{"title":"Sahelian Transnational Networks and Diasporas","authors":"A. Kane","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.44","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.44","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the establishment of Sahelian diasporas in Europe and the United States, their remittances, and the return patterns that have become so important for sending households and communities. Large sums of money are sent by Sahelian migrants to support household budgets that have often come to depend on these remittances. The chapter also addresses the development interventions of hometown associations and other migrant networks that fund community projects and provide social services to their sending communities, and the importance of return migration and its effects on local economies. It examines the sustainability of these vital connections between Sahelian diasporas and their home communities in a context where migration out of the Sahel is increasingly restricted. It concludes with questions about the sustainability of these patterns, given the declining commitment and attachment to place of second- and third-generation migrants.","PeriodicalId":209487,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of the African Sahel","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130917592","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"French Interventions in the Sahel","authors":"R. Marchal","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.29","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.29","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the impact of external actors in the Sahel, with a focus on the regional crisis since 2012 and the subsequent French and US interventionism. At first glance, France and the United States have been the key strategic actors in the crisis. These two countries have reshaped political and military dynamics, and convinced other states and international agencies to play a role in the crisis. Yet the stakes are very different for each, and certainly more strategic for the French given their military role via Operation Serval and Operation Barkhane. The chapter also discusses other countries that have regularly acted as gatekeepers for international policies in the Sahel and their regional rivalries. Algeria and Morocco have long rivaled each other for influence, and their competition is a determining element in shaping the international interventions and what are optimistically described as the “solutions” for the regional crisis. At the heart of the region itself, Burkina Faso has also played an important intermediary role at various stages.","PeriodicalId":209487,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of the African Sahel","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126622856","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Education, Citizenship, and National Identity in the Sahel","authors":"L. Villalón, M. Bodian","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.39","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.39","url":null,"abstract":"At independence, Sahelian states inherited educational systems rooted in the colonial French model and based on secularism or laïcité. Both during and after colonialism, these formal public educational systems found little popular appeal, and indeed often faced clear resistance at the popular level. By contrast, a parallel system of Islamic education thrived, expanded, and evolved in the region, ranging from traditional Quranic schools to more modern Franco-Arabic schools. In the 1990s, a number of factors began to call into question the viability of this bifurcated educational system. This chapter surveys the trajectory of educational systems in the Muslim societies of the Sahel, and analyzes the forces shaping new hybrid models that are emerging. It examines how reformed educational systems are evolving in ways that diverge from the historical secular model with the potential for producing new models of citizenship deeply imbued with religious identities. The chapter offers an interpretation of the longer-term implications of these changes for national identity and citizenship in a changing Sahel.","PeriodicalId":209487,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of the African Sahel","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125493660","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"French Colonialism and The Making of the Modern Sahel","authors":"G. Mann","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.9","url":null,"abstract":"French colonial rule played an important but not determinative role in making the modern Sahel. By the 1950s, the region was more integrated politically and infrastructurally than it would be in the decades that followed. At independence, the new governments of the Sahel featured identical, if parallel, political institutions modeled on those of the French Fifth Republic (1958–). They also shared a secular character, a military culture, a history of slavery, entrenched inequality, and labor migration, and the subordination—without integration—of Saharan societies to their southern neighbors. Yet, if colonialism contributed to making the modern Sahel in an institutional sense, it did not represent a profound epistemological break. Rather, longue durée internal dynamics continued to prevail. If any single event or phenomenon “made” the modern Sahel, it was postcolonial drought and its political effects rather than imperial domination.","PeriodicalId":209487,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of the African Sahel","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130271542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sahelian Migrations Within Africa","authors":"S. Bredeloup","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.42","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.42","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter will examine patterns and history of intra-African migration from the Sahel across national borders within Africa, beginning in the colonial period. During colonization, the French often recruited West African workers across borders who served in the army and provided security for French trading posts along the African coasts. At the time of decolonization, shopkeepers in marketplaces, as well as big merchants or gem traders from the Sahel were also entrepreneurs, occupying an intermediate position between native populations and national authorities in international trade networks. Over the decades, tougher controls at borders and intensified deportations despite regional agreements on the free movement of people, the outbreak of civil wars, or of political turmoil have all had a significant impact on population movements from the Sahel, and have also increased insecurity for