The peasant’s arrested revolution
The 1970s marked a turning point in the history of the peasantry of the Sahel, the arid and semi-arid band immediately south of the Sahara that spans the breadth of Africa. That decade began with a humanitarian catastrophe, whose origins apparently lay in a protracted period of drought, and ended with a drastic challenge to the Sahelian social system by a multi-faceted peasant movement. The drought and subsequent famine prompted international interventions in 1972 and 1973; rather than centring that often undisciplined mobilisation (as many previous narratives have), this essay traces how the crisis gave rise to a new politics among the people who lived through it. Dr Idrissa focuses on the West African part of the Sahel, which includes Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.
This article was published by the Alameda Institute.
About the author(s) / editor(s)
Abdourahmane (Rahmane) Idrissa is a political scientist fast embracing history. His doctorate in political science, with a concentration on democratisation and political Islam in Africa, was obtained at the University of Florida. Idrissa’s research expertise ranges from issues of states, institutions and democratisation in Africa to Salafi radicalism in the Sahel and current projects on the history of state formation in Africa, with a focus both on the modern (Niger) and premodern eras (Songhay).
Before joining the ASCL, Idrissa has founded and run EPGA, a think tank in political economy in Niger, training students and coordinating projects based on methodologies of political economy analysis that focused on migration, youth employment and demography. In recent years, EPGA has worked in partnership with Clingendael on projects on migration, security issues and traditional governance in the Sahel borderlands.
Idrissa is also associated with the Niamey based social science laboratory LASDEL and is on the editorial board of the African Studies Quarterly, at the University of Florida.
Posted on 23 May 2025, last modified on 23 May 2025