Kita (Mali) in the Time of Modibo Keita: Globalization and Local Continuity

KITA (MALI) IN THE TIME OF MODIBO KEITA: GLOBALIZATION AND LOCAL CONTINUITY Nicholas S. Hopkins ~T"t is appropriate to reexamine the social and political situation of Kita (Mali) I during the time of the presidency of Modibo Keita, which is to say, th -Aperiod of Malian socialism (1960-1968). From the point of view of Kita, "socialism" was more important than the national leadership. This socialist period in Kita and Mali is a moment poised in Malian political history, showing some continuities with preceding and succeeding periods, and some ruptures. Malian socialism owed some of its features to international doctrine, but some also to the absorption of older patterns of political behavior and structure, and some of course to the inventiveness of the moment. It is now apparent that this period of 'socialism' in Mali in the 1960s corresponds chronologically to similar moments of socialism in other countries where I have worked (Tunisia, Egypt) and beyond (Ghana, India, Algeria). In other words, the events in Mali followed both a specifically Malian pattern and were part of a global pattern. In 1972 1 published a book, Popular Government in an African Town : Kita, Mali , analyzing my experience over the preceding ten years or so in Mali, mostly before the fall of the Modibo Keita government in 1968. 1 taught English in Kita for the school year of 1961-62, and then for a little over a year did field research for my PhD in 1964-65. 1 later visited Kita in 1970 and in 1992. In the meantime I conducted parallel research in Tunisia in the 1970s and in Egyptduring the 1980s. When I first went to Mali, the country had been independent as the Republic of Mali for less than a Year, and that first year reflected the heady enthusiasm of that initial moment. When I returned to do research, in 1 964, some weariness and cynicism had set in as people realized that independence alone was not the answer to their problems and the excitement wore off. Shortly after the end of my research stay, the government took the country to the left and tried to cope with its difficulties by increased centralization, and by setting segments of the society, such as generations, off against one another. Malian socialism differed from its Tunisian or Egyptian counterparts because the leaders were prepared to create internal tensions in order to achieve their goals. Once the mercantile class had been suppressed, the tension was between generations. The tautness of the resulting system led to the overthrow of the Keita government in 1968, after which a long period of military-led government ensued. As in other similar circumstances, starting with the French revolution of the 1790s, and including the 1848 revolution in France, the Malian "revolution" Mande Studies 5 (2003) pp. 101-111 1 02 Nicholas S. Hopkins eventually lurched left, in the form of the "acti snapping to the right, in this case a military cou (Brinton 1965:148-175; Sanankoua 1990). The question here is to know whether my represented a structured system that can be an whether it was a moment in a process, either a cultural patterns that characterized this corner o level. Shortly after the Keita regime was overth a half after my PhD was awarded, I met one of meeting of the American Anthropological A 1968). He began commiserating with me on the analyzed had just disappeared. At the time I thou on the contrary, it meant that what I had know could be analyzed separately from its ongoing c now, I think he was wrong for another reason in time, in the evolution of Kitan and Malian so in Kita, needs to be analyzed in terms of what In my book, I gave some historical background At least implicit in this presentation was the qu situation represented continuity from the earlie was of course that it partially did. Now we coul point of view and develop the ways in which ac moment of Kita history drew on their knowledg their acts during this "socialist" period of the 1 not a structural similarity between snapshots at d show at any point in time that actors were...