Kounta

The Kounta people are a Berber-Arab ethnic group of Sahrawi ("of Sahara") Bedouins, today residing mostly in northern Mali and southern Mauritania.

Believed to be descended from the Zenata Berbers of the western Sahara, the Kounta consider themselves related to the Arab nomads and warriors who brought Islam to North Africa in the eighth century (CE). Specifically, they trace their lineage from Uqba ibn Nafi, a Muslim leader of the conquest period.

Established in Mauritania since the eleventh century, the Kounta were instrumental in the expansion of Islam in to sub-Saharan West Africa in the 15th century, and formed an urban elite in cities such as Timbuctu which were on the southern end of the Trans-Saharan trade. [John O. Hunwick, Rex S. O'Fahey. Arabic Literature of Africa. Brill, New York (2003) ISBN 9004094504]

Modern History

While the Bedouin Kounta clans were "pacified" early by French Colonial forces, and many were recruited into Méhariste units, the urban Kounta trading and religious groups to the east were instrumental in the Fulani Jihad States of the Sokoto Caliphate, Macina, and the Segou Tijaniyya Jihad state of Umar Tall.

Some leaders of the Kounta in north east Mali have come into conflict with Tuareg and Bambara populations in towns where they once held a near monopoly on political power. In 1998-1999 and again in 2004 there were brief flare-ups of intercommunal violence between these groups near Gao and Timbuctu, a rare event in postcolonial Mali. There has even been a small ethnic Kounta insurgency, [ [http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/files/sas/publications/b_series_pdf/AA/A&A-conclusion.pdf Eric G. Berman and Nicolas Florquin. Economic Community of West African States: Small Arms Survey (2006)] ] begun in 2004 by a former army colonel, though few attacks have been staged and the leadership has been largely rejected by the Kounta community.

ee also

*Kunta family: an ethnic Kounta clan network influential in the history of religion, trade and politics of the western Sahel.

References

* July 2007 translation of [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kounta French Wikipedia entry] .
* [http://www.essor.gov.ml/cgi-bin/view_article.pl?id=3512 Gao: assassinat de quatre arabes Kounta: l'Etat tente de faire prévaloir la justice sur la vengeance] in "l'Essor" n°14873 January 8, 2003.
* [http://www.usip.org/pubs/peaceworks/pwks58.pdf Robert Pringle. Democratization in Mali: Putting History to Work. United States Institute of Peace (2006)] .
* [http://www.afribone.com/article.php3?id_article=3199 Nord-Mali: les Kounta désavouent Fagaga] . Le Républicain, 14 March 2006.