By FRANK JACOBS
Borderlines explores the global map, one line at a time.
Here’s yet another contentious line drawn in the sand of the Sahara desert: The northern half of Mali has just declared independence, and would henceforth like that you call it Azawad, pretty please. “We solemnly proclaim the independence of Azawad as of today,” Mossa ag Attaher, a rebel [1] spokesman, told the France 24 TV channel on Friday, April 6.
The Tuareg rebel group announced it would cease hostilities, and asked the international community to recognize Azawad’s independence, in order to speed along the process of state-building: “Now the biggest task begins,” Mr. Attaher said. It is still unclear what form of government the rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, known by its French acronym MNLA, are proposing, or who would be the chief executive of the new state.
The MNLA has iterated that it will respect the colonial borders with the neighboring states [2], but there is some discrepancy on where the border between Azawad and the rest of Mali should be. The Niger River is generally considered the boundary between the two great ethnocultural zones within Mali, separating the black, Sub-Saharan zone to the south from the Arab-Berber zone to the north. (The line extends beyond Mali; Tuareg-dominated areas form a contiguous zone across western Niger, southern Algeria and western Libya as well).
Joe Burgess/The New York Times
The territorial claims of earlier Tuareg rebellions in Mali generally extended only as far south as the Niger. But Azawad as proclaimed by the MNLA could refer to the entire area under rebel control, which includes a fair chunk of Mali south of the river as well. The extent of that area is unclear; for convenience’s sake, recent maps of the area draw a straight, slanted line across Mali’s narrow waist [3].
The Tuareg, also called the Blue People for the vibrant indigo of their tagelmust [4], are part of the indigenous Berber [5] population of North Africa, which also includes the Kabyle of Algeria and the Riffians of Morocco. Unlike those two sedentary groups, the Tuareg are nomadic pastoralists. In fact, the Tuareg word Azawad means something like “the land of transhumance,” [6] or, more simply, “pasture.”
The region’s independence would provide the Tuareg, who have been around in this part of the world for thousands of years, with a first in modern times: an independent country of their own. Over the last century, the Tuareg have rebelled at least half a dozen times, first against the French colonial administration of what was usually known as le Soudan français [7], then against the Malian government at least three times since independence, the last time from 2007 to 2009.
The current rebellion, which only kicked off last January, took over northern Mali with lightning speed. It owes its success in large part to the demise of the Qaddafi regime last summer. Libya’s previous regime had incorporated Tuareg fighters from previous rebellions into its armed forces, and when it fell, they fled back to Mali with large stockpiles of weapons.
Under the leadership of the MNLA, Tuareg rebels have since conquered the Sahel and Sahara regions that make up northern Mali, culminating in the takeover of the region’s three main cities: Kidal, Gao and the fabled mud metropolis of Timbuktu, which fell on April 1 [8].
But Mali will not let half of the country go without a fight. President Amadou Toumani Touré’s perceived weakness in the face of the rebel onslaught led to a military coup two weeks ago, led by an army captain, Amadou Sanogo. Instead, the coup, intended to strengthen government opposition to the rebels, may have actually made matters worse for the central government in Bamako by exacerbating an already chaotic situation. The coup certainly was a factor in the defection of Tuareg officials and soldiers to the rebel side, as well as the sudden announcement of Azawadian independence.
Mali is possibly facing a protracted period of de facto partition. It is unclear whether the ill-equipped and by now quite demoralized Malian Army has the wherewithal to reclaim any ground in the country’s secessionist north. Whether a viable Tuareg state will emerge from the twilight depends not only on the military junta’s response but also on the outcome of divisions within the rebel camp.
