Constructing the Image of the Sahel as the “Other” in American and African Media Discourse: A Postcolonial Analysis

Africa, long portrayed in Western narratives as a periphery of world history, has increasingly become a focus of international attention in recent decades. The Sahel region has gained particular significance, experiencing several military coups between 2020 and 2023 that brought anti-Western military governments to power. This article analyzes the representation of the Sahel region in the discourse of leading American and Sahelian media outlets. Mass media shape key images and stereotypes in public consciousness and are considered not as passive transmitters of information but as active actors participating in the construction of social reality. The study aims to identify and analyze the construction of the Sahel's image as the "Other" within the postcolonial theoretical paradigm. The research employs a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods—content analysis and discourse analysis. The theoretical framework draws on the concepts of E. Said, V.-Y. Mudimbe, and G. C. Spivak. The scholarly novelty of the work lies in its attempt to systematically apply the tools of postcolonial studies to the analysis of contemporary media discourse about the Sahel. The study identifies key narrative strategies in the construction of the Sahel's image: in the media, contemporary Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso are portrayed as "states without democracy," depicted as passive objects of struggle among external forces, suffering from terrorism, migration, and instability. The findings indicate that the discourse of leading American publications about the Sahel region continues to reproduce persistent patterns of colonial thinking, as reconstructed within the postcolonial theoretical paradigm. The American press not only reports events but also participates in the symbolic "invention" of the Sahel, reinforcing the region's image in the public consciousness. Simultaneously, Sahelian media form a counter-discourse that actively challenges the Western monopoly on the production of truth. Through anti-colonial rhetoric, they construct the region's agency, offering alternative systems of legitimacy and identity. The results of this study can be applied in the fields of critical postcolonial theory, media studies, and international relations.

Sahel, postcolonial theory, the Other, orientalism, subaltern, media discourse, the American press, decolonization, Sahel media, epistemic violence