Meet Azawad, Africa’s Newest Country
On the map of West Africa, Azawad is a large irregular triangle set among Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Mali — the country it belonged to for fifty-two years. It is approximately 650,000 square kilometers — the size of Texas — and has fewer than 2 million inhabitants. Azawad declared its independence on April 6, after a quick war wherein the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) forces — equipped with weaponry looted from Libya — routed the Malian government forces.
Azawad is certainly entitled to be a free nation. It is an almost homogenous Muslim and Berber-speaking society, an offshoot of the larger Touareg confederacy that controlled most of the Sahara and its commercial trade routes for centuries, if not millenia. In the early 1900s, the French amalgamated it for administrative purposes with Sudan, a black-populated colony on the Niger River, but did not interfere much with its distinctive way of life (Touareg nomads are known to dress in blue and wear a veil, whereas Touareg women are veil-free). Things changed in 1960 when French Sudan was granted independence as the Republic of Mali. Azawad insisted on a separate state. They rebelled against Mali in 1963, only to be crushed mercilessly by Malian forces. They rebelled again in 1990 a bit more successfully, and then again in 2006 and 2010.
Now, can Azawad endure as a state?
In military terms, the MNLA’s present superiority can be easily reversed. The stockpile of weapons from Libya will not last forever. The Malian forces may be reorganized and get new armaments. Foreign countries may send troops or advisors to help suppress the secession.
In terms of international law, Azawad is hardly better off: the very foundation of African regional order is the immutability of the former colonial entities and borders, however arbitrary or absurd they may be. Still, many of the post-colonial states have been collapsing or disintegrating in recent years, Libya being just the latest case. In one instance — South Sudan in 2011 — a rebel nation succeeded in securing its independence with the full backing of the international community.
Evidently, Azawad would like to make use of that precedent. The new country insists in its declaration of independence that it recognizes all existing borders and countries, including Mali proper, which would be left with an 800,000 square kilometer area and some 13 million inhabitants. It also insists that it adheres to the UN charter and principles.
Is MNLA as in control of Azawad as it claims to be? Two other rebel organizations operate in the area. Whereas MNLA resorts to a purely secular brand of Berber and Touareg nationalism, Ansar Dine (The Fighters for Religion) combines Touareg insurgency with radical Islam. The second group, AQIM (al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), is clearly linked to the global jihadist networks.
MNLA has taken a conciliatory attitude towards Ansar Dine, which is based on the powerful Ifora tribe in southern Azawad, and whose leader, Iyad Ag Ghali, played an important role in the 1990 uprising. The two groups actually coordinated their moves and tactics in the conquest of Gao and Timbuktu on April 1. Yet the differences between them are startling. They don’t hoist the same flag: the MNLA banner is green, red, and black with a yellow triangle; Ansar Dine’s is plain black with Quranic verses in white. MNLA leaders and officials speak Berber and French; Ansar Dine speaks Arabic. MNLA is drawing up a Western-style secular democratic constitution; Ansar Dine advocates for Sharia rule.
Insufficient information to commit the U.S. to another war, this one in Africa. I, frankly, see no great benefit to our national interests to go to war. A glance at the map will show that the only effective way to support Azawad is through the very countries from which Azawad proposes to succeed. Not really a good idea.
This doesn’t sound like a situation where we need to go to war. The US government could simply provide the MNLA with weapons, or could provide training. We don’t need to intercede in the fighting; they seem to be doing just fine on their own in that regard.
Congratulations to the Azawadi people! This is a case where US support would probably cost us very little, and could pay great dividends, as Azawad, under MNLA leadership, could become a shining example of secular democracy to the peoples of North Africa. Of course, the Obama regime will promptly throw them under the bus; we can’t offend the radical Islamists, now, can we?
What is happening is the continuation of the struggle between the Berbers, who are the native people, and the Arab interlopers. It’s been going on for over 1000 years. It might be profitable to remember that the most nation shaking events that have come out of North Africa have been when Berber nationalism and Islamic radicalism have come together. It can be a lethal combination.
I have little doubt that the radical Islamists will hijack the movement as has been done in all other Muslim “Springs” with probable financial backing from Iran and other extreme states. After they have their “freedom” for a while it will become a spring of flowing jihadists throughout the region.
A story about a brand new country and no map? Pretty poor reporting, if you ask me.
I agree, a map would have been very nice.
