepresumably with all its benefits), but ruled through Muslim law.