Connected Sahel-Sahara in turmoil: the past in the future

Can we understand the future better when we consider the past? One way of comprehending the present-day turmoil in the Sahel is to consider how colonial, even pre-colonial, social inequalities inform the socially and politically marginalized positions of some social groups. Also, considering the new connectivities of the Sahel-Sahara space as a continuity of past connectivities explains how information travels and informs positions. Based on longitudinal research in the Sahel, especially central Mali, I explore the ‘heritage’ of hierarchies and connectivity and how they inform the violent condition of the Sahel and a path into the future. Processes are set in motion and cannot be stopped: memories of the past play a contradictory role and inform different possible roads to the future of the Sahel.