Much of West Africa used to be French colonies.

Unlike other empires, when decolonisation swept

the continent, they never really let go. To this day, France wields a huge amount of control

over the region, and increasingly so too do Russia and China. There is a new face of colonialism

in town, but apart from the accents, what has really changed?

At the same time, climate change is already ravaging the region of grassland, between the

coast and the Sahara called the Sahel. Money from the Arabian Gulf has been pouring in,

promoting a more austere form of Islam. A wave of coups has taken down governments like

dominoes, and gold mining is undergoing a boom. After all, it's what the mercenaries want

to be paid in. In short, the region is a microcosm of the forces attempting to reshape our

world, and as such is full of the concrete and unexpected details

that challenge or even overturn any simplistic image of what colonialism or climate conflict

or the will of the people look like now. James Pogue is a journalist who has written for

Vanity Fair, Harper's, Granta, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and many others.

From long pieces on Steve Bannon, Trump's erstwhile chief strategist,

to the fate of the paramilitary group Wagner in Africa, after their failed coup on Moscow,

to the militias of Montana, he's written some of the most complex and thoughtful journalism going

on some of our most complex political tangles.

My name is Richard Hames.

And this week on Navarra FM, I wanted to see if James and I could thread together all these different parts of his work into a clear picture of the bleeding edges at our present.

James Polk, welcome to Navarrafam. Thanks for having.

I want to offer a sort of frame for your work.

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