"With the growth of new social media users across the Sahel, existing conflict dynamics are increasingly manifesting. Sahelians are entering a complex digital space. The ability of individuals and communities to adapt to online/offline conflict dynamics will define the future of conflict in the regi
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on. Search for Common Ground convened West African academics and practitioners in Bamako, Mali in October 2021, to analyze conflict trends and opportunities for peacebuilding in digital spaces in the central Sahel region (Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger)." (At a glance, page 1)
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"This volume celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library, established to document and publish online formerly inaccessible and neglected archives from across the globe. From Dust to Digital showcases the historical signifi cance of the collections ide
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ntified, catalogued and digiti sed through the Programme, bringing together articles on 19 of the 244 projects supported since its inception. These contributions demonstrate the range of materials documented — including rock inscriptions, manuscripts, archival records, newspapers, photographs and sound archives — and the wide geographical scope of the Programme. Many of the documents are published here for the first time, illustrating the potential these collections have to further our understanding of history." (Back cover)
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"Historically, the Sahara plays an intermediary role between North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Commercial and human exchanges are intense and based on social networks that now include trafficking. Understanding their structure, geographical and organizational mobility of criminal groups and migra
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tory movements represents a strategic challenge. This book hopes to address this challenge and stimulate strategies for the Sahel of the European Union, the United Nations, the African Union or ECOWAS (Economic Community of the States of West Africa) in order to foster lasting peace. The Atlas is based on an analysis of mapped regional security issues and development objectives to open the necessary dialogue between regional and international organizations, governments, researchers and local stakeholders tracks." (Publisher description)
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"This paper analyses how the French media perceive the advent of Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in the Sahel, and particularly in Niger. It shows that the French media are constructing Niger as a ‘grey area’, a dangerous place and a ‘failed state’ through a monolithic discourse rooted in
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French cultural and ideological presuppositions about Africa and Africans. I argue that the monolithic discourse of French media on the War on Terror in the Sahel is the result of similar educational trajectories, cultural backgrounds and positions shared by journalists within the field, which tend to produce similar patterns of thinking. The paper is based on a critical analysis of ‘representative’ articles written between 1 January 2008 and 30 September 2011 in three leading French newspapers. It uses a qualitative approach and takes place within the framework of media content analysis." (Abstract)
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"As the manuscript treasures in the libraries of Timbuktu and throughout the northwestern quarter of Africa become known, many questions are raised. How did a manuscript culture flourish in the Sahara and in Muslim Africa more generally? Under what conditions did African intellectuals thrive, and ho
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w did they acquire scholarly works and the writing paper necessary to contribute to knowledge? By exploring the history of the trans-Saharan book and paper trades, the scholarly production and teaching curriculae of African Muslims and the formation, preservation and codicology of library collections, the authors of this original volume provide a variety of answers. The select number of invited contributions represents current research in the material, technological, economic, and cultural dimensions of manuscript production, circulation, and preservation, and the development of specific scholarly and intellectual traditions in Saharan and Sudanic Africa." (Publisher description)
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