Heather Alexander 2. Historical Background The territory that is now Mali was once home to the ancient kingdoms of Mali and Songhai.11 The northern part of the territory was conquered by the Sultan of Morocco in the late 1500s, beginning a long period of northern African influence in the region under the nominal control of the Sultan. During this period, belonging in West African society was based on allegiance.12 By the end of the 19th century, however, the Sultan’s holdings in the Sahel fractured into small, warring caliphates. During this period of conflict, the French military gained a footing in Timbuktu and other important urban centres. France would continue its military expansion and solidify its holdings in the Sahel over the next few decades. Mali became a French Protectorate in 1890 following the Conference of Berlin,13 though Timbuktu did not come under French military control until 1894.14 2.1 The French colonial period Under French rule, Mali was known as French Sudan (Soudan Français) and was part of French West Africa, Afrique occidentale française (AOF). Laws governing French citizenship, including voting rights, were slowly enacted during the colonial period by the French government, with some input from African politicians.15 Borders between the various AOF colonies were not very important to ordinary people, even though beginning in the 1920s, the French began to impose movement restrictions.16 This would change during decolonisation, when colonial administrative boundaries became more formalised borders, often dividing existing communities into separate states, a common problem in the region. Under French law, prior to 1946, most residents of Soudan Français who were of African origin were considered to be French ‘subjects’;17 whereas those of European descent 11 The Kingdom of Mali existed from approximately 1230 to the 1500s and encompassed a region stretching from the coast of what is now Senegal to the region around Timbuktu, often known as the Niger Bend. The Songhai Empire existed from the 1400s to 1600, when it fell to Moroccan invasion, and, at its height, covered much of the same region. For more information on this period, see Attilio Gaudio, Le Mali (Karthala 2nd ed. Paris 1988); Michal Tymowski, The Origins and Structures of Political Institutions in Pre-Colonial Black Africa; Dynastic Monarchy, Taxes and Tributes, War and Slavery, Kinship and Territory (Edwin Mellen Press 2009). 12 Joseph Ki-Zerbo, À quand l’Afrique : entretien avec René Holenstein, Éditions de l’Aube (2003) p. 79, cited in ‘The Right to Nationality in Africa, African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (2015) p. 8 13 Décret du 18 avril 1890, cited in P. Decheix, « Le Code de La Nationalité Malienne » 697 Penant 300 (1963). 14 Andre Bourgeot, Les sociétés touarègues : Nomadisme, identité, resistances (Karthala 1995) 276. T. Benetti, Entwicklung des Verhältnisses zwischen Tuareg und staatlichen Strukturen in Mali (University of Vienna 2008) 43. 15 For example, Senegalese politicians Blaise Diagne and Lamine Guèye and Ivoirian politician Félix Houphouët-Boigny were deeply involved in some of the biggest advances in colonial law governing citizenship rights in French West Africa: the loi Blaise Diagne, the loi Lamine Guèye of 1946 and the loi-cadre Defferre of 1956. 16 For example, under the decree of 24 April 1928, indigenous persons in the AOF could not leave their colonies without an identity document. Marie Rodet, Les migrantes ignorées du Haut-Sénégal: 1900-1946, (Karthala 2009) 196-198. Rodet writes that these laws did not have much effect. 17 Coquery-Vidrovitch explains that this was in recognition of the French policy of association and the creation of a distinction between French subjects and French citizens. Coquery-Vidrovitch 285. Note that the use of the RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/11 - © 2020 Author(s) 3