Fertile Soil?

Abstract

Poor, unemployed rural young men are often presumed to be inevitable victims for jihadi recruitment in the Sahel. However, from the perspective of rural populations, jihadi violence’s social reconfiguration is only the latest episode in a long series of transformations of the social environment. Youth have developed various tactics to move their lives in advantageous directions and joining jihadis is only one potential pathway. Zooming in on Mali’s southern Sikasso region, this article proposes the framework of social navigation to make sense of the diverse trajectories of rural male youth. Based on 6 months of fieldwork and interviews with stakeholders in Bamako and Sikasso, it provides a framework that unites social transformation, youth’s agency and jihadi expansion.