Sahelian migrants.","PeriodicalId":209487,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of the African Sahel","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128613256","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Challenge of Food and Nutritional Security","authors":"S. McKune","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.13","url":null,"abstract":"In a region characterized by chronic food insecurity and extremely high rates of malnutrition, the projected impact of global climate change on nutritional outcomes is likely to have synergistic effects, compounding the already poor nutritional status of the Sahelian population. Various studies of nutrition among children under five underscore the significant role that animal-source foods play in long-term childhood development and growth. Given the intimate relationship between livestock and people throughout the Sahel, these findings hold important implications for nutritional security in the region. This chapter examines the food security and consumption patterns of the Sahel, mechanisms by which climate change may exacerbate the current situation, and the role of livestock in the future nutrition and food security of the Sahel.","PeriodicalId":209487,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of the African Sahel","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131742720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Linguistic Ecology of the Sahel","authors":"Fiona Mc Laughlin","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.37","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.37","url":null,"abstract":"The topic of this chapter is the linguistic ecology of multilingualism in the Sahel. Based on the premise that named languages are social and often colonial constructs, the chapter focuses on the speaker-centered notion of linguistic repertoire and the ways in which Sahelians use their linguistic resources. French and standard or literary Arabic are important languages in the Sahel, and they reflect strong regimes of language that are reinforced through education, both secular and Quranic. Communication in the multilingual Sahel is facilitated by indigenous languages that have become local or regional lingua francas. There are a number of writing practices generally overlooked in official statistics on literacy, including the use of the Arabic and other scripts to write indigenous languages. Orality is widely valued, and mastery of eloquent language has resulted in the differentiation of a caste of verbal artists or griots within the social hierarchy.","PeriodicalId":209487,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of the African Sahel","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116465474","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Demography and Health in the Context of Climate Change","authors":"A. Graves, Nouhou Abdoul Moumouni, M. Potts","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.14","url":null,"abstract":"The Sahel is subject to uniquely rapid population growth—putting pressure on already scarce resources. The challenge to meet the basic needs of a rapidly growing population is compounded by the impacts of climate change. Despite the recent gains in child survival in the Sahel, three contextual factors combine to suggest that mortality rates could rise—especially among the most vulnerable populations, that is, infants and the elderly. These factors are: an ongoing protracted nutrition crisis, rapid population growth, and impacts of climate change on food production. Evidence-based population policies and large-scale investment in family planning and girls’ secondary education have the potential to curb current demographic trends, making it easier for the region to adapt to climate change and achieve long-term food security.","PeriodicalId":209487,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of the African Sahel","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128148422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pastoralist Societies in the Sahel","authors":"Wendy Wilson-Fall","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.38","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.38","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter focuses on ways that pastoralists respond to ecological and climate variability through strategies of pastoral mobility and exploitation of micro-ecologies throughout the Sahel. The chapter reflects recent scholarly work that argues for recognition of the viability of mobile pastoral systems and their long-term value to national economies and rural community nutrition. West African pasturelands are as biodiverse as woodlands further south, and herders exercise strategic decision-making not accounted for among most government decision-makers before the mid-1990s. In addition to policy challenges, twenty-first-century Sahelian pastoralists are faced with constraints on pasture access, criminal activity, climate instability, and religious radicalism. This chapter argues that intra-regional issues of land use policy and tension between extensive pastoral production systems and projects of nation-building are at the center of current political instability in pastoral communities.","PeriodicalId":209487,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of the African Sahel","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125421602","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Islam and Muslim Societies in the Contemporary Sahel","authors":"Benjamin Soares","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.32","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.32","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter presents an overview of Islam and the Islamic landscape in the contemporary Sahel and points to broad patterns and major trends as they relate to the practice of Islam in the region. After discussing the conventional wisdom about Islam in Africa, in which Islam is frequently equated with Sufism and “reform,” this chapter addresses several interrelated themes: Islam and its broad appeal in the region; intra-Muslim debate; global interconnections and the media revolution; and Salafism and Islamism trends, as well as jihadism. As it suggests, the Islamic landscape in the Sahel is much more diverse and complex than most commentary usually suggests. It also underscores the importance of understanding how the practice of Islam in the region has been changing in recent years in an increasingly globalized world. Finally, the chapter emphasizes how much more there is to know about Islam and Muslim societies in this region in flux.","PeriodicalId":209487,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of the African Sahel","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115203065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}