Description
Book SynopsisThe Sawaba movement and its rebellion in Niger are a totally neglected subject. Klaas van Walraven traces this story from a social history perspective, placing an entire generation of activists, removed from the official record, back into mainstream Nigérien history. Representing a genuine social movement, Sawaba formed Niger’s first autonomous government under French suzerainty. Overthrown by the Gaullists and persecuted, it attempted a comeback with a guerrilla campaign (1960-1966), which ended in failure and led to the movement’s destruction. The Yearning for Relief – based on numerous interviews with survivors and a vast range of archival sources, including France’s secret service – is essential reading for the reappraisal of Niger’s history and the role of militant nationalist movements in the decolonisation of French West Africa.
Trade Review"An excellent book, well written, based on exceptional sources ... The author plunges the reader into a turbulent and rich political history that makes Niger such a remarkable country in the politics of francophone West Africa ... Klaas van Walraven restores to history reminiscences, which are omnipresent but which were silenced. He returns to Nigériens a hidden aspect of their past ... The photographs of the actors and symbolic sites give this book a unique significance." – Prof. Dr. Mahaman Tidjani Alou, Université Abdou Moumouni, Niamey "This book will be of great importance for the reevaluation of the history of Niger and of militant nationalist movements in Africa." – Dr. Piet Konings, formerly African Studies Centre, Leiden "....a path-breaking and seminal study that will be widely read by historians and political scientists on West Africa and specifically Niger … Van Walraven convincingly (re)writes a much-neglected part of West African history, translating oral history into a fascinating written record ... Had it not been for van Walraven’s book, Sawaba’s historical achievements would have soon passed from living memory and thus have been lost forever." – Sebastian Elischer, GIGA, Hamburg, in: Journal of African History 54/3 "The Yearning for Relief is a monumental achievement. It is difficult to imagine a more thoroughly researched and multifaceted study of one of West Africa’s more underresearched “first-generation” nationalist parties." – Jeffrey S. Ahlman, in: African Studies Review 57 (2014), pp 212-213 [DOI: 10.1017/asr.2014.106] "The Yearning for Relief is a meticulously researched book. The author draws on an impressive variety of different sources. However, it is the 100 interviews within the Sawaba community that make the book unique. The testimonies and life histories of the Sawabists give life to the story of the movement and to an important part of Niger’s modern political history." – Gabriella Körling, in: Africa Spectrum 2/2015, pp. 140–142
Table of ContentsCONTENTS Preface and Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix List of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii Prologue: Historicising Sawaba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 PART I DELIVERANCE, CONQUERED AND LOST 1. The Rise of the UDN, 1946–1957 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Niger’s First Political Party . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Djibo Bakary and the PPN-RDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 The Righter of Wrongs: Towards the Union Démocratique Nigérienne . . . . . . . . 63 Agitation and Manoeuvres, 1954–1956 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 The Triumph of the Camel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 2. To Revolutionary Supremacy, March 1957–May 1958 . . . . . . . . 93 Sawaba as Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Tam-Tam: Canvassing in the Late 1950s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Riot in April . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Bar Rivoli: Consummating Victory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 3. The Challenge of the Fifth Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 The Love for All Peoples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 The Blackmail of Isolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 Ali Amadou and de Gaulle on the Place Protêt . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 The Hour of Sputnik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 4. A Referendum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 A Corsican Coup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Defections and Regrouping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Campaigning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Polling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 5. Declining Fortunes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Deceit and Dissolution: The Break-Up of the Assembly . . . . . 246 Elections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Pistols and Polling Booths: Campaigning under Harassment 262 Fall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 PART II PREPARING FOR RELIEF 6. Going Underground, 1958–1961 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 A French Colony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292 Government Architecture and Party Mobilisation . . . . . . . . . . 297 We Celebrated Independence in Our Cell: Patterns and Themes of Emerging Opposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 7. Building to Undermine, 1959–1962 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 Noms de Plume and Lorry Drivers: Early Communication, Funding and Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332 Shock Troops: Early Agitation, Meetings and Missions . . . . . 341 The Bars of Zinder: Towns and Agitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350 8. Repression, Dissension, and the Road to Arms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361 Siberia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362 I Forgot To Tell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 Discord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 Nobody Can Overthrow the Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379 The Sole Grounds for My Existence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391 9. Training Cadres and Commandos, 1958–1969 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397 To More Forgiving Heavens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398 Recruitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413 From Sabongari to Villa Lotus: Building a Pan-African Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421 Living offf the Cold War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440 ‘Sawaba Educated Us’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447 Cut offf from Niger: Militants for the Cause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464 Dining with Chou En-lai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476 To Mount a Rebellion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495 PART III FIGHTING FOR DELIVERANCE 10. Infijiltrations, 1960–1964 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511 Awaken the People: The Southern Network and the Nigerian Hinterland . . . . 521 He Flew over Agadez: Infijiltrations in the North and the Algerian Connection ...534 Infijiltrations in Western Niger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549 Camouflage Your Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561 Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569 11. Regime Responses, 1962–1964 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573 The Bedroom of the Ambassador . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574 The State of the Regime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585 Foreign Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588 Espionage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593 Death in the Courtyard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596 The People of the Coast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604 1964 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611 12. Guerrilla War, July–December 1964 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620 The Battle Begins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622 Attack—If Need Be With Sticks! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630 Organisation, Strategy and Tactics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641 October . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661 The Presidential Gardens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685 New Assaults, Fresh Reprisals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 691 13. Guerrilla War, 1965–1966 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704 The Counterofffensive of the Franco-RDA Combine . . . . . . . . . 708 Enemy Territory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719 The Scorpion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728 One Has to Strike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732 The Man of 13 April . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740 The Last Military Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751 Concluding Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761 14. The Road of Honour: The Destruction of a Social Movement, 1965–1974 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771 Torture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772 Persecution and the Loss of Asylum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780 The Years of Darkness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800 The Voice of a Woman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 814 The Tears of Our Mothers and Sisters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 824 Epilogue: Aftermath and Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835 The Return to the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 850 The Rebellion in the History of Niger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 857 A Social Movement on the Battlefijield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 863 Our Problem was a Problem with France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869 Sawaba in the Era of Democratisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 875 Trauma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 899 Annexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 907 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 953 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 961
