Why Sahel’s Great Green Wall is a non-starter: International funding often prioritises ‘Western imaginary of Africa’
Originally conceived by Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso’s late revolutionary leader, the Great Green Wall was launched in 2007 by the African Union. Its goal: to slow desertification in the Sahel region by planting a “wall” of trees 8,000 kilometres long and 15 kilometres wide – from Senegal to Djibouti.
