Azawad is a country in Western Africa, bordered in the north by France (Algeria) and Tunisia, in the west by Morocco, in the south by Mali and in the east by Libya.
History
If the history of post-colonial Africa is filled with examples of “artificial countries, Azawad would be certainly one such example. Formerly divided between French Algeria and French West Africa, the country that would become Azawad was of least concern for French authorities, who saw the Sahara desert as nothing less than a hindrance, separating the Algerian coast from Dakar or Bamako, using planes or truck caravans. As of all French territories that remained under the French Republic after the Great European War and the Syndicalist Revolution, the inhabitants of the territory were put under stress by the Algiers regime, forcing taxes and conscription on the nomadic Tuareg times. In the aftermath of the Cagoule’s coup attempt in 1937, the Tuaregs revolted under chief Akhemuk ag Immemma, the Supreme Chief of the Tuareg Confederation of Kel Ahaggar ; the Great Tuareg Revolt would have a decisive part in the French Exile Civil War (1937-1945), as it effectively cut in half the French colonial realm. Even if the Tuaregs were totally defeated during an offensive during Winter 1943-1944, the prospects of French Sahara also changed during that time, as oil was discovered in Hassi-Messaoud in 1942, a decision that would change all French interests in the region.
Saharan oil was effectively used by the Allied Armies during the Battle of Morocco and the World War; but as France had been focused on the Algerian coast before and had to deal with increasingly violent independentist revolts there, the exploitation of oil in the Sahara became all the more strategic for France, providing basic infrastructures such as roads, railroads and pipelines and agreeing to invest in the welfare and the alliance with Tuareg tribes, relying on their traditional structures to maintain order in the region. The French perspective was also to engineer jobs south of the Atlas, in order to draw Algerian poor laborers out of the coast and out of independentist influence. In 1962, the Toulon Agreements on the reform of Algeria also cut out the territories south of the Atlas from French Algeria proper, drawing them into a French Sahara Territory (Territoire du Sahara français), with its administrative centre being located in Timbuktu. Led by French civil servants dispatched from the mainland, French Sahara relied mostly on mining and oil exploitation, having the Tuaregs under a loose confederation of chietains approved by the authorities, along with an increasing Arab population. The area of the French Sahara would be reduced after Moroccan victory in the Sands War (1975-1977). In 1981, the area saw the completion of the Transsaharienne highway, a French megaproject that linked Algiers to Dakar by automobile.
The independence of the Mali Federation, Guinea and Eburnia in 1978 and the continuing unrest in Kabylia and Algeria, along with the drop in oil prices that followed the 1983 krach led the French government, along with the public opinion, to consider French Sahara as a burden, deeming it as “ a few acres of sand”, to quote Voltaire about Quebec. Initiating negotiations with the Tuareg chieftains, the Rocard administration agreed to give French Sahara its independence on 1 July 1990, giving the new country the name of Azawad, after the Berber name given to the area (Azawagh). With France retaining rights of exploitation over oil and mining, the new country was to be led by the same confederation of Tuareg tribes that had existed since 1962, a loose confederation that didn’t reflected the demographic outline of the new country, counting Arabs, Bouzou, Wodaabe, Hausa and Zarma peoples, but in fact showed the mix in the country, from the old city of Timbuktu to the North Saharan steppe, becoming one of the biggest and least densely populated countries of the world.
Establishing close links with Liberia in 1994, Azawad remained however tightly linked in France, being economically dependent from Algiers. As it would be expected from the bizarre political situation, the country descended into civil war from 2007 to 2009, pitting islamist Tuaregs against their more Sufi countrymen and Arab workers, resulting in the victory of the Islamists, supported by the French in a weird outcome of events. As a result, Azawad became officially an islamic republic in 2012, adopting the cha’ria and putting in place a tight moral order policy.
Political situation
Reflecting the social structure put in place during the days of French Sahara, Azawad’s politics have been compared to a “neo-feudal system”, “tribal anarchism” and “an islamic take on libertarianism”. Regardless of the Arabic and Berber urban population that immigrated there during French colonization, the political structure weighs on the nomadic Tuareg tribes, as it was loosely organized during the French era, resulting in a vastly decentralized state.
