Sahelian Migrations Within Africa

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.