Paper short abstract:

This paper shows the connectedness between the Franco-Arab schools in Gao, West Africa and Egyptian Universities. Our analysis focuses on a case study that traces mobility of students, highlighting paths of exile, insile and desexil experienced by Tamasheq youth.

Paper long abstract:

This paper shows that processes of connectedness between the Franco-Arab schools in the region of Gao, Mali, West Africa and Arab Universities in North Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia) are strongly produced by feelings of alienations and estrangement experienced by the students of these schools. In this context, we argue that the mentioned regions are connected by roads that challenge the constructions of hegemonic logic of territorial spaces, political dominance, religious as well as linguistic differences. However, these channels are often marginal and contradictory in nature, despite their desired existence. The Franco-Arab schools in the Gao region are, in many cases, funded by NGOs or by members of the local communities who lived and worked in the wealthy Gulf States, especially Saudi Arabia. Therefore, our analysis focuses more specifically on a case study that traces mobility between the region of Gao and Egypt, highlighting paths of exile, insile and desexil experienced by students of Tamasheq origins. Exile here is understood as an extreme form of Nomadism experienced by the Tamasheq students and triggered by political struggle and impoverishment as a result of lack of state investment accompanied by feelings of alienation, estrangement, internal exile, passivity generated by oppression or internal marginalization or desexil as well as return marginalization.