![]() Though the area offered France little economic or strategic gain, the military effectively advocated greater conquest in the region. The wealth of the Mali Empire here Mansa Musa is depicted holding a gold nugget from the 1375 Catalan Atlas, which led the French to pursue colonization of the area.įrench Sudan originally formed as a set of military outposts as an extension of the French colony in Senegal. In 1960, the French Sudan formally became the Republic of Mali and began to distance itself further from Senegal and France. Following World War II, the African Democratic Rally (RDA) under Modibo Keïta became the most significant political force pushing for independence.įrench Sudan initially retained close connections with France and joined in a short-lived federation with Senegal in 1959, but ties to both countries quickly weakened. The colony was initially established largely as a military project led by French troops, but in the mid-1890s it came under civilian administration.Ī number of administrative reorganizations in the early 1900s brought increasing French administration over issues like agriculture, religion, and slavery. The colony was formally called French Sudan from 1890 until 1899 and then again from 1921 until 1958, and had a variety of different names over the course of its existence. Instead of having been passive objects in a history driven by colonial forces, they continued to pursue their own agendas, sometimes subverting colonial authority.French Sudan ( French: Soudan français Arabic: السودان الفرنسي as-Sūdān al-Faransī) was a French colonial territory in the Federation of French West Africa from around 1880 until 1959, when it joined the Mali Federation, and then in 1960, when it became the independent state of Mali. ![]() Local actors are shown to have responded actively to the circumstances created by colonial rule. The basis for these rights was established in the struggles over land discussed in this article. It thus becomes possible to understand that people today hold rights in land at several geographically dispersed places. Second, the land-use pattern laid out should be interpreted in terms of kin-group-based 'pools of territories' rather than in terms of 'atomized' production units. First, the establishment of Moose institutions in the aire-refuge preceded colonial control of the region. While many movements to the northern aire-refuge were motivated by the wish to escape colonial exactions, the dispersion of population did not necessarily entail social and political disruption. Contrary to what is often assumed, colonial rule was not solely disruptive in its consequences for local social organization. At the same time, actors directly involved in the conflicts secured and extended their own, their descendants and/or their larger kin group's claims to land. In the process, the chieftaincy of Piugtenga expanded and the territory effectively under ritual control of 'firstcoming' population groups was enlarged. Drawing on a number of cases of conflict over land during the 1920s and 1930s along the border separating the Moose chieftaincies of Piugtenga and Ratenga, it is demonstrated that this land occupation is to be understood in terms of multiple projects and multiple actors. This article retraces the occupation of land during the first decades of the twentieth century in the northern part of the province of Sanmatenga, Burkina Faso.
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