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CREATING MALI 69rule: a means to tap the labour forces of youths who were not conscripted formilitary service. 129One option open to Malians to escape the coercive forces of the new regimewas a strategy they had deployed since the early colonial period: labour migration.In colonial times Soudan Français had largely served as a labour reserveat the service of other colonies. Especially Ivory Coast and Senegalprofited, but Malian labour could be found as far away as Belgian Congo andthe Middle East. 130 In the years prior to independence labour migration to theneighbouring colonies intensified. The barangini, or ‘those in search of labour’as they were called in Bamanakan, circulated in West Africa by the tenthousands. 131 As a first step, young Malians from the countryside thronged tothe Malian cities during the dry season, when agriculture came to a standstill, tolook for work. The administration perceived these seasonal migrants as lazy anda nuisance, causing the congestion of the growing urban centres. But many ofthe young seasonal migrants used their stay in the city as a launching platformfor labour migrations abroad, permanently drenching the countryside of thelabour force needed for the intensification of agricultural production during thefarming season. As early as 1959 Modibo Keita, then in his function of Mayorof Bamako, launched an appeal to ‘Return to the land’, an appeal transformedinto a policy to force young seasonal migrants back to the countryside and towork the collective fields, or forobara, the administration had ordained, underthe regime of fasobara, human investment. The attempts to curtail labour migrationtook serious forms in 1962 with the reintroduction of so-called laissezpasser,a travel permit needed to move around AOF under the colonial regimeduring the indigénat. Under the guise of national improvement, the US-RDAreinstalled colonial practices it had helped to abolish a decade earlier, to theresentment of the population.Migration as a passive form of resistance could take a large scale. After the1963 rebellion, an estimated 25% of the population of the Adagh had migratedto Algeria. But even prior to Alfellaga, massive migration took place. InNovember and December 1962, hundreds of Dogon and Kel Tamasheq living inthe western part of the Niger Bend, between Hombori and Douentza, began toleave Mali for Upper Volta. Apparently, they left the country to avoid taxes andmembership dues to the US-RDA. At first, the regime reacted calmly. ModiboKeita, the Minister of Finance Attaher Maïga, and the Chief of Staff AbdoulayeSoumaré, toured the area to calm people down and stop the exodus. In November,some government agents in the area were killed. The Government129 Bogosian, C. 2003.130 The following is based on Gary-Tounkara, D. 2003.131 Ibid.