Thanks for a good lesson in History Haruna. However, I have one small questions for you. You write: "French colonialism did not lump any ethnicities together. The Sonrhai, Peulh, Soninke, Senufo, Bwa/Bozo, and Minianka have been the traditional owners and inhabitants of North Mali for centuries." I certainly do not contest the fact that these peoples lived here from time immemorial. However, my question is: Did these "Sonrhai, Peulh, Soninke, Senufo, Bwa/Bozo, and Minianka" live under a territorial space called the Republic of Mali/Soudan before French Colonialism? If your answer is yes, then forgive my ignorance and futher enlighten me. But if your answer is no, as I strongly suspect it will be, then you get the point of my point that French colonialism lumped different ethnicities together. That said, I learnt a lot of sub-regional history of "Mali" from your post. Thanks for sharing and enlightening us on this complex history. Baba ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