19 June 2023

The Root Cause Of The Sahel Wars In A Nutshell

There are Muslim-Christian/Animist wars across the Sahel reason of Africa. This is why.
We consider the effects of climate change on seasonally migrant populations that herd livestock – i.e., transhumant pastoralists – in Africa. Traditionally, transhumant pastoralists benefit from a cooperative relationship with sedentary agriculturalists whereby arable land is used for crop farming in the wet season and animal grazing in the dry season. 
Droughts can disrupt this arrangement by inducing pastoral groups to migrate to agricultural lands before the harvest, causing conflict to emerge. 
We examine this hypothesis by combining ethnographic information on the traditional locations of transhumant pastoralists and sedentary agriculturalists with high-resolution data on the location and timing of rainfall and violent conflict events in Africa from 1989–2018. We find that droughts in the territory of transhumant pastoralists lead to conflict in neighboring areas. 
Consistent with the proposed mechanism, the effects are concentrated in agricultural areas; they occur during the wet season and not the dry season; and they are due to rainfall’s impact on plant biomass growth. Since pastoralists tend to be Muslim and agriculturalists Christian, this mechanism accounts for a sizable proportion of the rapid rise in religious conflict observed in recent decades. 
Turning to policy responses, we find that development aid projects tend not to mitigate the effects that we document. By contrast, the effects are closer to zero when transhumant pastoralists have greater power in national government, suggesting that more equal political representation is conducive to peace.
McGuirk E, Nunn N. Transhumant Pastoralism, Climate Change, and Conflict in Africa. Working Paper. https://scholar.harvard.edu/nunn/publications/nomadic-pastoralism-climate-change-and-conflict-africa

2 comments:

neo said...

As Americans commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people on Juneteenth, Democratic Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri is using the federal holiday to advance new legislation for reparations for their descendants.

"This is the moment to put it out and we needed something like this," said Bush. "I feel it is the first of its kind on the Congressional Record."

Bush introduced H.R. 414, The Reparations Now Resolution, in May. The 23-page measure makes the case for federal reparations, citing a "moral and legal obligation" for the U.S. to address the "enslavement of Africans and its lasting harm" on millions of Black Americans.

The bill would support other pieces of reparatory justice legislation and formally acknowledge the momentum of state and local reparations movements. The Missouri Democrat believes ongoing efforts in Evanston, Boston, San Francisco and her hometown of St. Louis could galvanize support for reparations on the federal level.

"Our mayor just put together a commission to be able to work on what reparations would look like for St. Louis," said Bush, who has the backing of nearly 300 grassroots organizations. "Because we're seeing it on the local level, that's where a big part of that push will come from, I believe."

The resolution does not stipulate direct cash payments but recommends the federal government pay $14 trillion "to eliminate the racial wealth gap that currently exists between Black and White Americans."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rep-cori-bush-marks-juneteenth-185700707.html

you've been pro-Democrats you've got opinions

andrew said...

I do have opinions. I am not particularly inspired to blog about my opinions on this issue at the moment.

Currently, I've been brewing possible posts on far more exciting issues like how to improve building code regulations and construction occupational regulation, and why college educated couples in their 20s and even their 30s are so gun shy about getting married.