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Item The social contexts of childhood malnutrition in South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Sello, Matshidiso Valeria; Odimegwu, Clifford; Adedini, SundayBackground: Childhood malnutrition is a major public health challenge of global importance. It may result from either excessive or deficient nutrients. Despite investments and several efforts made by the South African government and civil society organizations to improve child health, the prevalence of childhood malnutrition remains high in South Africa. South Africa is still lagging in in achieving the sustainable development goals 1-3 (i.e., 1- no poverty, 2 – zero hunger and 3 –good health and wellbeing). This is because the indicators of childhood malnutrition are significantly higher with one in four children being stunted, 13% overweight, and 7.5% underweight. These figures highlight a troubling trend that is echoed in many other African nations, where malnutrition rates are similarly concerning. For instance, while countries like Nigeria and Ethiopia face severe challenges with stunting rates exceeding 30%, South Africa’s rates are comparatively lower but still indicative of a significant public health challenge. In contrast, developed nations such as the United States report much lower stunting rates—around 3.4%—and face different nutritional issues, such as rising obesity rates among children. The current malnutrition status is worrisome in South Africa given that these conditions have not changed much in nearly three decades. Among other factors recognised as the leading causes of poor nutrition outcomes is food insecurity in households -defined as the lack of regular access to safe, sufficient, and nutritious foods, disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intakes. Despite South Africa being a net exporter of food, it is characterised by high poverty, reduced opportunities for higher education, employment challenges, environmental hazards, substandard housing, and health disparities, still have challenges in access to affordable safe nutritious foods. Furthermore, due to the complexity of childhood malnutrition, an integrated multisectoral approach among families, communities, and government systems is critical to ensuring positive child health and nutritional outcomes. Addressing poor nutritional outcomes among under-5 children requires policy-relevant evidence. While the literature shows that childhood malnutrition is a multifaceted issue influenced by poverty and poor socio-economic outcomes, evidence is sparse on how structural and environmental factors operating at different levels influence childhood malnutrition. Therefore, an understanding of social contexts of childhood malnutrition is required to improve children’s health outcomes in South Africa. Hence, this study examined the social context of childhood malnutrition in South Africa with a focus on individual child, 15 caregiver, and household-level characteristics. The study addressed five specific objectives: i) to determine the levels and patterns of childhood malnutrition in South Africa, (ii) to examine the individual child, caregiver, and household factors associated with childhood malnutrition in South Africa, (iii) to investigate the influence of food insecurity on childhood malnutrition, (iv) to explore the extent to which the socio-cultural and childcare practices of caregivers predispose under-5 children to malnutrition in selected low-income communities in South Africa, and (v) to investigate the role of a multi-sectorial approach in improving child nutritional outcomes in SA. This study was guided by the 2020 UNICEF conceptual Framework on Maternal and Child Nutrition as well as the Food and Nutrition Security Theory. Methods: This study adopted an explanatory sequential mixed methods design (i.e., analysis of quantitative data followed by qualitative data collection and analysis). The research methodology was broken into the quantitative and qualitative study. The quantitative study entailed analysing the quantitative secondary data from the 2017 South Africa National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS Wave 5). The NIDS data was nationally representative. The sample was weighted using post-stratified weights. Data of 2 966 children and their mothers were analysed. These children were selected on the basis that they had complete anthropometric measurements (height and weight measurements) and were suitable and selected for the investigation of childhood malnutrition (stunting, overweight, and underweight). We also conducted qualitative in-depth interviews with Early Childhood Development (ECD) practitioners to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences in childcare and perceptions of feeding practices. They were key informants since under-5 children spent a lot of time at ECD centres. Data were analysed at the univariate level to obtain descriptive statistics, and at the bivariate level using the chi-square test of association. At the multivariate level, multi-level binary logistic regression was employed, and odds ratios were reported. The multilevel analysis involved two levels – the individual level (child and mother characteristics) and the household-level characteristics. Data were analysed using Stata software (version 17). The selection of the independent variables was guided by the literature review and conceptual framework of the study. The second part of the study was qualitative and was collected between June and August 2022. Twenty in-depth interviews, and five focus group discussions with mothers of under-5 children, and five in-depth interviews with early childhood development practitioners (ECD practitioners) were conducted. Interviews were conducted using semi-structured questionnaires in selected low-income communities in urban 16 Gauteng (i.e., Thulani in Soweto), and in rural Limpopo (i.e., GaMasemola in Sekhukhune District). These communities were selected based on high poverty and unemployment rates, had substandard houses, insufficient infrastructure and environmental issues. The qualitative data provided deeper understanding about ethe quantitative findings and explored questions that were not available to the researcher in the NIDS dataset. The focus group discussions and key-in- depth interviews further provided a follow-up and an explanation of the quantitative findings. Thematic analysis was used to analyse qualitative data. Key findings from objective 1: In terms of descriptive findings, found that 22.16% of children were stunted, 16.40% were overweight, and 5.04% were underweight. The distribution of children among female and male children in the study population was almost the same. About 40% of the children had a low birth weight (<3 kg), 80.59% relied on the child support grant, and 67.22% were cared for at home during the day. Different patterns of malnutrition were observed. The highest percentage of children ages 12-23 months were stunted (33.43%) and overweight (32.69%), while the highest proportion of children ages 0-11 months and 48-59 months were underweight. Among children with a low birth weight of 1-2.9 kg, the highest percentage of stunting (30.07%) (p = 0.001, χ² = 71.2) and underweight (7.05%) (p = 0.026, χ² = 16.9) was observed. There was a relationship between access to medical aid, access to the child support grant, and childhood stunting (p < 0.05), while being cared for at home during the day was associated with stunting (24.98%) and overweight (18.99%) (p = 0.002, χ² = 36.3). Caregivers’ religion was associated with overweight (p = 0.007, χ² = 25.6) among under-5 children, while caregiver’s ethnicity (p = 0.024, χ² = 18.4) was associated with underweight. Key findings from objective 2: Female children had a lower likelihood (0.63 times) of being stunted compared to males. Children aged 12-23 months face a 60% higher risk of being overweight than those aged 0-11 months (AOR = 1.6). However, the risk of overweight declines steadily as age increases. Children aged 48-59 months are 83% less likely to be overweight compared to the youngest group of 0-11 months (AOR = 0.17). Children with a birthweight of 3 kg are 63% less likely to be underweight compared to those weighing 1-2 kg at birth (AOR = 0.37). Children attending crèches/day moms are 69% less likely to be underweight compared to those cared for at home (AOR = 0.31). Children cared for at home are 1.5 times more likely to be stunted (AOR=1.49) compared to children at a creche/day mom. Caregivers who were Nguni 17 had a 26% lower likelihood of having stunted children. Caregivers of other religions had 2 times higher likelihood of having overweight children compared to Christian caregivers (AOR=1.21). Middle-income households were associated with having overweight children (AOR=1.35) compared to low-income households. Children from structurally sound households had a 54% of high risk of being overweight compared to children from dilapidated household structures. The study found that a significant portion of the variation in child malnutrition (stunting, overweight, and underweight) occurred within communities. This is evident from the intraclass correlation of stunting (ICC) values from 27.9% to 30.2% variation, 34.3% to 38.2% overweight variation and 19.6% to 33,9% underweight variation within communities. The increase in ICC after adding additional variables suggest that these factors explain more of the variation within communities. Key findings from objective 3: The results showed that nearly 30% of the households were below the lower-bound food poverty line of R890 per person per month in South Africa, and just about half of the households did not always have enough available foods all the time. The qualitative findings show that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the food insecurity during the COVID-19 lockdown, when many caregivers lost their income sources due to job losses. Food affordability and availability in the households became a major issue, forcing households to make hard decisions between deciding on foods with high nutrition that should be eaten against diverting financial resources and paying for other household expenses such as rent or electricity. Caregivers understood that they should be feeding their children nutritious foods but due to financial constraints, they were forced to give children the available but less nutritious foods in the households. Key findings from objective 4: Qualitative findings further showed that caregivers had various socio-cultural and childcare practices which influenced children’s nutritional and health outcomes. Socio-cultural practices that influenced childhood malnutrition included dietary choices – these were not necessarily affected by cultural beliefs, but they were rather influenced by the lack of income. Traditional beliefs on food- such as foods like eggs and dairy products such as milk or yoghurts were not given to girls. This was from a belief that this food would make girls more fertile and grow much faster. Traditional healing practices influence the dietary restrictions, limiting access to some nutritious foods, which are based on superstitions and lead to stigma. With regards to the childcare practices, there was also a lack of clarity by caregivers 18 on the duration of exclusive breastfeeding as well as the duration when the children should stop breastfeeding. Caregivers did not have adequate knowledge about when to resume weaning. Some caregivers highlighted that the last time they received nutrition knowledge was when their children were infants, and they had taken the children for vaccinations. Caregivers were not aware of how responsive caregiving such as child feeding frequency