Rahmane Idrissa in LRB: ‘More than two-thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered in sea water. The gigantic archipelagos we call continents consist of 33 per cent desert, 25 per cent mountain and 30 per cent forest. The forested area has been much reduced over the last two thousand years.’

And: ‘The Sahara is now one of the most inhospitable places on earth, but not because of the desert. It is a dumping ground in which distant powers and states jettison their problems.’

As well: ‘Many of the dangers that Saharans and Sahelians faced two or three centuries ago have re-emerged. Scheele is tired of Western tropes and clichés about the region. She is particularly scathing about French domination.’

What comes after Western domination? The oppressed are eager to become oppressors.

The Sahara is not even an afterthought. The place where empires and would-be empires can dump the undesired.

(a sf 2152)