Not Writing One’s Own History

Hamadine AG MOCTAR

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Not Writing One’s Own History

What the Idaksahak know about themselves, and what remains to be written

by Hamadine AG MOCTAR · 2026

Hamadine AG MOCTAR, researcher and developer, founder of the site, member of the research group appointed by the Permanent Secretariat of the Idaksahak community. A personal article: it commits neither the commission nor any movement.

Article published for the “Cartes sur table” debate of 22 October 2026. What does a people lose when it leaves others to write its history? The author answers from his essay “On the Trails of Those of Ishaq” and from the researchers who have studied the Idaksahak: what is established about their origin, what their language remembers, their place in the Ménaka region, the trap of violence described by Charles Grémont, and what must be done now. Sold by the copy, 500 F CFA, to support the work of the site.

A question left to the neighbours

“There are questions a people has been asking itself for so long that it ends up leaving the answer to its neighbours.” This sentence opens my essay “On the Trails of Those of Ishaq”. It sums up the question put to the “Cartes sur table” debate of 22 October 2026: not writing one’s own history — what are the consequences for a people and for its future generations?

Where do the Idaksahak come from? For more than a century, others answered for us: Kunta scholars, colonial administrators, then linguists. Some answers were serious, and we owe them a great deal. Others were born from a single dictionary line, and still circulate.

This article does not choose the flattering version. For each point, it separates what the documents establish, what remains tradition, and what is still only a hypothesis. That is the method of the essay, and the only one that protects our children: a history that cannot be checked will be challenged one day, and they will have to start all over again.

It does not claim to tell anyone what to think. It asks the questions, passes on a memory that is sometimes forgotten, and lets everyone make up their own mind.

Bibliography

AG MOCTAR, Hamadine (2026). On the Trails of Those of Ishaq. An Essay on the Origins, Journeys and Exoduses of the Idaksahak. First edition, library of the Tadaksahak site.
Christiansen-Bolli, Regula (2010). A Grammar of Tadaksahak, a Northern Songhay Language of Mali. PhD thesis, Leiden University.
Collet, Hadrien (2024). “Les Massūfa dans l’Ouest saharien au XIVe siècle”. Afriques, 15.
Grémont, Charles (2019). “Dans le piège des offres de violence. Concurrences, protections et représailles dans la région de Ménaka (Nord-Mali, 2000-2018)”. Hérodote, 172, p. 43–62.
Grémont, Charles (2024). “L’émancipation politique au commencement de la tribu ?”. In La tribu au Maghreb et au Sahara, Ausonius, p. 137–152.
Grémont, Charles, Marty, André, ag Mossa, Rhissa and Hamara Touré, Younoussa (2004). Les liens sociaux au Nord-Mali. Entre fleuve et dunes. Paris, Karthala and IRAM.
Shaykh Baye al-Kuntī (1895–1912). Notice “Dawsahaq”, manuscript 2407, Institut de France; French translation by Judith Scheele.
Souag, Lameen (2015). “Non-Tuareg Berber and the genesis of nomadic Northern Songhay”. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 36.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2018). Early warning report on Mali, April 2018.
Recent events: MINUSMA (2018, reported by VOA Afrique), RFI (March 2026), Studio Tamani and The Africa Report (October 2026), Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Cite this document

Reference

Hamadine AG MOCTAR (2026). Not Writing One’s Own History. https://hamadine-services.net/en/bibliotheque/2557 (accessed 2026-10-22)

BibTeX

@article{moctar2026writing,
  author = {Hamadine AG MOCTAR},
  title = {{Not Writing One’s Own History}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://hamadine-services.net/en/bibliotheque/2557},
  urldate = {2026-10-22}
}