Azawad – at the risk of insulting and inciting the Azawadis, without a map to see where this new country exists, the name, “Azawad”, makes me think of an imaginary realm in an on-line role-playing game (and don’t get me started on “Kabylia”).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azawad
“I agree, a map would have been very nice.”?
Thank you, “Mike in Seattle”, . . . And, I would like’ta be sure and get “Bill N”, and “Tierney”, and “Thunderbottom” a glass of each their fav drink; I mean, my gosh, to post here, they’re actually on the internet, . . .
But, a map in the article wouldn’t be so nice in that, whereas by opening a separate window in wikipedia, they can go back and forth for more and other details, if in the article they would hafta scroll up and down for less, . . .
I think you’ve missed the point completely, which is that the author left something important out of his story. This is like a restaurant making a customer get up from the table and use the drinking fountain if he gets thirsty. The water is available, yes, but you shouldn’t have to let your dinner get cold to access it.
There is a more important aspect here, which is this: The author obviously left out something important. Why? If he is just careless, what else is he careless about? If he is hiding something, what? What else has he left out and why?
“There is a more important aspect here, which is this: The author obviously left out something important. Why? If he is just careless, what else is he careless about? If he is hiding something, what? What else has he left out and why?”
Dude. Cut back on the coffee and articles that involve the phrase “black helicopter”. Unless…..the author’s sister’s wife’s cousin’s brother-in-law used to live next door to one of the Koch brothers.
Azawad wants to be independent. So does Kurdistan. The Palestinians, on the other hand, are fighting against independence with their lives and the lives of their children. Has any other independence movement ever rejected its own state because it was quibbling about borders? But of course, borders are not the issue. The Palestinians are afraid that an independent Palestine might legitimize Israel’s existence.
http://www.jochnowitz.net/Essays/Palestinians.html
An independent palestine would mean an end to refugee status and the resulting loss of U.N. refugee funds. And the arabs would lose a victim group to use against Israel and the West.
My congratulations to Azawad. May you get the government you deserve.
Greetings:
It’s always nice to hear about the pre-European colonialists, namely, the Islamo-Arabs. It always strikes me as a bit amusing when the Islamists start their rants about colonialists, meaning Europeans, when what the heck are they.
As Fouad Ajami has written, those are the lands of “I against my brother; my brother and I against our cousin; and my cousin, my brother, and I against the stranger.” Regrettably, I no longer find the idea of Muslims killing other Muslims very upsetting.
Islam is a millstone.
Yes, and taken as a whole, a millstone to the neck of struggling humanity trying to achieve things of worth and beauty, . . .
There is an op-ed in the April 11 edition of China Daily by He Wenping. Professor He believes that the Tuareg rebels have close links with Islamic Maghreb, which in turn is linked to al-Shabaab in Somalia and Boko Haram in Nigeria.
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2012-04/11/content_15019410.htm
The very foundation of African regional order—or to put it in larger terms and more clearly—is the immutability of sense of order in the individual’s very own psychological make-up; and as there, of the individuals who fulfill the region, and which is to say why failed states and their leaders are so many and so economically weak, . . .
Saint Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine of Hippo was a Berber.
St. Augustine was quite a catholic/christian intellectual. As a young pagan he experienced the pleasures of the flesh. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
While there are problems in non arab muslim countries, the arab muslims seem to be the craziest. Arab Christians have been involved in anti-western terror, but not for a long time.
Kind of interesting that the culture has survived all this time.
Nothing of any interest to the U.S. in Mali or Azawad. We are not the world’s policeman nor the arbiter of democracy or any other such foolishness.
One may discern, correctly, the nearly uniform disposition of the readers.
However good or awful the events in Azawad, the U.S. as a people is going to be pretty disinterested for a while, and very disinterested during this administration.
We are at war with an enemy that we are starting to recognize. Less clear is who our friends are, or, even, who’s worth cultivating relationships with.
No doubt the wonks will assure us that if we don’t engage with this or that country, someone else will. The general tenor of the readers seem to be, let them. Our recent history supports that view as rational.
Be careful what you wish for. With the current pro-Sunni, pro-Muslim-Brotherhood Obama presidency, and with the US State Department crawling with Muslim Brotherhood moles, if the US intervenes, it will be on the side of the “bad guys.”
i heard holder and co. had some weapons (bought w/ tarp funds) left over from fast and furious. maybe we can unload them over there.