The Interplay Of International And Domestics Factors In Mali: The Case Of Politico- Religious Actors

Abstract

During the last two decades, contemporary North Africa has been an ideal vantage point from which to observe international and regional influences at play in the processes of regime change, transitions and in the evolution of religious actors. However, limited or scarce academic literature has been produced about the Sahel as a new space to observe the domestic and international arenas in the religious field.
The study of the evolution of religious actors in the Sahel region needs to take the form of a historical retrospective of North Africa due to the cultural interaction of both geographies (North Africa and Sahel) that begins with the spread of Islam through commercial exchanges in both directions before the Middle Ages. In this paper, we will see the significant effect of the international dimension and the domestic context in the evolution of religious actors in the Malian landscape that have emerged as rival political actors.
We refer to traditional brotherhoods led by Ousmane Madani Haïdara, Wahhabism (reformist tendency) led by Mahmoud Dicko, and Shiism led by Chouala Bayaya Haïdara. The three leaders, especially Dicko, have found a new window of opportunity to attain more power and be more influential. The opening of this window came to the fore following the 2012 armed insurgency in northern Mali and the drift toward insecurity, as well as the economic and social consequences of the insurgency.