Paper short abstract:

This article analyses how the Katiba Macina, a local affiliate of JNIM sought to build Islamic rule from the grassroots in Central Mali, drawing on more than 200 interviews conducted between 2017 - 2022, including with citizens living in jihadist controlled areas.

Paper long abstract:

The literature on rebel governance emphasises a distinct type of governance, one that pre-supposes territorial control, political institutions, and public service provision. Scholars often focus on established institutions, drawing insights from the most emblematic success cases. These tend to be informed by a Western, secular, state-building lens. Less researched, is how rebel rule emerges in the first place, particularly among jihadists, who advance a distinct Salafist-inspired form of Islamic rule. This article aims to address this lacuna, by analysing how the Katiba Macina, a local, Al Qaeda affiliated insurgency, sought to build Islamic rule from the grassroots in Central Mali. The article draws on unique data from 268 interviews conducted between 2017 and 2022, including with citizens who have lived in jihadist-controlled areas. We argue that the insurgency sought to build rule through progressively harnessing moral and social resources to foster legitimacy, while developing pragmatic alliances to induce collaboration in highly divided contexts, marked by cleavages. To extend and consolidate control, the insurgency leveraged several salient practices, including (1) the use of coercion to carve out space for an alternative authority, (2) religious proselytisation to sensitise rural citizens (3) alliances with social groups in divided social settings (4) the provision of justice, through local courts and (5) the application of a local version of sharia. These findings contribute to the growing literature on jihadist governance as a distinct category of rebel governance and more broadly to the literature on African politics and insurgency in the Sahel.