and portion sizes could improve children’s nutritional outcomes. Key findings from objective 5: From the qualitative interviews with early childhood development (ECD) practitioners, findings indicated a growing disintegration of childcare systems, including the family, health, and social systems, where a lack of parental support in nutrition programmes, a lack of support in health services and other social services when making referrals. Furthermore, various systems of care were working in silos in childcare service provision, resulting in children facing multiple adversities. Conclusions: The study demonstrated that individual-level child characteristics appear to exacerbate childhood malnutrition more than the mother and household-level characteristics. For example, the child level characteristics showed high significance, with age, sex, and child support grant, compared to the caregiver characteristics such as education, employment, and income. At the household level, variables such as household size and income did not show any significance. While this is the case, it does not necessarily mean that the mother and household-level characteristics were not important. This gap can be explained by the small sample, which can cause challenges of limited statistical power, making it harder to detect statistically significant differences. Furthermore, the qualitative assessment filled some gaps regarding these findings and gave an in-depth understanding on how the income disparities among caregivers and households result from high unemployment rates, highlighting the importance of socio-economic status and food security in child nutritional outcomes. From the ECD practitioners’ interviews, given the disintegration of childcare systems, the coordination and multisectoral collaboration of different sectors of care for children is urgently needed to improve children’s nutritional outcomes. Understanding the social context in which a child is brought up is important for the design of programmes and policies that will be effective in addressing this public health challenge. This understanding will enable efficient and effective service referral and service delivery to improve childhood nutrition in South Africa. This study highlights the need for a good 19 coordination of food, family, health, and social systems to ensure a positive childhood nutritional outcome.Item Labour led strategy towards the fourth industrial revolution: a critical appraisal of numsa’s approach to worker control(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Ntlokotse, Mamolaba Ruth; Satgar, VishwasThis research report would not have been possible without the efforts of many people. First, I would like to thank the Almighty God, who bestowed strength throughout the research journey. Embarking on a master’s journey was not easy, especially being a committed trade union leader with many union responsibilities. I am deeply indebted to my Supervisor, Professor Vishwas Satgar; the research report would not have been possible without the support, guidance, and feedback throughout the research project. I cannot begin to express my thanks to comrade Dinga Sikwebu, my mentor and source of inspiration throughout my shop steward journey. His help cannot be overestimated, as he introduced me to worker education and encouraged me throughout my studies. Let it not end with me. I owe a deep sense of gratitude to Professor Michelle Williams for her keen interest in me at every stage of my study. Thank you for being open-minded and constructive throughout. Thank you for giving me a shoulder to lean on when the road was bumpy. Your inspiration, motivation and suggestions have enabled me to complete my research report. I am incredibly grateful to my family who gave me unwavering support: my mom, Amelia; my siblings, Lebohang, Taelo and Thabang; my niece Bokamoso and my nephew, Bophelo. Most importantly, my son Bokang understood the sacrifice I had to make and sometimes did not spend time with him. To my late Dad, Ntate Mosuwe, I know you would be incredibly supportive if you were still alive. Finally, special thanks to everyone who offered invaluable practical contributions to the research project, particularly my comrades from NUMSA in Ekurhuleni. The leadership of SAFTU, especially the General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, and other sister unions, never let me down.Item Ethical Foundations For International Investments In Developing Poor African Countries(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Xate, Lulamile L.; Attoe, Aribiah DavidThere is a moral and ethical obligation for the rich and developed nations and their business corporations to invest in and trade ethically with Africa. This moral obligation extends to African leaders and elites who facilitate the continued exploitation of Africa and corruption in the post-independence period. To reveal this obligation and its basis, I begin by reviewing and exploring the history of African colonialism in pursuit of capital profit maximization within the imperialist framework and its consequences, focusing on its immoral and unethical practices. I then show that the moral foundations of colonialism and post-independence African leadership have not been considered in understanding African underdevelopment in relation to the prosperity of other nations, and the role of African leaders. Finally, I argue there are morally right actions that can plausibly change this. I explicate this using three moral philosophical approaches – Kantian, Utilitarian and Ubuntu African relational ethics.Item An analysis of the relationship between HIV-testing and cervical cancer screening uptake among females of reproductive age (15-49 years old) in South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Madubye, Koketšo Tholo; Wet-Billings, Nicole DeBackground: Higher income countries (HIC) have