Events

Abstract: The recent changes of government in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, brought about by military coups, have been accompanied by a significant geopolitical shift in the central Sahel region. The three states have withdrawn from ECOWAS and set up a new alliance, the Confederation of Sahel States. Whereas the dominant framing of Western mainstream media is a geopolitical one, classifying African politics into the current remake of the East-West conflict, in Africa, the diaspora, and among the internationalist left it is argued about whether the recent developments in the Sahel represent a new Pan-Africanism. The current president ofBurkina Faso, Ibrahim Traoré, plays a key role in this regard. He is frequently compared to one of his predecessors, Thomas Sankara, an icon of Pan-Africanism. This lecture reflects on the extent to which this comparison makes sense. Are we witnessing are revival of Sankara’s legacy? And do the recent geopolitics in theregion represent a new form of Pan-Africanism?

Bettina Engels is Guest Professor for Peace and Conflict Studies at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at Freie Universität Berlin. Her research and teaching focuses on agrarian change, class and labor, social movements and popular struggles, recent conflicts in the Sahel, and conflicts over land and mining. She is editor of the Handbook of Critical Agrarian Studies and the Review of African Political Economy.