A FRICA
Spotlight on Sahel: An Evaluation of the EU’s
Involvement in the Sahel Region of Africa by Luc y Stevens edited by Lenny Adonte ng and Anfani Lawal At the edge of the Sahara Desert, a physical barrier dividing the distinct geographies and identities of the deserts of the Middle Eastern linked North Africa from the more tropical fertile lands of the sub-Saharan continent, lies the Sahel region. Sitting at the crossroads of these contrasting cultural influences, the Sahel is a semi-arid geographical belt just below the Sahara Desert spanning east to west across the continent that includes the countries Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, the Gambia, Guinea, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal.1 In Arabic, the very name of this region means “shore” or “coast,” furthering the idea that the Sahel holds a significant geopolitical position at the edge of the Sahara.2 This geographical, political, and economic role is best displayed in the Sahel’s responsibility as an important stop on the historical transSaharan trade route, an “extensive trade network” that spanned the Sahara Desert and connected sub-Saharan Africa to the important trade routes accessed via the countries bordering the Mediterranean coast.3 Not only did these networks allow for the transportation of goods across far reaching areas of Africa, they also facilitated interaction amongst different individuals, cultures, and languages, helping to establish connections amongst the population of Africa more broadly. Despite this rich history and culture, the arrival of colonial powers and European trading companies in the nineteenth century disrupted 16 FALL 2022
these established connections, with drastic impacts on the region’s stability and prosperity. The European powers not only enacted unsustainable policies of extraction but also contributed to disparate economic development, as they inconsistently built up the infrastructure of areas of the Sahel that best served their interests.4 Unfortunately, the legacy of this colonial period did not disappear with the independence movements of the 1960s with prosperity continuing to escape the countries of the Sahel. Over the last decade in particular, the Sahel has experienced a period of intense instability and volatility stemming from both physical and social threats that seems far from resolution. Already susceptible to extreme weather given its desert location, ongoing drought has left the Sahel’s food infrastructure weak. Climate scientists with the National Academy of Sciences have forecasted that as the effects of climate change progress over the coming years, the Sahelian countries will experience further dramatic environmental changes.5 Principally, the predicted changes to precipitation levels and increased average temperatures will leave the already fragile agroecosystem of the region, as well as the food security and living conditions of locals, threatened.6 This, in combination with projections estimating that the region’s population will more than double by 2050, point to an environmental crisis on the horizon for the countries in the Sahel, as the physical environment will soon be unable to