threefold testing coverage over lower to middle income countries (LMIC). Cervical cancer is the 4th most prevalent cancer among females globally, and a key contributor to mortality in Southern Africa. In LMIC, including South Africa, only 9% of the eligible screening cohort had ever undergone cervical cancer screening. This study examined the gap in understanding the relationship between HIV testing behaviours and the uptake of cervical cancer screening. Methods: The study was conducted in South Africa, utilising the 2016 South African Demographic and Health Survey (SADHS), as a secondary data source. The sample size of this study was a weighted (n) distribution of 4,199 females. The study design is cross-sectional, the outcome variable of interest in this study was the uptake of cervical cancer screening and the predictor variable is HIV Testing. The data by SADHS (2016) was analysed through the three phases: univariate, bivariate and multivariate. At the bivariate level, contingency tables were employed, using the Pearson chi-square test of association which examined the strength of crude relationships between cervical cancer screening and the study of independent variables. In addition, a multivariate analysis through the employment of a binary logistic regression as the outcome of the study was categorised with ‘yes’ and ‘no’ binary responses. Results: The findings of this study indicated that 33% of females of reproductive age had ever undergone cervical cancer screening, while 62.5% responded affirmatively to having tested for HIV. Females who tested for HIV displayed a higher propensity to having undergone cervical cancer screening, 37.43% female respondents who tested for HIV had undergone screened for cervical cancer, as opposed to those who didn’t test, which only 10.19 % screened for cervical cancer. Conclusions: 37.43% female respondents who tested for HIV had undergone screened for cervical cancer. Among those who did not test for HIV, 10.19 % screened for cervical cancer. There is still much to be done to improve cervical cancer screening among females, while HIV testing remains high, cervical cancer screening is alarmingly low. The 2017 Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control Policy functions as a mediating apparatus, additional supplementations targeting females below the age of 30 remain a necessityItem Theatre of Resistance in Johannesburg, 1960–2010(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Mukonde, Kasonde Thomas; Lekgoath, Sekibakiba Peter; Hlongwane, Ali KhangelaThis thesis explores the relation of art to politics, specifically how black theatre practitioners in South Africa responded to cultural imperialism. It contributes to the historiography of adversarial theatre in South Africa by tracing the establishment and growth of a genre of theatre termed the Theatre of Resistance. The thesis uses the cases of the People’s Experimental Theatre, Mihloti Black Theatre, Bahumutsi and the Soyikwa Institute of African Theatre to provide rich empirical detail on how the work at these theatre companies was a form of cultural resistance. It begins by showing how the Soweto poetry movement and the Black Consciousness Movement were foundational to the development of Theatre of Resistance. Plays that are exemplars of this genre are analysed in the context of the oral history testimonies of the theatre practitioners themselves. Additionally, the issue of censorship is addressed by looking at the deliberations of the Directorate of Publications, whose archives are extant and have only been accessible within the last twenty years. The thesis also shows how the groups negotiated the segregated township spaces of Soweto and Alexandra in Johannesburg to create theatre that was agile and politically relevant. Finally, the thesis discusses Theatre of Resistance after the end of apartheid and beginning of democracy.Item Assessing how an alternative waste management system may facilitate subaltern and environmental justice: a thematic analysis of a zero waste pilot case study in South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Van Biljon (née Swart), Johanna Yvonne (Jani)Waste is socio-political – a symbol of our economic and consumerist society. Since the Industrial Revolution, our manufacturing processes and materialist lifestyles produced more hazardous and nondegradable externalities than we were prepared to deal with. With environmental and consumer pressure building, we are at a crossroads between continuing with business-as-usual and justly transitioning over to a systemically different, zero waste society where the focus on waste management shifts to waste prevention so that, like Karl Marx, it challenges and eventually changes production processes, ownership, consumption, and ultimately, our connection with the natural environment and each other. South Africa’s waste landscape is characterised by two things: its reliance on landfills and the thousands of informal waste pickers reclaiming the value of discarded goods. So, what could a zero waste system that is just toward the environment and the subaltern look like in South Africa? In exploring this question, I considered the work of waste pickers, as well as the case of an urban composting initiative for an inner-city market supporting the zero waste philosophy. Synthesising these, I imagine a gradual, deep bottom-up transformation in attitude, behaviour and eventually infrastructure with regard to our relationship with the environment, ownership and use, as well as the revaluation of the material and therefore waste ‘management’. The role and insights of waste pickers and local, informal economies will be crucial and influential. Though South African waste pickers do not yet participate in the organic waste stream on a noticeable scale, the prioritisation of composting by the Warwick Zero Waste project and the National