MODERNIZING THE KEL ENTSAR

From the French perspective, the one Tuareg group in the Niger Bend that was the most enlightened and forward-looking was the Kel Entsar. Like their great rivals the Tengeregif, they had fought the French in the 1890s, had suffered from bloody French reprisals, and had lost their leaders to French bullets. But even more than the Tengeregif, who were never fully trusted, the Kel Entsar were crucial French allies in the military defense of the territory against the raids of the Saharan “grands nomades” who often targeted the area around Lake Faguibine where the Kel Entsar were concentrated. When the Kel Entsar chief N'Gouna was killed by the French in 1898, the colonial administration refused to install his son, Muhammad, as chief of this important clerical confederation. Instead, they appointed N'Gouna's brother, Allouda, who was suspected by many Kel Entsar of having betrayed his brother to the French. The Barabish chronicle discussed in Chapter 4 repeats this claim: