New Hobby Part 2

Here's a color pencil map of West Africa I recently did based on the Times Atlas of the World.

By the time I got to the easternmost countries, the accuracy started to come off the rails. Ghana is way too narrow and I had to bend Benin to make it meet the corner of Niger. Here is a hastily done annotated version.

While gaining context it loses some of charm of the original. I might try to hand annotate it at some point.

In my previous post on this subject, I stated that I haven't done any hand drawn maps since childhood. However, I recently was cleaning up and found this watercolor painting I did in a college class. It was drawn from an atlas. I did this so long ago I don't remember the source but I think it was National Geographic. There was a page about the tectonic forces that created Pennsylvania's ridge and valley system with this map showing Blue and Second Mountain cutting through the Susquehanna River valley north of Harrisburg.

Azawad-Africa's Newest Country?

In northeastern Mali, Tuareg and Islamist rebel groups have declared a new country of Azawad. There have been several previous rebellions by ethnic Tuaregs in Mali, but in this case they have been able to take advantage of the instability resulting from a recent coup in the country. The Wise Men Center for Strategic Studies has a very detailed article that includes the maps below.

 The area in pink is Azawad. It covers more than half the area of Mali. The important cities of the region Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu are all under rebel control. Conflicts between the secular Tuareg National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and Islamist groups that aspire to install Sharia Law will make it difficult to hold the region together. Malians generally practice a tolerant Sufi-leaning version of Islam and the recent destruction of a UNESCO World Heritage protected tomb in Timbuktu by an Al-Qaeda linked militant is likely to generate more resistance to these groups in the region.

Complicating the matter is the complex web of relationships with neighboring countries spelled out in detail in the article above. Niger in particular is wary as they also have a widespread population of Tuaregs with a similar history of government oppression. The map below shows Tuareg areas in purple.

 The new state has been condemned by most international organizations and will have little support without a public referendum. However, the longer Mali remains unstable the more legitimate these claims to independence will become.