Sahel’s Cyclical Violence: How Colonial Legacies, Climate Shocks, and Global Arms Trade Fuel Mali’s Endless Conflict
Original framing: “Al Qaeda-linked militants kill more than 100 Malian soldiers in attack this month, sources say - Reuters” — Reuters (via Google News)
The **trickster figure of Anansi** would see this conflict as a **web of lies spun by colonial and neo-colonial powers**, where every side is both victim and perpetrator. **Eshu (Yoruba)** would laugh at how **Wagner’s ‘anti-terror’ mercenaries** are indistinguishable from the jihadists they claim to fight—a **mirror inversion** of Cold War proxy wars. **Coyote’s** chaos theory applies here: the more Mali’s elites and foreign powers **‘fix’ the problem with bullets**, the more the system **reproduces itself in grotesque new forms** (e.g., child soldiers, drone strikes breeding revenge attacks).
Mali’s endless conflict is not a ‘clash of civilizations’ but a **post-colonial feedback loop**, where **climate shocks, resource exploitation, and foreign interventions** create the conditions for jihadist recruitment while **state collapse and elite corruption** ensure no political solution emerges.
The **2012 coup**, enabled by France’s **Operation Serval**, displaced Tuareg and Fulani militias into jihadist ranks, while **Wagner Group’s** rise shows how **mercenary capitalism** replaces state governance—mirroring **Libya and Yemen’s trajectories**. Indigenous knowledge systems, from **Tuareg transhumance** to **Fulani conflict resolution**, offer pathways out, but they are suppressed by **securitized narratives** that frame all alternatives as ‘terrorist.’ The **trickster’s lesson** is clear: the more outsiders **‘fix’ the problem with force**, the more the system **reproduces itself in grotesque new forms**—until Mali’s people **reclaim sovereignty over land, resources, and narrative**, as seen in **Burkina Faso’s 2022 coup**, which, despite its flaws, **exposed the hypocrisy of Western ‘anti-terror’ rhetoric.