A History of Race in Muslim West Africa, 1600–1960

Abstract

The mobilization of local ideas about racial difference has been important in generating, and intensifying, civil wars that have occurred since the end of colonial rule in all of the countries that straddle the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. From Sudan to Mauritania, the racial categories deployed in contemporary conflicts often hearken back to an older history in which blackness could be equated with slavery and non-blackness with predatory and uncivilized banditry. This book traces the development of arguments about race over a period of more than 350 years in one important place along the southern edge of the Sahara Desert: the Niger Bend in northern Mali. Using Arabic documents held in Timbuktu, as well as local colonial sources in French and oral interviews, Bruce S. Hall reconstructs an African intellectual history of race that long predated colonial conquest, and which has continued to orient inter-African relations ever since.

Remoteness is power: disconnection as a relation in northern Chad

“…Characteristically, this change of status was effected through the redefinition of property: every mustaghriq al‐dhimma could ‘repent’ ( tāba ), if he relinquished all he has for the benefit of ‘good people’, that is to say, Islamic scholars or religious institutions. In the sources, the passage was always from barbarism towards saintliness, whether it concerned individuals or groups (see for instance Berque : 1347; Bonte : 307–11; Hall : 77). But we can surmise that movement the other way was quite as frequent, if only through accusations of robbery or insufficient piety levelled against unpleasant neighbours or those whom one wanted to enslave (Hall ).…”

“…In the sources, the passage was always from barbarism towards saintliness, whether it concerned individuals or groups (see for instance Berque : 1347; Bonte : 307–11; Hall : 77). But we can surmise that movement the other way was quite as frequent, if only through accusations of robbery or insufficient piety levelled against unpleasant neighbours or those whom one wanted to enslave (Hall ). This means not only that while categories seem remarkably stable over time, people could move between them; but also that definitional patterns shaped possible and impossible, visible and invisible actions, and hence not only the kind of history that could be written about them, but also the kind of history that could be acted out within and through them (cf.…”

Control social y territorial del norte de Mali por el yihadismo en un contexto de crisis

“…A riesgo de ser reduccionista, la competición por el poder y los recursos en el norte enfrentó desde entonces a los considerados como blancos (tuaregs y árabes) y a los negros (songhais y peuls, además de las etnias negroides mayoritarias en el sur) (Lecocq et al, 2013). La etnia jugó un papel importante en este conflicto, así como la descolonización francesa, ya que durante la colonización se mantuvieron buenas relaciones con clanes tuaregs para expandir su influencia (Hall, 2013). Con la llegada de la independencia, los tuaregs no estaban dispuestos a ser dominados por negros cuando históricamente ellos habían sido el grupo étnico que los había dominado (Harmon, 2014).…”

Islão e política no Mali

“…Por comodidad, en este trabajo utilizaremos el término tuareg. 15 Para más información y debate sobre la historia de los tuaregs, su implantación dentro de la República de Mali y las sucesivas revueltas, véase Lecocq (2010), Boilley (1999), Grémont (2000), Saint Girons (2008) y Hall (2011). Es importante incidir en que no toda la comunidad tuareg es partidaria del MNLA.…”