Abstract

This article questions dominant narratives that attribute conflicts and migration in the Sahel primarily to factors such as ethnicity, climate change, or poverty. Instead, we highlight land dispossession as a central, yet insufficiently examined, driver of both phenomena. Drawing on peasant studies and political ecology, the article analyses twelve case studies from Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Cameroon, and Chad. The authors of the various studies adopted a qualitative approach, alternating between direct observation, individual and focus group interviews. Based on these empirical studies, we identified five distinct regimes of dispossession: peri-urban, large-scale agricultural, pastoral, community, and licensed dispossessions. These different regimes of dispossession may overlap and are not mutually exclusive. They are influenced by state policies, elite capture, social differentiation and global economic pressures, resulting in coercive land redistribution and the marginalization of rural populations. We contend that dispossession exacerbates both migration and recruitment to armed groups, including jihadist movements, as reactions to perceived injustices. By reevaluating concepts such as moral economy and primitive accumulation, the article offers a new understanding of the crises in the Sahel, based on an analysis of the political ecology of land and migration. As a consequence, we emphasize the need for historically and politically informed analyses rather than reductionist explanations.

Keywords: land dispossession, regimes of dispossession, Sahel, political ecology, moral economy, primitive accumulation

How to Cite:

Benjaminsen, T. A., Eyebiyi, E. P. & Poudiougou, I., (2026) “Land, violent conflicts and migration: Identifying regimes of dispossession in the Sahel”, Journal of Political Ecology 33(1): 10568. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.10568