Azawagh

Not to be confused with Azawad.

The Azawagh basin and surrounding geological features, as seen from space. The yellow lines indicate international borders.

The Azawagh forms the northeastern sections of the Niger River basin, although today the Azawagh river is long dry and the area is fed by seasonal underground rivers at best.

Azawagh is the collective non-officially recognised name for the main Tamashek-speaking parts of northern Mali, northern Niger and parts of southern Algeria. Azawagh is mainly made up of Sahelian and Saharan vast flat lands inhabited by Tuareg nomads. It does not correspond to any single administrative region of Mali, Niger or Algeria, but it includes portions of the Kidal region of Mali and the Tahoua region and Agadez region of Niger, as well as large portions of southern Algeria. There are also groups of Tuareg peoples in Mauritania, Libya and Burkina Faso.

Azawagh has a strong and distinctive Tuareg character, different from the official identities and characters of the central governments of Mali, Niger and Algeria. Azawagh emerged as a geopolitical issue due to the separatist sentiment prevalent, as represented by the Mouvement Populaire pour la Libération de l'Azawad and, more recently, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, that aspires to establish an independent Azawad republic with a Tuareg identity. It also came to the fore as a result of the War on Terror.

Geography

The Azawagh has historically referred to the dry river valley, which once carried a northern arm of the Niger river, the Azawagh river, which ran some 1,600 km in pre-historic times (drying up after the Neolithic Subpluvial and creating a basin of some 420,000 km². Its valley, which geologists call the Iullemmeden Basin, from in the western foothills of the Aïr Mountains curves through the Sahara desert of modern Niger and Mali, meeting the Niger river near Gao. It is bordered to the east by the Adrar des Ifoghas massif of modern Mali and Algeria, to the south by the Niger river, in the west by the Ader Douchi hills and, depending upon interpretation, runs north to the southern foothills of the Hoggar massif.

In Mali, the name Azawak is used for the area, while in Niger Azawagh is often used. In Niger, Azawagh generally includes the towns of Abalagh (Abalak), In Tibaraden (Tchin-Tabaraden), Tiliya, In Gal and Tabalaq, a village where the sole lake of the region is located.

The Azawagh region is generally flat with its 80,000 km² forming vast, arid plains broken by occasional ridges. The scarps separate a series of sandstone plateaus, the highest of which reaches an elevation of 500 metres (1,640 ft), often rich in minerals.. Approximately, three quarters of the Azawagh area is desert or semi-desert; as a result of extended and severe drought, the desert has been expanding since the mid-1960s.

Cultural groups

The area is dominated by the Kel Tamashek peoples, as well as some nomadic Arab-ancestry tribes including Hassaniyya-speakers (also called Azawagh Arabs (not to be confused with Niger's Diffa Arabs)) in the northwest border of Mali and the Wodaabe Fula in Niger. Azawagh is the centre for the Iwellemeden Kel Denneg Federation.

In Moorish society musicians occupy the lowest caste, iggawin. They used song to praise successful warriors as well as their patrons. Iggawin also had the traditional role of messengers, spreading news between villages. In modern Mauritania, professional musicians are paid by anybody to perform; affluent patrons sometimes record the entertainment, and they, rather than the musicians themselves, are then considered to own the recording. Traditional instruments include an hourglass-shaped four-stringed lute called the tidinit and the woman's kora-like ardin. Percussion instruments include the tbal (a kettle drum) and daghumma (a rattle).

Other facts of Azawagh:

• Population : 600,000 (July 1998 estimated)
• Life expectancy at birth : 50 years
• Ethnic groups  : 70% Tuareg, 30% others.
• Religions : 99% Sunni Muslim.
• Languages: mainly Tamasheq; Arabic (liturgical); French (administrative). Other languages spoken include: Old-Sudanese and Bambara dialects.

Conflict and separatist movements

Since the early 20th century, there has been some resentment of central Malian control and several separatist or other rebel groups had been active in the region, notably during the civil war in Mali in the early 1990s. In this period, groups claiming independence for the area and for the broader Azawagh and Ayr region first appeared.

Some of these movements have claimed it as part of a wider pan-Saharan Tuareg homeland, while others have been content to demand improved services and/or autonomy for the region. In late 2006, a flare-up in fighting in the Kidal Region was ended by Algerian mediation between the central government and Tuareg rebels.

After Mali gained independence in 1960, Azawad become a part of Mali. With independence, the numerous black African peoples (Soudanais or Haratines) and the Azawadis (Arab and Tuareg, Songhay) lived peacefully in Mali. Many of the Azawadis became clerks, soldiers and civil servants.

A schism then developed between those Moors who consider Azawad as a part of Arab countries and those who seek a dominant role for the non-Moorish peoples in this region. Various models for maintaining the country's cultural diversity without conflict were suggested, but none of them were implemented successfully. Ethnic discord was further evident during sectarian violence that broke out in 1991 as a result of the killing of about 50 civilian men of Arab origin. Azawadis saw the event racism directed at them. Following the violence, the Azawadi people left their homes in Mali to go to refugee camps in Mauritania, Algeria and Burkina Faso. Some Tuareg also went to Libya where they were integated into the Libyan Army.

With the discovery of oil in 2006 in the Azawad region, as well as the War on Terror and the hyped presence of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the issues of discord came to light.

See also

Organisations using the Azaouad name

• Tuareg rebellion of the 1990s:
  • Arab Islamic Front of Azawad
  • Popular Movement for the Liberation of Azawad
• Second Tuareg Rebellion
  • Niger Movement for Justice
  • Revolutionary Armed Forces of the Sahara

Geographic and geologic features

• Sahara Desert
• Air Massif
• Niger River
• Niger Basin Authority

Prehistoric Sahara

• Sahara pump theory
• Neolithic Subpluvial
• Prehistoric Central North Africa

External links

• Tuareg Liberation Front
• Programm Mali Nord