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- Convenors:
-
Maria Grosz-Ngate
(Indiana University, USA)
Boubacar Haidara (Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC))
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- Chairs:
-
Maria Grosz-Ngate
(Indiana University, USA)
Boubacar Haidara (Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC))
- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Perspectives on current crises
- Location:
- S57 (RW I)
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 1 October, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
Short Abstract:
This panel invites critical reflections on global narratives of the Sahelian “crisis” and their implications for international intervention; the ways in which they intersect with, or differ from, local narratives and discourses; as well as on the lived experience of “crisis” in the region.
Long Abstract:
The violent Islamist extremism that erupted in northern Mali after the ‘Tuareg rebellion’ in 2012 spread to Niger and Burkina Faso in the following years. It was quickly labelled a “crisis” locally and by international actors. The dominant focus shifted from security to governance with two coups d’états respectively in Mali and Burkina Faso and one in Niger (August 2020-July 2023), that also brought changes in international partners who had become part of the security governance landscape.
Since narratives and discourses shape action, we aim to critically examine “crisis” narratives in global politics and media, and in diasporan networks and social media. How did they translate into interventions and actions over time? How have they intersected with, or differed from, narratives and discourses within the three countries?
To explore facets of the “crisis” which don’t emerge in global narratives, we invite contributions that explore how Sahelian citizens of different generations and social strata experience this continually evolving multi-dimensional “crisis”. What resources do they draw on to meet its challenges, and how do they compare the present with the past? How have perspectives on the state evolved? How have the activities of the Islamist extremist groups influenced notions of governance, especially among the most affected rural and urban populations? How might the current experience facilitate a rethinking of Eurocentric definitions of the state?
To think beyond the logic of “crisis”, we also invite explorations of emergent social and artistic practices and their possibilities for transformations in the three countries.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 1 October, 2024, -Paper short abstract:
Drawing on recent fieldwork, the paper examines popular understandings of crisis, sovereignty, and Pan-Africanism in the Western Sahel. It argues that Sahelian ideas about what constitutes sovereignty evoke a will to contest postcolonial hierarchies through security partnership diversification.
Paper long abstract:
Crisis in the Sahel has become a byword in international policy circles, evoking terrorist threats, illegal migration, transnational organized crime, climate change, humanitarian needs, among others. Yet, discourses about the depth and breadth of the multifaceted crises which Sahelian populations face are far from fixed. Indeed, they are inherently productive and malleable, becoming entangled with other narratives that seek to rethink and reconfigure the plight of the Sahel, and the international hierarchies in which Sahelian states are embedded. This paper examines popular understandings of sovereignty and Pan-Africanism in the Sahel as advanced by the military governments of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger and their supporters. It argues that sovereignty should not be understood in terms of international recognition, as conventional International Relations thinking proposes, nor as a measure of territorial control as advanced by some Political Scientists. Instead, discourses about sovereignty and Pan-Africanism in the Sahel draw inspiration from a will to contest postcolonial hierarchies and to shed off an assumed dominance of Western liberal international standards and practices (notably regarding democracy and human rights). These discourses produce exclusionary practices and effects that upend liberal notions of citizenship and belonging, and find resonance in the diversification of security partnerships and the outsourcing of state violence to alternative international partners. Nevertheless, the paper shows that these discourses and associated practices cannot shake off the coloniality of modern sovereignty, which fall hardest on individuals that are deemed to transgress the Sahel's desired advancement as articulated by its military-led transitional governments.
Paper short abstract:
In this paper, I develop an ethnographically grounded analysis of the “Sahel crisis” through the lens of decolonization, as to argue that narratives of decolonization simultaneously articulate legitimate claims for national sovereignty, while hiding class struggles and socio-economic inequalities.
Paper long abstract:
Over the last years, we have seen growing discrepancies between three main discourses on the Sahel crisis: first, global narratives about the crisis dominating in the so-called “international community”; second, national public debates and social media conversations in Sahelian countries; and, third, lived experiences of “crisis” amongst ordinary citizens. Such discrepancies have become particularly articulated with the series of coups d’état in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. The spreading of terrorist movements and the high number of Internally Displaced Persons, coupled with the ongoing geopolitical transformations, have challenged many people’s livelihoods in the Sahel. A powerful narrative in national public debates and social media conversations is that related to decolonization. Yet the urge to end relationships with France, in particular, has come to produce two different forms of narratives: a leftist popular struggle putting the anti-imperialist and class struggle to the fore, on the one hand, and a rather rightwing, populist “pan-African” agenda, on the other. In this paper, I develop an ethnographically grounded analysis of the “Sahel crisis” through the lens of decolonization. Methodologically, the paper draws on long-term fieldwork in Burkina Faso and Mali in the midst of popular protests, and on regular reading of media outlets in the two countries. The key argument is that narratives of decolonization simultaneously articulate legitimate claims for sovereignty, and national independence, while hiding class struggles and socio-economic inequalities. Unpacking the Sahel crisis through decolonization narratives is a way to explore facets of the “crisis” that do not emerge in global narratives.
Paper short abstract:
I will analyze Van Baxy's song and video “Le Mali” (2016), which is an ode to Maliba or the Mali Empire, and focus on Van Baxy's reinterpretation of Fanga Dan Kélé ("Power changes hands!", broadcast on Radio Mali in 1963), a song by Bazoumana Sissoko, and on Mali reimagined by Van Baxy.
Paper long abstract:
This paper analyzes how artists are attempting to respond to the multi-dimensional crisis that Mali has been experiencing since the political-security crisis occurred in 2012. Following the example of Bamako rapper Van Baxy, some believe that the crisis can be explained, among other things, by a form of renunciation by the nation and the State of its ancient history and its social, societal, cultural and symbolic values, hence the need for a return to them.