Legislative powers are split between the unelected Council of Tribes, an upper house formed of representatives from the main Tuareg tribes, and House of Delegates, a lower house elected for a five year term by electors, in both the cities and the countryside ; these both houses appoint the twelve members of an independent High Council, where tribal chiefs form the majority, along with the mayors of Timbuktu and Tamanghasset, the biggest cities of Azawad ; all appointed for life, they foresee the implementation of the islamic law, foreign and trade affairs. In fact, executive powers are left to the town mayors and the Tuareg tribes, who are free to implement matters relative to law enforcement, local finance, justice and other temporal matters. This extremely decentralized powers lead from time to time to frictions between the different entities, one of the reasons to the Azawadi Civil War, even if the High Council and the Federal Assembly have a supreme power of arbitration. Finally, since 2012, cha’ria serves as fundamental law and even if its application varies from region to region, Azawad mostly has a very strict implementation of it in common law.
The position of Chairman of the High Council, that serves as a nominal head of state and government, rotates annually between members of the High Council ; Iyad Ag Ghaly, appointed from the Ifogha tribe (Kidal region), serves as Chairman for the Islamic Year 1443 (10 August 2021-28 July 2022).
Social situation, population
One of the least densely populated countries of the world, Azawad nevertheless has a growing population, with more than half under 30 and a steady migration rate from refugees from war-torn Libya to Moroccans and Algerians coming to find work in the oil fields. As a consequence of this state of affairs, the Tuaregs, who hold much of the powers inside the young country, form a minority, alongside Arab and Berber migrants, but also other African tribes such as Bouzous, Wodaabes, Hausas and Zarmas ; this unequal divide of powers has led to further friction during the Civil War, with city-dwellers, more conservative, forming their own faction and supporting the islamist side. Also, due to the inhospitality of much of the country, Azawad is also essentially urban, in contrast to the nomadic lifestyle of the Tuareg tribes, with Tamanghasset soon overtaking the capital Timbuktu as the country’s largest city by 2030, under some estimates.
Due to the strict implementation of the cha’ria, protection of human rights tends to be very poor in Azawad, even if the situation can vary from region to region, but capital punishment, harsh penalties, restrictions on freedom of speech and religion are a common occurrence, along with poor treatment of women and all minorities. Along with the poor income from mine and oil field labor and the lack of centralized welfare, much of the population lives below the poverty line and without access to basic social services, leading to a general perception of Azawad as “backwards country” or, in the words of the World Council, “a country of major concern”.
Economy
If the French held for so long over Azawad, it was due to the unexpected riches of the Sahara, from oil to natural gas in Reggane and Timmimoun, along with uranium and iron ore in Agadez and large subterranean water reserves. Duly equipped and extracted by French companies, these riches allow a steady income for Azawad as a major oil-producing country, even if French, German and Chinese companies enjoy most of the benefits. Keeping it with the unique nature of Azawadi politics, the incomes are divided between each tribe, as every one of them has control over some of the fields ; this situation led to massive inequality, as proper work on these fields require a flowing workforce, provided by migrants. Even now, it’s not uncommon to see Tuareg chiefs that have exchanged their camels for brand new Ferraris, in the middle of the desert… Corruption remains an issue, even as cha’ria vehemently prohibits it. The question of using the vast of the Sahara desert for solar energy production is still being researched by the Azawadi High Council to determine whether or not solar energy is allowed by the Quran.
Military
Keeping in with their neo-feudal outline, military matters are also a prerogative of the local chiefs, keeping in militias from all able-bodied males of age, in order to maintain law and order and observance of the islamic law ; other missions assigned to the militias are the surveillance of oil and mining fields and border control, more reinforced due to the ongoing civil war in Libya and the troubles in Mali. In the early times of independence, training and equipment were the prerogatives of French military advisors ; now, the cooperation is more from Liberian or Hashemite expatriates. This decentralized form of defense also led to the Azawadi Civil War, that saw fighting between shifting coalitions of tribes and people’s militias.
Culture
The most famous heritage of Azawad is the capital, Timbuktu, the former commercial outpost of the Malian Empire, the “City of the 333 Saints” and the “Desert Pearl”, whose ancient mosques and shrines are renowned throughout Africa ; even if after the implementation of sha’ria, there had been calls to destroy the idolatrous shrines, the government have been protecting them. Closer to us is also the Transsaharienne highway, achieved in 1981 by French engineers, considered as a testimony to late colonial engineering and a tour de force in allowing traffic throughout the Sahara desert.
The riches of Timbuktu and the mesmerizing landscapes of the Sahara, along with the relative peacefulness of the country, allow tourism to be a steady income for the young country, even if islamic law create from time to time friction with tourists not respectful enough and the inhospitality of the desert provide a yearly death rate among some. Azawad also provided gorgeous filming locations for both Babelsberg and Hollywood, such as Denis Villeneuve’s Cleopatra (2019). As of local cultural life, the heavy censorship under the cha’ria have nipped in the bud such ventures.
