IMUHAR society in the era of colonialism
CONQUEST
- • 1830 Conquest of Algier by French troops
- • 1845 Advance of French troops from Senegal to the border of Mali
- • 1862 Contract of Ghadames between the Kel Azjer and the French
- • 1881 Quelling of Flatter’s armed expedition towards Tamanrasset
- • 1894 Conquest of Timbuktu by French troops
- • 1899 Conquest of In Salah
- • 1904 Encounter of the French troops from the North (Gerneral Laperrine) and the South at the todays border of Algeria and Mali
The colonial conquest of the Imuhar (Tuareg) happened comparatively late. The conquest of the Tuareg was shaped by an enormous military struggle and brutal force. It took place over decades. French troops invaded the area from the North and from the West far into the Central Sahara desert. The French did not establish a colonial state until the beginning of the 20th century. Until then, only the Tuareg region in Libya was ruled by Italy.
The protection of the French trade route from West Africa through the Sahara to France was one of the main reasons to colonialize the area of the Tuareg.
The annexation was followed by the establishment of the colonial administration – the French colony of Algeria and French West Africa.
Established hubs of the Tuareg nomads and their connections served the establishment of invasive force. Fixed borderlines were developed on European drafting tables without consideration of the “elastic” merges of the Tuareg main groups. Rigid borders with newly built border control stations demonstrated the clear manifestation of an European state in the Sahara desert. At the same time, the French occupants paved the way for Arab peoples from the north and the Hausa people from the south into the territory of the Tuareg people.
MILITARY BASE TAMANRASSET
Formerly, the village of Abalessa was one of the most important trade junctions of the region located in-between the main groups of the Taytoq and the Kel Ahaggar. The present town Tamanrasset, located in the west of the Ahaggar Mountains, was founded and supported under colonial military administration. In only 100 years the population grew from 42 people in the year 1909 (Keenan 1977: 359) to about 150.000 people (Keenan 2006: 920). An artificial, place became a center with a magnetic pull to especially non-Imuhar people. The traditional transnational centers like Abalessa shifted into a peripheral position
Tamanrasset today
NUCLEAR WEAPONS TESTS
But, in Algeria the colonial heritage does not end with the constitution of cities. In the South of the former French province Algerie a test site for nuclear weapons remained.
This “radiant” legacy was closed right before the independence of Algeria in 1962. The test site is not further than 170 kilometres in the north of of Tamanrasset, near In Eker and it borders directly on the region of the Kel Ahnet.
Several tests were conducted underground. Near Reggane four nuclear bombs were denoted above ground in the atmosphere. One of these bombs was even four times stronger than the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima. Thereby a large region of Tuareg territory was contaminated. Even about 300 French soldiers were consciously exposed to gamma rays.
REBELLIONS AGAINST THE COLONIAL STATE
1st Rebellion (Mali)
- • Jan 1916 Amenukal Fihrum ag Al-Insar of the Iwellemmedan (Mali) calls for a rebellion
- • May 1916 Quelling of the rebellion
- • 25 June 1916 Assassination of Fihrum
The Iwellemedan were defeated rather fast because no other main group followed the call for rebellion
2. Rebellion (Niger)
- • Dec 1916 Beginning of the „Kawsan-rebellion“ (Niger) with an 80-days-long occupation of Agadez
- • Jan 1917 French and British troops from Nigeria attack Agadez
- • Jan 1917 Retreat of Kawsan with his followers to the Air Mountains
- • March 1917 Massacre of over 100 islamic scribes in Agadez
- • March 1918 Last rebels are expelled from the Air Mountains
- • Jan 1919 Execution of Kwasan in South Libya by Turkish troops
The rebellion started as a military action of the brotherhood of the Sanusiyya that the Imascheren of the Air Mountains followed.
FORCED DISPLACEMENT of the main group TAYTOQ
Before the French military invaded present-day Algeria, there lived three main groups of Imuhar in that region: Kel Azjer, Kel Ahaggar and Taytoq (Foucauld; Duveyrier 1864). The leader of such a main group was called Amenukal (Pl.m.: Imenukalin). In 1905, Moussa ag Amastane was officially confirmed as Amenukal of the Kel Ahaggar and Sidi ag Keradji as Amenukal of the Taytoq-group by the French military (Keenan 1977: 86).
The Taytoq group (Imuhar in the West) was always in conflict with the occupants unlike the Kel Ahaggar. In June 1918 the Amenukal of the Taytoq group in Ahnet was discharged by the French military administration. Then all Tausatin (sub-groups) in Ahnet were officially subordinated to the Amenukal of the Kel Ahaggar. Even worse, the Taytoq were expelled from their land. They were forced to emigrate to the South in the direction of Niger (Keenan 1977: 90). The Nomads of the Kel Ahnet stayed. Both Imenukalen (leaders) were in disagreement with each other, therefore it was much easier for the French occupants to install one central authority. This meant a massive intervention in the social, cultural and territorial structure of the society.
The artificial inferiority and displacement of the former autonomous group of the Taytoq (like Taytoq, Kel Ahnet, Tegehe-n-Efis, Ikuttisen) were arbitrary infringements in order to establish the invasive power.
Former area of the Taytoq Nomads
CONSTRUCTION of the main group IFORAS
The French occupants also changed the political power structure in the Adar Mountains in North Mali. An minor social sub-group, the Iforas, became with the help of the French colonialists a powerful main group in North Mali.
Members of that heavily religious group view themselves as descendants of the prophet Mohammed in contrast to all other main groups. Especially the most recent rebellions are closely connected to the artificial boost of the Iforas (see Klute 2013: Tuareg-Aufstand in der Wüste)
NATURAL RESOURCES
The search for natural resources already started during colonialism. The colonialists discovered and exploited natural gas, mineral oil, gold and uranium.
A COMMON STATE
The French endeavored to establish a common state of the Tuareg at the end of colonialism, but only to exploit the natural resources and not to unite the society.
INDEPENDENCE
- • 1960 Mali
- • 1960 Niger
- • 1962 Algeria
The new, artificial national states erected power centers like Tripoli and Algiers far away from the areas of the Imuhar/Imascheren/Imuschar – a disjointed structure of Sahara-Nomads was left, forced back into periphery.
Continuation History National state