To illustrate the point, we'll analyze Van Baxy's song and video "Le Mali" - uploaded to YouTube in 2016 and totaling 568,000 views by the end of January 24 - which is an ode to Maliba or Grand Mali or the Mali Empire in the Manding tradition. The analysis will focus on three main points: Van Baxy's biographical and artistic trajectory, the mobilization of the past through the reinterpretation of Fanga Dan Kélé ("Le pouvoir change de main!", broadcast on Radio Mali in 1963), a song by the great jeli or griot Bazoumana Sissoko - whose genealogy will be reconstructed - and, finally, the Mali reimagined by Van Baxy.
From a historical perspective, we'll show how Mali's immediate history is thus revisited and rethought within a longer history, itself subject to divergent readings according to local political actors.
Paper short abstract:
This presentation explores social movements opposed to the French presence in Senegal and Mali. It nuances their novelty and youth-only component, illustrates their variations (references, claims, organization) with respect to context and sheds light on activists’ career paths.
Paper long abstract:
While most eyes focus on “crisis” and its effects on the international order, this presentation takes activists' narratives and everyday actions as its point of departure. It explores social movements opposed to the French presence in Senegal, theatre of the first massive demonstrations and intellectual pole of the critique, and Mali, which has become its new epicenter. Grounded in more than 70 interviews carried out with activists, pioneers, and "doyens" in Bamako and Dakar in 2023 and 2024, it sheds light on the movements’ genealogies and the role of historical figures of anti-imperialism in both training and ongoing struggles. This enables us to nuance two of the main characteristics given to them in the media: their newness and their exclusive appeal to the “youth". Taking a comparative approach, we will demonstrate their commonalities, their variations regarding the registers of action, and the vocabulary of contestation, organisation, and structure, etc. Whereas there is a quite unified bloc of critiques and movements in "opposition" to the state in Senegal, in Mali these claims frequently align with the authorities and open possibilities of cooperation, which may explain the fragmentation of the Bamako movement. We will explore the development of alternative visions of the "crisis", the international responses to it, and recent political developments in Mali subsequent to the two coups d'état, which a group of actors interviewed consider to be a solution and a path for transformation.
Paper short abstract:
The Burkinabè government began to use civilians as a resource in the fight against terrorism and founded the VDP. Following two military coups, the VDP were reorganized. This paper discusses their development and controversies. The VDP provides an example how governance became authoritarian.
Paper long abstract:
Following increasingly deadly terrorist attacks, a law was passed at the beginning of 2020 that provides for the recruitment of volunteers as auxiliary troops to remedy the shortage of state security forces. Many Dozo fighters and members of the Koglweogo self-defense group responded to the call for recruitment. Poorly paid and badly trained, they were expected to fight terrorists in their villages after a two-week training course. This triggered a spiral of violence: Many civilians were killed by terrorists in revenge for joining the VDP while they attack themselves innocent civilians, often from the Fulbe community. For many years, a narrative in the Sahel countries has been that Fulbe are terrorists. Since the Fulbe community was excluded from the recruitment of the VDP, it is trapped between terrorists as well as state and civil security forces. Burkinabe human rights organizations now rarely report on extrajudicial executions of the Fulbe. The spokesperson of the collective Collectif contre l'impunité et la stigmatisation des communautés (CISC), which until recently most frequently denounced VDP crimes, was kidnapped and forcibly recruited at the beginning of December 2023 before the decree of general mobilization. After two military coups, the transitional government thus began to focus on the VDP as a resource for counterterrorism by forcibly recruiting regime critics to increase the number of volunteers. To achieve the defense and reconquest of the national territory, the Burkinabè transitional government became increasingly authoritarian and massively restricted freedom of the press and freedom of expression.
Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses the impact of insecurity on schools in two areas of central Mali. It highlights the dynamics of the schools' functioning in the context of great insecurity.
Paper long abstract:
The proliferation of non-functioning schools is one of the most visible consequences of the security crisis that Mali has been facing over the last decade. The Mopti and Ségou regions are the hardest hit, due to their location in the areas where armed jihadist groups operate. This paper will analyze the impact of violent extremism on school closures, using a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews. Violent extremists' rationale for attacking schools focuses mainly on the values they convey, which are said to run counter to those of Islam. While this paper outlines general problems that affect the educational system, it focuses on the specificities of our survey areas Farako (Ségou) and Ténénkou (Mopti), especially the social and political dynamics at work in the various localities. The results of our field research reveal the strategies developed by state authorities "top-down", and by local communities "bottom up", to ensure that schools can continue to function normally. Our research also shows that contexts differ from one district to the next so that any homogenization of these highly localized dynamics would lead to overgeneralization.
Paper short abstract:
This paper looks at the dynamics of religious regulation in Niger in context of violent Islamist extremism in Niger. It reflects on the state initiatives and supports the argument that the state is attempting to make religious pluralism its new paradigm for regulating religion.
Paper long abstract:
The Sahel region has been the focus of attention due to its geopolitical complexity and security challenges. It faces a situation of permanent insecurity and instability linked to terrorist activities and large-scale banditry. Several factors are identified to explain this situation. Development deficits, porous borders facilitating the illicit trafficking of weapons, etc., constitute the main governance and stabilization challenges in the Sahel region. The illicit trafficking of weapons exacerbates existing conflicts and facilitates the rise of extremist groups that exploit development-related frustrations to recruit members and promote their radical ideologies. This leads to a spiral of instability to the point of referring to a "sahelization of violence" (Bassou, 2018).
In this paper, I will analyse how the State is attempting to deal with this security situation. To do this, I will focus on a few government initiatives and interventions by international players in the field of regulating religion in order to respond to security challenges.