The Mali Crisis: Security, Democracy, and Protest in the Sahel

Abstract

Public protest is widely viewed in francophone Africa as a legitimate tool for exerting pressure for political change. This piece explores the role played by mass protest alongside other factors—a national security crisis, failings in political leadership, popular anger at corruption, and, ultimately, a military coup—in leading to the removal from office of Mali's democratically elected president in August 2020. This journalistic account of the Mali crisis shows how the demonstrations played a critical role in creating a mood in the capital city, Bamako, in which a military putsch could bring a new leader into power while also reducing political tensions. The piece concludes that although the subsequent negotiation over transitional power left opposition political factions largely unsatisfied, the opposition may find that this works to their advantage because the new interim government will have to confront daunting national challenges before upcoming elections due to restore constitutional democracy by March 2022.