By S A H A R A N M O I T O R
Colonial history redrew borders. While modern Mali takes its name from the ancient Empire (1235-1610), its use as a state name dates back to 1960. Conversely, Azawad appeared as a geographical designation as early as the 1920s on colonial maps.
Before the French arrived, the region had no single name. The Saharan zone was the territory of large Tuareg confederations (like the Iwillimidan and Kel Adagh) and other communities (Maures, Songhai, Fulani) occupying distinct spaces.
French colonization artificially unified these areas as Upper Senegal-Niger, then French Sudan (from the Arabic Bilad al-Sudan, “land of the blacks”, which historically designated the sub-Saharan region).
In 1958, the territory became autonomous as the Sudanese Republic. In May 1958, notables from the Saharan zone sent a letter to France refusing to be attached to the rest of French Sudan. The name “Mali” was never mentioned then.
France sought to keep the Sahara via the OCRS (1957) for its oil resources. Facing local resistance and pressure (influenced by the Algerian FLN), Paris backed down and kept the Saharan part attached to French Sudan.
In 1960, the Mali Federation was born (Sudan + Senegal). After it collapsed, the Sudanese Republic kept the name and proclaimed the Republic of Mali on Sept 22, 1960. The modern political use of “Mali” dates precisely to this moment.
Meanwhile, the name Azawad (a term of Berber/Maure origin designating a sedimentary basin) was mapped by the French in the 1920s. By 1958, it was claimed politically to designate the Saharan region (Gao, Timbuktu, Kidal).
What about medieval Mali? The Mali Empire (1235-1610) existed according to travelers’ accounts. But by the time French colonists arrived, this political entity had vanished centuries ago, and its exact capital location is still debated by archaeologists.
In short: the political adoption of the name Azawad in the North (1958) predates the state use of the name Mali in the South (1960). Both terms have legitimacy: one is a medieval imperial legacy, the other a 20th-century geographic and political reality.
In addition: Here is a link to articles about pre-colonial and colonial maps where Azawad is mentioned. And Azawad (or Azaouad) was mentioned also on pre-colonial maps as far back as the 1500s. On some of these maps the word “Tuareg” is written around the desert area of Azawad, as well as the names of different Tuareg confederations which was how the Tuareg society was built on.
Also, south of Azawad, after what is written as Masena or Masina (Massina) is written on some maps the word “Melli” and “Bambara”. Which shows that the Bambara people lived far south of Azawad and not in the desert area of Azawad which, as we know, was and is (since millenia) the territory of the Azawadians.
Two different territories, with different people and cultures, forced attached together by colonial France – against the explicit will of the people of Azawad – and giving it the name, Mali.
So all of a sudden their land/territory Azawad was made part of a new state with a centralized government hostile to their identity, language, culture and lifestyle. And they became marginalized “foreigners” in their own land.
A marginalization that evolved into an ethnic genocide.
There is the root of the conflict which will never stop until Azawad gets its freedom.
Azawad Support Group