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In 1915, the inhabitants of the vast region stretching from the Bani river (Mali) to the Volta river (Burkina-Faso) declared war on the colonial administration and vowed never to surrender arms until the last European had left the country. From the beginning of the First World War, the war-chiefs promised victory, despite the obvious military disadvantage, and called, inter alia, for protectorates guaranteed by the Great Powers and for a lighter colonial regime. During the twenty years since the region had been conquered, the population had adopted a policy of apparent acceptance which in fact was merely a temporary response to a new political situation. Although obviously influenced by colonial tradition, the war chiefs decided on a strategy of reviving pre-colonial alliances. Oral tradition tells of a war between two equal and independent adversaries, rather than of a rebellion against a superior authority: a view shared by several contemporary colonial administrators. The belligerents’ inability to agree on – and indeed the anti-colonial forces’ denial of – the unequal nature of the conflict renders the task of interpreting colonial war all the more difficult.