Moving to stay: 'iklan' spatial strategies towards socioeconomic emancipation in northern Mali, 1898-1960

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Periodical article

Title:	Moving to stay: 'iklan' spatial strategies towards socioeconomic emancipation in northern Mali, 1898-1960
Author:	Mauxion, Aurelien
Year:	2012
Periodical:	The Journal of African History (ISSN 0021-8537)
Volume:	53
Issue:	2
Pages:	195-213
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Mali
Subjects:	Tuareg slaves social status labour migration mobility abolition of slavery
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853712000394
Abstract:	This article explores the strategies of emancipation of former Tuareg slaves ('iklan') in the Gao region of northern French Sudan (present-day Mali) during the late 1940s and 1950s. In the wake of the war effort and shifting colonial policy, and in spite of colonial tolerance toward vestiges of slavery, 'iklan' engaged in local and long-distance migrations aimed at achieving emancipation. The article argues that the most successful spatial strategies were new migratory patterns in the Gao region through which 'iklan' appropriated productive resources (herds and pastures) that were previously controlled by their ex-masters. More than labour migrations to cities, these local trajectories destabilized Tuareg hierarchies, forcing colonial administrators to address demands of the 'iklan' emancipation movement. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]