Report on Citizenship Law: Mali While this law should have resulted in the automatic transfer of French nationality to Malian nationality for the vast majority of persons living in Mali, the lack of robust civil registration, particularly in rural areas, meant that many individuals could not prove their residence in Mali. It appears that fewer than 4,000 births were registered in 1960-1961, though the methodology for collecting this information was not clear.33 As a result, many Malians began the independence period with no identity documents to prove their nationality. While in theory they were now Malian nationals, the lack of documents left many in a grey zone of legal status. Meanwhile, under French law, all persons resident in the AOF who did not qualify and opt for French nationality based on domicile automatically lost their French nationality.34 Following independence, Mali faced a series of questions over its national identity and borders. Influential leaders in West Africa like Léopold Sédar Senghor introduced the concept of an African ‘patrie,’ or identity, that was founded around ethnic villages and communities at the local level within a larger, national structure.35 Yet, the idea of Mali as a nation was practically non-existent, and few people identified with the new state in which they lived, prompting the Malian government to take measures to construct a Malian national identity following decolonisation.36 At independence, one of the first demographic surveys in Mali put the total population at around 4 million people.37 Among other things, the survey showed that at least 30% of the population had been born in a location other than where they now lived, pointing at significant migration within Mali.38 This survey did not reach further north than Timbuktu for reasons that are unclear. It counted eight of Mali’s ethnic groups, with the Bambara ethnic group making up a majority or near-majority in most rural areas surveyed in this study, followed by the Sarakollé, the Senufo at between 0% and 30% of the population depending on the region, and Peul/Fulani nomads at between 3% and 15%.39 Neither the Tuareg nor the Moor/Arab nomadic groups were counted as separate ethnicities in this study, but may have been included in the ‘other’ category. (Today, the Tuareg and Moor/Arabs make up less than 5% of the population and they are minority groups even in northern Mali.) Mali entered the post-colonial period with unsettled borders and the ongoing question of Tuareg independence. Questions persisted over its northern border, where some influential 33 Mali – Enquête démographique 1960-1961, Service de la Statistique, République du Mali, Rapport généré le : August 12 2019. 34 Loi n. 60-752 du 28 juillet 1960 portant modification de certaines dispositions du code de la nationalité. See Donner 281-281. 35 Frederick Cooper, Citizenship between Empire and Nation: Remaking France and French Africa, 1945-1960 (Princeton UP 2014) 349. 36 As Lecocq puts it, the outcome of independence; ‘...was not a Malian state, but a state harbouring at least two nascent national ideas, if not more: the Malian nation and the Tamasheq nation.’ Baz Lecocq, Disputed Desert: Decolonisation, Competing Nationalisms and Tuareg Rebellions in Northern Mali (Brill 2010) 29. ``Mali, like many young states in Africa, has a weak sense of national unity and national identity. Geography ...undermines (its) national unity...(p)olitical and economic power is strongly centred on the urban elites in (the) south of the country.’ Stewart 23, 25-26. 37 Mali – Enquête démographique 1960-1961, Service de la Statistique, République du Mali. A copy of the survey may be found at https://www.odsef.fss.ulaval.ca/sites/odsef.fss.ulaval.ca/files/fonds_gp/cdoc_048_odsef.pdf. 38 According to an analysis of the results found in the journal Population, « Enquête démographique au Mali, 1960-1961, » Population (1970) 1302-1303. 39 Mali – Enquête démographique 1960-1961. The ethnic group known as Fula or Fulani in English are known as Peul in French. 6 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/11- © 2020 Author(s)