Ikelan

The Ikelan (Éklan/Ikelan or Ibenheren in Tamasheq; Bouzou in Hausa; Bella in Songhai; singular Akli) are a caste within Tuareg society, who were at one time slaves or servile communities in their native lands like Mauritania, Mali and Niger.

Sometimes members of rival Kels, defeated in war, were subsumed as lower castes, but usually of higher level than the Ikelan.

Entire Ikelan communities, on the other hand were a class held in an inherited serf-like condition, common among some societies in pre-colonial West Africa, and often having little interaction with "their" nobles though most of the year.

[8][9][10][11] Historian Martin Klein reports that there was a large-scale attempt by French West African authorities to liberate slaves and other bonded castes in Tuareg areas following the 1914–1916 Firouan revolt.

In 1946, a series of mass desertions of Tuareg slaves and bonded communities began in Nioro and later in Menaka, quickly spreading along the Niger River valley.

[18] In Mali, members of hereditary Tuareg servile communities reported that they have not benefited from equal education opportunities and were deprived of civil liberties by other groups and castes.

Ikelan communities in Gao and Ménaka also reported systematic discrimination by local officials and others that hindered their ability to obtain identity documents or voter registration cards, locate adequate housing, protect their animals from theft, seek legal protection, or access development aid.

[20] In 2008, the Tuareg-based human rights group Temedt, along with Anti-Slavery International, reported that "several thousand" members of the Tuareg Bella caste remain enslaved in the Gao Region and especially around the towns of Ménaka and Ansongo.

[16][18] Slavery dates back for centuries in Niger and was finally criminalized in 2003, after five years of lobbying by Anti-Slavery International and Nigerien human-rights group, Timidria.