Yearning for Relief

Klaas van Walraven, Ph.D. (1997), researcher at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, is an historian and political scientist working on West Africa, in particular Niger. He has also written on international relations and is co-editor of the Africa Yearbook: Politics, Economy and Society South of the Sahara.

• CONTENTSPreface and Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiAbbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xixList of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiiiPrologue: Historicising Sawaba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1PART IDELIVERANCE, CONQUERED AND LOST1. The Rise of the UDN, 1946–1957 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Niger’s First Political Party . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Djibo Bakary and the PPN-RDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56The Righter of Wrongs: Towards the Union Démocratique Nigérienne . . . . . . . . 63Agitation and Manoeuvres, 1954–1956 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74The Triumph of the Camel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 842. To Revolutionary Supremacy, March 1957–May 1958 . . . . . . . . 93Sawaba as Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104Tam-Tam: Canvassing in the Late 1950s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112Riot in April . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119Bar Rivoli: Consummating Victory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1323. The Challenge of the Fifth Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141The Love for All Peoples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148The Blackmail of Isolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158Ali Amadou and de Gaulle on the Place Protêt . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167The Hour of Sputnik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1784. A Referendum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189A Corsican Coup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195Defections and Regrouping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203Campaigning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212Polling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2235. Declining Fortunes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237Deceit and Dissolution: The Break-Up of the Assembly . . . . . 246Elections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251Pistols and Polling Booths: Campaigning under Harassment 262Fall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272PART IIPREPARING FOR RELIEF6. Going Underground, 1958–1961 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283A French Colony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292Government Architecture and Party Mobilisation . . . . . . . . . . 297We Celebrated Independence in Our Cell: Patterns andThemes of Emerging Opposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3077. Building to Undermine, 1959–1962 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321Noms de Plume and Lorry Drivers: Early Communication,Funding and Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332Shock Troops: Early Agitation, Meetings and Missions . . . . . 341The Bars of Zinder: Towns and Agitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3508. Repression, Dissension, and the Road to Arms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361Siberia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362I Forgot To Tell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366Discord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373Nobody Can Overthrow the Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379The Sole Grounds for My Existence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3919. Training Cadres and Commandos, 1958–1969 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397To More Forgiving Heavens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398Recruitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413From Sabongari to Villa Lotus: Building a Pan-AfricanNetwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421Living offf the Cold War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440‘Sawaba Educated Us’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447Cut offf from Niger: Militants for the Cause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464Dining with Chou En-lai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476To Mount a Rebellion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495PART IIIFIGHTING FOR DELIVERANCE10. Infijiltrations, 1960–1964 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511Awaken the People: The Southern Network and the Nigerian Hinterland . . . . 521He Flew over Agadez: Infijiltrations in the North and the Algerian Connection ...534Infijiltrations in Western Niger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549Camouflage Your Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56911. Regime Responses, 1962–1964 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573The Bedroom of the Ambassador . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574The State of the Regime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585Foreign Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588Espionage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593Death in the Courtyard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596The People of the Coast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6041964 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61112. Guerrilla War, July–December 1964 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620The Battle Begins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622Attack—If Need Be With Sticks! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630Organisation, Strategy and Tactics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641October . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661The Presidential Gardens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685New Assaults, Fresh Reprisals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69113. Guerrilla War, 1965–1966 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704The Counterofffensive of the Franco-RDA Combine . . . . . . . . . 708Enemy Territory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719The Scorpion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728One Has to Strike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732The Man of 13 April . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740The Last Military Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751Concluding Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76114. The Road of Honour: The Destruction of a Social Movement,1965–1974 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771Torture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772Persecution and the Loss of Asylum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780The Years of Darkness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800The Voice of a Woman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 814The Tears of Our Mothers and Sisters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 824Epilogue: Aftermath and Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835The Return to the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 850The Rebellion in the History of Niger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 857A Social Movement on the Battlefijield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 863Our Problem was a Problem with France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869Sawaba in the Era of Democratisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 875Trauma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 899Annexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 907Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 953Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 961

"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