A Sahel-less ECOWAS

The announcement by Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger of their exit from ECOWAS, 24 years after Mauritania’s exit in 2000, threatens to de-Sahelize the regional bloc. It marks more fundamental problems associated with spatial inequality and its influence in West African national and regional politics that are yet to be addressed head on.

In January 2024, a month after Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger exited the G5 Sahel, the three Sahel states also announced their intention to exit the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The decision to leave is in response to ECOWAS’s forceful opposition to military rule in these nations, reinforced by sanctions and economic blockades. The Sahel states accuse the regional body of betraying the ideals of pan-Africanism and being a stooge for neo-colonial interests. Commentators such as Azu Ishiekwene, editor-in-chief of Leadership newspaper in Nigeria, describe the situation as a mere ploy by the coup leaders to evade the consequences of mischief. However, this challenge to ECOWAS highlights a deeper geopolitical problem that has never been resolved; the geographical tensions of West African pan-Africanism from its beginnings till today.  

Between the 19th century and the mid-20th century, many pan-Africanists, from Edward Blyden to Cheikh Anta Diop, held the belief that an external reversal of fortune or divergence characterized the modern world. By this, they meant that Africans were even materially (in terms of wealth and civilizational accomplishments) at par with, or even superior to the Europeans, but fortunes reversed with the Atlantic slave trade and colonial rule. This reversal and divergence then had to be counter-reversed first by gaining political independence (or collective action within a French Community) and then by pursuing economic modernization (along with a regional federation). The examination of thoughts and praxis of Kwame Nkrumah, Léopold Senghor, Félix Houphouët-Boigny and other nationalists have often been geared towards an external focus—the battle against colonialism and neo-colonialism in order to achieve counter-reversal of material fortunes...