Marianne alle porte del Sahara. Le relazioni tra Francia e Mali

Abstract

in January 2012 a multidimensional crisis erupted in Mali combining a deep political crisis with the Islamic terrorist threat and ethnic minority groups claims, notably the Tuareg. Since then, two French military operations (Serval and Barkhane) and a peacekeeping operation (MINUSMA) were launched to stabilise the country. In summer 2015, a peace agreement was signed between Bamako and formers Tuareg rebels to cease hostilities. While the peace and reconciliation process, under the constant pressure of terrorist attacks, still seem to be far from ensuring the security of the country and solve the present crisis, this papers aims to trace the history of relations between Mali and France. As most of the ancient French colonies and countries of the French West Africa, Mali gains its independents in the early 1960s. Its main interest to emancipate itself from the colonial heritage led the country to establish a peculiar relationship with France, between rupture and dialogue, fascination and aversion, particularly during the First Republic (1960 – 1968). From its point of view, it seems that France never reserved to Mali any special consideration, reflected in the marginal role of Mali in French foreign policy in Africa. Over the decades the sahelian country  has experienced three different political regimes (a socialist republic, a military dictatorship regime and semi-presidential democracy) which fix the structure of this analysis.