About Sahel Blog
Sahel Blog analyzes news about religion and politics in the Sahel (Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea) and the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan). 
Studying the Sahel and the Horn opens discussions about democracy, elections, energy issues, resource conflicts, political tensions, and religious movements. Sahel Blog aims to engage readers in these discussions and provide students, policymakers, citizens of African countries, and other audiences with a resource on the pressing topics of the day in a region that extends from Senegal to Somalia.
About Alex Thurston
I am a PhD student in the Religion Department at Northwestern University in the Islam in Africa track. My work focuses on reformist Islam and electoral politics in postcolonial Northern Nigeria, but I am interested in similar issues in Sudan, Niger, Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, and the entire region. I graduated from the Masters of Arts in Arab Studies program at Georgetown University in May 2009. In 2006-2007, I conducted research on Muslim youth movements in Dakar, Senegal, as a Fulbright Scholar. I completed my BA in Religion at Northwestern University in 2005.
My other blogging work can be found at The Seminal, a project I co-founded in 2004, and The Agonist. Most of my blogging focuses on the Muslim world, but I also write on US domestic issues.
You can reach me at alexseminal at gmail dot com.
Getting Started on Sahel Blog
On Politics:
- Political tensions around President Mamadou Tanjda’s bid for an extended mandate in Niger;
- Mauritania’s elections and President Abdelaziz’s search for legitimacy;
- Somalialand’s electoral crisis.
On Islam:
- Nigeria’s Boko Haram, an Islamic protest movement (see also here and here);
- Mali’s Muslim conservatives and the new family code (see also here);
On Terrorism and Conflict:
- AQIM’s attacks in Mauritania;
- Warning signs of renewed civil war in Sudan;
- Consequences of the Somali civil war for Yemen, Ethiopia, and Kenya.
On US Policy toward Africa:
- Africa and the US military;
- Proposals to partition Somalia;
- The Obama administration and Sudan: criticisms and analysis;
- Secretary Clinton’s visit to Africa.