The junta, which over the weekend announced it would step aside to allow new elections, at least did one thing right by pointing out those divisions to the outside world. The MNLA is a secular organization, but its lead in the rebellion seems to have been overtaken by Islamist groups. “The MNLA is in charge of nothing at the moment,” one junta spokesman said. Instead, he said, the most powerful force is the Ansar Deen, an Islamist faction aligned with the terrorist organization Al Qaeda in the Maghreb. [9]
These organizations are less interested in establishing Tuareg independence than in enforcing Shariah law, which appears to have been introduced in Timbuktu and other areas held by the rebels. The black flags of Salafism [10] have also been spotted in other recently conquered cities in the south of Azawad.
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A further indication of a split in the rebel camp is the MNLA’s condemnation of the kidnapping of seven staff members from an Algerian consulate in Gao, a town in northeastern Mali. Mr. Attaher said he “deplored” the abduction, which has not been claimed by any particular group — but assailants did reportedly fly Salafist flags.
And, apart from the impact of the religious-secular split on Azawad’s viability as a state, the outcome may also determine the de facto or de jure border between the new country and Mali. A secular government, focused on Tuareg independence, is more likely to focus on the region’s long-held goal of self-governance, a la the South Sudanese. A state driven by Islamists, however, is likely to push for maximum territorial control, since expanding the range of Shariah law is a central part of their ideology.
So what color will dominate Azawad’s future — Salafi black or Tuareg blue? Sadly, wedged between the prospects of reconquest by Bamako and “Talibanization” by Islamists, the idea of a secular Tuareg state, even so soon after its proclamation, seems as remote as one of those mirages that befall travelers on the way to Timbuktu.
Frank Jacobs is a London-based author and blogger. He writes about cartography, but only the interesting bits.
[1] The MNLA was founded in October 2011 by the union of the MNA (Mouvement National de l’Azawad) and the MTNM (Mouvement Touareg du Nord-Mali). It is a main pillar, but not the sole component, of the recent rebellion against Mali’s central government.
[2] That would be, clockwise from Mali in the south: Mauritania, Algeria, Niger and Burkina Faso.
[3] Where Mauritania and Burkina Faso are only about 200 miles apart.
[4] A cotton garment typical worn by Tuareg men that functions as both a veil and turban.
[5] “Berber” derives from the ultimate exonym (i.e. a name given by outsiders): the Greek word barbaroi, which mimicked the foreignness of a language by rendering it as something akin to “blah-blah.” From it we get “barbarian,” as well as Barbary (as in Barbary Coast, Barbary Pirates and Barbary apes). In current usage, many exonyms can be considered insensitive (Gypsy, Lapp, Hottentot), and preference is given to the endonym (Roma, Saami, Khoi-San).
The Berber endonyms are Amazigh (sing.) and Imazighen (pl.), in reference to the people, “Tamazight,” in reference to the language, and “Tamazgha,” in reference to the area they inhabit — from North Africa’s Atlantic coast to the Siwa Oasis in western Egypt. Although most North Africans have at least some Amazigh heritage, self-identification as such is usually limited to the minority that speaks the indigenous language (as opposed to Arabic).
[6] The movement of livestock (and people) between summer and winter grazing areas.
[7] From 1890 to 1899 and again from 1920 to 1960. Between 1899 and 1920, the territory of what is now Mali went through several reorganizations. In June 1960, Mali and Senegal became independent together as the Mali Federation. Senegal withdrew in August, after which the remaining republic renamed itself Mali in September.
[8] Reminiscent of another crucial city takeover by northern rebels on April 1: On that date in 1572, Dutch rebels conquered Den Briel, in the Netherlands, until then held by the Spanish. This was a turning point in the Dutch war of independence against Spain.
[9] Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, formerly GSPC (the French acronym for “Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat”), a group founded in 2002 for the overthrow of the Algerian government, but which now ranges across much of the western Sahara and Sahel regions.
[10] Salafism is a form of Muslim fundamentalism harking back to the purity of the earliest practitioners of Islam (the “ancestors,” or Salaf).
Tags:
Africa, Al Qaeda, Geography, Mali, Maps
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