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58 CHAPTER 1Photo 1.1Bouyagui ould Abidine, founder of theNahda al-Wattaniyya al-Mauritaniyya[Source: Mauritanie Nouvelle, October 1961. Courtesy of Archives Nationales du Mali.]Horma ould Babana, still in exile in Morocco, with Malian support. Only inFebruary 1963 did Mali and Mauritania sign an agreement on their mutualborder.The history of Saharan border disputes in the 1950s and 1960s is much morecomplicated than presented here and merits a book of its own. The aim of itspresentation here however, was to show the political involvement of Tamasheqand Bidân political elites from the start. As many of these projects threatenedthe territorial integrity of Soudan Français, the Bidân and Kel Tamasheq involvedbecame highly suspect as political troublemakers and anti-nationals, oreven traitors to the Malian cause, which indeed was not always theirs. In theend, Mali became independent in 1960 with its borders as they had been since1944. National construction could commence.Creating MaliSince the 1990s there has been much debate among Africanists about the failureof the state, and the creation of solid national identities in postcolonial Africa.Most vocal in this debate is the work of Basil Davidson described above, whichrefutes the possibility and the appropriateness of the national model for Africanstates. Indeed, in 1960, the idea of a Malian nation was not yet deeply rooted.