On Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 8:53 AM, Juma Mzuri <jumamzuri@gmail.com> wrote:
BY KWEI QUARTEY
As early as the 11th century, Timbuktu was a hub for trade in salt and
gold between black Africans, the Tuareg, and Arabs from the north. A
meeting place for African scholars, Timbuktu was also a center of
learning where thousands of manuscripts and books were written, and
where universities much older than Harvard or Oxford were founded.
The broad region of West Africa that includes present-day Mali has had
its share of geopolitical turmoil since at least the eighth century.
From around 700-1235, the ancient empire of Ghana (not to be confused
with present-day Ghana) ruled an area that is now southeastern
Mauritania and western Mali. In the 13th and 16th centuries
respectively, the Mali and Songhai empires successively rose to power
and controlled vast areas of West Africa.
The Moroccan invasion in 1591 resulted in the eventual collapse of the
Songhai Empire, marking the end of the region's role as a trading
crossroads. Following the establishment of sea routes by the European
powers, the trans-Saharan trade routes lost significance.
In the late 19th century, during the Scramble for Africa, France
seized control of Mali, making it a part of French Sudan.
Mali gained independence from France in 1960 and experienced rapid
economic growth in the 1990s, as well as a flourishing democracy and
relative social stability. But also during that period, the nomadic
Tuareg of the north were agitating, not for the first time, for
autonomy or statehood. The insurgency intensified in 2007 and worsened
in 2011, when there was a large influx of arms from the Libyan civil
war. Taking advantage of the turmoil in northern Mali, the Saharan
branch of Al-Qaeda Islamists seized control of the northern portion of
the country. On March 21, 2012, a military coup toppled the
democratically elected government, amplifying the nation's instability
and playing further into Al-Qaeda's hands.
The Islamists have destroyed Timbuktu's ancient shrines, imposed
draconian restrictions on Malians' culture and way of life, and meted
out savage punishments to citizens according to arbitrary
interpretations of Sharia law. Although Al-Qaeda gets most of the
attention, a complex mix of local fighters and armed ethnic groups
contribute to the political instability.
These include rebel elements like the National Movement for the
Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), a separatist Tuareg rebel group whose
attempts to take over northern Mali formed the genesis of the present
crisis, and the loosely allied National Front for the Liberation of
Azawad (FNLA). Arrayed against the Tuareg separatists are ethnic
militias like the Ganda Koy (Masters of the Earth) and GandaIzo, which
have fought alongside the Malian army. Then there are Islamist
elements like the Ansar al Din, a collection of local groups who want
Sharia law to be implemented everywhere in Mali, and MUJAO, which is
said to be a dissident group that split off from the well-resourced Al-
Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) and has aggressively attacked MNLA
elements.
Last week, after the fall of Konna to Al-Qaeda-aligned forces pushing
southward toward the capital, Bamako, the government sent an urgent
plea to France for help. French President François Hollande responded
January 11 with a bombing campaign to stop the Al-Qaeda advance, and
ECOWAS planned to send African ground forces to assist. French troops
on the ground have encountered more formidable Islamist resistance
than expected, and on January 15, despite the aerial bombardments,
Islamists still managed to take and hold more territory.
What does the future hold?
Although the CIA World Factbook calls landlocked Mali among the 25
poorest countries in the world, the country is rich in natural
resources such as gold, oil, and uranium. It has been suggested that
France's military intervention in Mali is as much about protecting its
economic interests as tending to Mali's security concerns. The United
States, which has generally approved of France's actions, is supplying
intelligence to assist the French, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
has not ruled out American aircraft landing in Mali to provide
logistical support.
The most troublesome question is how France will decide its endpoint
in its former colony. François Hollande has stated that the goal of
the intervention is to ensure that "Mali is safe, has legitimate
authorities [and] an electoral process, and [that] there are no more
terrorists threatening its territory." That is a tall order. The
northern part of Mali is an immense, forbidding, Texas-sized area of
desert and jagged mountains in which rebels and Islamists can hide,
regroup, and launch counterattacks. The scenario may spell a
protracted engagement for France. Bamako may be requesting help now,
but in months or even years to come, who is to say that the sight of
French troops marching through Malian towns will not lose its appeal?
The Institute for Policy Studies' Emira Woods has expressed concern
that France has intervened unilaterally in Mali rather than invoking
the collective resolve of the international community. There are also
concerns about retaliation against Europeans and Americans, such as
the Islamist attack on a natural gas complex in Algeria on January 16,
leading to a hostage crisis in which dozens of people have been
killed.
Such early, alarming developments strongly indicate that the solution
in Mali must be a multi-pronged approach involving more than just
military measures. The challenge ahead is complex and treacherous. One
longs for the heyday of ancient Timbuktu, when African scholars pored
studiously over learned manuscripts in quiet libraries.
Foreign Policy In Focus columnist Kwei Quartey was born in Ghana and
raised by an African American mother and a Ghanaian father, both of
whom were university lecturers. He lives in Pasadena, California where
he runs a wound care clinic and is the lead physician at an urgent
care center. He is the author of two novels, Wife of the Gods and
Children of the Street, with Murder at Cape Three Points due out this
year.
--
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