Gold Mining in the Sahara-Sahel: The Political Geography of State-making and Unmaking

ABSTRACT

In the Sahara-Sahel, artisanal gold mining is booming. Fragile Sahelian states arguably provide a most likely case for the ‘resource conflict’ theory to hold, yet ‘resource capture’ can also underpin informal governance schemes through which the co-optation of non-state actors ushers in (hybrid) state-building. While the diversity of empirical cases lends credibility to both theories, the dialectic of proximity and distance – both social and spatial – helps make sense of the different modalities of artisanal gold mining governance in the region. In the Sahelian core of regional states, artisanal gold mining has supported regime empowerment; in the Sahara, it has helped assuage pre-existing tensions; in the Tibesti, it has led to militarisation and conflict.

KEYWORDS:

• gold mining
• governance
• resources
• state-building
• violent entrepreneurs

Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to all the Sahelian people who agreed to be interviewed for this study. The research would have been impossible without the generous support of the Research Council of Norway, in the framework of the project FRAGVENT – Fragile States and Violent Entrepreneurs: Conflict, Climate, Refugees (grant no. 274745).

Notes

¹ See in particular: the Fragile State Index (https://fragilestatesindex.org/), the UN Development Programme’s Human Development Index (http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi) and the World Bank’s governance indicators – particularly with regard to political stability.

² Interviews with diplomats, Bamako; and journalists, Niamey, November 2019.

³ Interview with Nigerien researcher, Niamey, November 2019.

⁴ Interview with Malian researcher, Bamako, November 2019.

⁵ Interviews with several gold entrepreneurs from Agadez, Niger, November 2018 and November 2019.

⁶ Interview with Malian researcher, Bamako, November 2019.

⁷ Interview with Malian investigative journalist, Bamako, November 2019.

⁸ Interview with Malian researcher, Bamako, November 2019.

⁹ Interview with Malian customary authority, Bamako, October 2018.

¹⁰ Interview with Nigerien researcher, Niamey, November 2019. See also Grégoire and Gagnol (2017).

¹¹ Interviews with UN officers, Malian investigative journalist and former rebels, Bamako and Agadez, November 2019.

¹² Interviews with gold entrepreneurs, Agadez; Nigerien researcher, Niamey; and investigative journalist, Bamako, November 2019.

¹³ Interview with different gold entrepreneurs, Agadez, November 2019.

¹⁴ Interviews with Tuareg traditional leaders, Agadez, November 2019.

¹⁵ Interviews with gold entrepreneur and humanitarian worker, Agadez, November 2019.

¹⁶ Interviews with gold entrepreneurs, Agadez, November 2019; leading member of the Tchibarakaten management committee, Tunis, September 2019; and Nigerien researcher, Niamey, November 2019.

¹⁷ Interview with Nigerien researcher, Niamey, November 2019.

¹⁸ Interviews with former Tuareg rebel, Agadez; and UN officer, Bamako, November 2019.

¹⁹ Interviews with leading member of the Tchibarakaten management committee, Tunis, September 2019; former Tuareg rebel, Agadez, November 2019; and UN officer, Bamako, November 2019. See also Grégoire and Gagnol (2017).

²⁰ Interview with gold entrepreneur, Agadez, November 2019.

²¹ Interviews with gold entrepreneurs, drug traffickers, former Tuareg rebel, former migrant smuggler, Agadez, November 2019; member of the Tchibarakaten management committee, Tunis, September 2019; and investigative journalist, Bamako, November 2019. See also Grégoire and Gagnol (2017).

²² Interviews with former Tuareg rebel, Agadez; and Nigerien researcher, Niamey, November 2019.

²³ Interviews with Nigerien researcher, Niamey; gold entrepreneurs, Agadez; and investigative journalist, Bamako, November 2019.

²⁴ Saley Boss is rumoured to enjoy the informal backing of the Tuareg representatives in Niger’s government, including the Prime Minister Brigi Rafini. In Kidal, artisanal gold mining is reportedly protected by members of the ruling party.

²⁵ Interview with Nigerien researcher, Niamey, November 2019.

²⁶ Interviews with former Tuareg rebels, Agadez; Tuareg customary leaders, Agadez; UN officer, Bamako, November 2019; and member of the Tchibarakaten management committee, Tunis, September 2019. The latter has acknowledged the contribution of his organisation to (selective) intelligence gathering on the behalf of the government.

²⁷ Interview with mining authority, Niamey, November 2019.

²⁸ Interviews with Nigerien military commander, Tunis, September 2019; and Tebu traditional leaders, Agadez, October 2018.

²⁹ Interviews with Tebu traditional leaders and gold entrepreneurs, Agadez, November 2019. See also Tubiana and Gramizzi (2018).

³⁰ Interview with Nigerien military commander, Tunis, September 2019.

³¹ Interviews with Nigerien leaders, Niamey, October 2018 and November 2019.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Luca Raineri

Luca Raineri is a Researcher in International Relations and Security Studies at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.