Word: keita
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Last week four of the noisiest radicals - Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Sekou Toure of Guinea, Algeria's Ben Bella and Mali's Modibo Keita-met in the dusty West African capital of Bamako for an emergency conference to see what could be done. Answer: not much...
...meeting at all. Ben Bella arrived late-only half an hour before Sékou Touré had to leave. And Nkrumah had been in Bamako less than five hours when he suddenly decided he had urgent business elsewhere and flew home. That left only Ben Bella and Keita, who could not leave because he was the host. They talked alone for two hours, and one of their subjects, presumably, was Mali's Tuareg nomads, who, with Ben Bella's support, recently staged an abortive rebellion against Keita. Next day, the two flew down to Conakry for another...
Cattle & Collectors. But such leniency was more than Mali's President Modibo Keita could afford. Eager to create a sound, solvent state, he exercised his sovereignty in 1962 by raising Mali's cattle tax by 300% (to $1.20 a head), stubbornly insisted on collecting it. The Tuaregs saw no reason why they should obey. Blithely, they began smuggling their cattle into Niger and Upper Volta. When Keita's tax collectors cracked down, the Tuaregs began shooting...
Last week a Keita ultimatum demanding that the Iforas Tuaregs turn in their weapons expired with no response. "This is their last chance," roared the President. "All rebels found carrying arms will be shot immediately." But Keita's harsh threat sounded as empty as the echoing wastes of the Iforas. Merely keeping the 800-mile supply line open from Mali's capital city of Bamako to the ruggedly desolate Iforas hills has brought Keita's tottering treasury close to collapse...
Equally Wary. When the negotiations finally started, Mali's President Modibo Keita and Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, host and mediator, tried to keep the Algerian and Moroccan delegations apart. The emissaries even ate in separate dining rooms, with Keita and Selassie shuttling back and forth. Finally, after one face-to-face meeting between Morocco's King Hassan II and Ben Bella, a compromise cease-fire agreement was reached-but it was full of loopholes and did not last long...