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Paper short abstract:

Jihadist universal objectives are not conjured up in a ‘global’ sphere. Rather, they are shaped by complex and situated dynamics. I look at Mali’s Sikasso region to study the ‘friction’ caused by universals and contend that local socio-political conflict dynamics steer the trajectory of Jihad.

Paper long abstract:

The Global War on Terror constructs Islam as a ‘master cleavage’ in Mali and conflicts around the world. This article proposes that, to understand the ‘universal’ (Li, 2020) imaginary of Jihad, we should look at the way it is enacted in the local. How does Jihadist expansion and implantation play out in Sikasso, Mali?

The universal Jihadi imaginary refers to the violent implementation of Islamic governance. It is a ‘package’ that travels and transforms between areas of contention such as Egypt, Afghanistan, or Iraq. In each area, several universal imaginaries interact. The ‘local’ is not a passive arena, it reshapes these universal imaginaries. I use Anna Tsing’s (2005) concept of ‘friction’ to understand how global and local processes mutually constitute each other.

The paper focusses on the southern “periphery” of the Malian conflict(s), namely the Sikasso region. Sikasso remains a blind spot in the study of the conflict and of Jihad in general. Mostly considered a ‘zone de passage’, it increasingly becomes a zone of expansion, where Jihadists embed themselves.

Sikasso is not a tabula rasa. It is a space of intimate global connections, where several universalizing imaginaries clash and cause frictions. Based on fieldwork and key informant interviews with stakeholders from the region, I argue that complex socio-political dynamics can serve or counter Jihadist implantation. By understanding these, we can gain critical insights into how universalizing ‘global’ goals interact with local realities. This paper thus offers tools to study Jihadist interactions with local realities across Africa and beyond.