Waste Management Strategy sees the recovery and local, low-tech, low-cost composting of organic waste as a vital starting point in establishing a more regenerative food and waste system that will build solidItem A relational history of space, administration and economic extractivism in the Mogalakwena Local Municipality in Limpopo, South Africa (1948-2000)(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Pearson, Joel DavidThis dissertation seeks to contribute to existing local government scholarship by presenting a situated and relational historical study of the Mogalakwena Local Municipality in present-day Limpopo Province of South Africa. By adapting and extending Gill Hart’s spatial-relational methodology, this study draws out key mechanics of change over time in the Mogalakwena area since the early 20 th century. This historical analysis reveals that the shifting array of power relations which together structured the field of rural local governance came to be enacted and concretised through specific and identifiable processes of spatial transformation, administrative government, and economic extractivism. While existing scholarship has elaborated on aspects of these processes, the present study insists on analysing all three together, in relation to each other, attentive to forms of both mutual constitution and contradiction, and cognisant of how these processes feed into political dynamics of varying scales – local, regional, and national. As such, the thesis argues that these three sets of processes should be understood as axes of rural local governance. This analysis draws off an empirical foundation compiled from archival and oral history sources, and which points to three broad historical conjunctures of local governance in Mogalakwena over the apartheid and early democratic eras. The first, spanning the period between the early 1950s and early 1970s, is identified as an era of state-building and remaking the countryside under the ascendant National Party (NP), one in which the white central state initiated massive and sweeping transformations of rural areas to bring to life its “Bantustan strategy”. The second conjuncture, defined as the terminal phase of apartheid from the late 1970s through to the end of the 1980s, was one in which rural local governance came to be dominated by forms of resistance, reform and repression when bottom-up political forces challenged the reach and authority of the apartheid central state in rural localities. And during the third conjuncture, the transitional period of national negotiations and democratisation between 1990 and 2000, rural local governance came to be defined by uneven and contested initiatives towards institutional amalgamation, deracialisation and redress. In considering the field of rural local governance within which the Mogalakwena Local Municipality operates today, this study concludes that the three axes together remain key determinants in structuring local and regional power relations. While dramatic new power relations have unfolded within and around the municipality since its creation in the year 2000, this study concludes that these have continued to be materialised through intertwined spatial, administrative and extractivist processes which extend back into history. As such, it suggests a new systematic approach for the study of local government institutions, histories of the state in rural areas, and studies of the state more broadly.Item “They will never know what we lost when we lost our home”: How Do Women in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal, Remember Forced Removals (1960-1990)?(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Isaack, Jeaneth Samantha; Julian BrownThis thesis focuses on the enduring impact of forced removals and the significance of land dispossession in present-day South African politics. It is based on interviews I conducted with women who experienced forced removals in the 1970s from areas surrounding Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal. Much of the literature on forced removals focuses on the event of the removals and less on the aftermath of the event particularly from the perspective of the women who have often had to lead the rebuilding of households, communities and local economies. Access to land and land ownership is today still a contested topic despite government initiatives to remedy the injustices of the past. Using a feminist lens in conducting this research means identifying the need to highlight and put forth women’s experiences of land dispossession in ongoing land debates. Moreover, the study is a contribution to the limited literature on the long- term effects of dispossession for those who experienced forced removals in the country. Furthermore, this study illustrates the limits of the current land reform policy in addressing the far-reaching effect of the removals as is revealed through interviews with the women who experienced forced removals. In this study, I argue that the current approach of restitution cannot be successful unless it acknowledges the ongoing nature of the experience of forced removals. Remembering and referring to the past is part of the initiative to establish a better future for the vast majority of previously (and often still) disadvantaged people.Item Gendered discursive practices of the South African police service towards survivors of domestic violence(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Sinclair, Ingrid Maralene; Vearey, Jo; Palmary, IngridThis study explores the reproduction, maintenance and resistance of gendered subjectivities within the discursive practices employed in the policing of gender-based violence (GBV). It examines how historical and socio-political structures shaping asymmetric power relations in society are reproduced in the everyday interactions between police officers and survivors of GBV. The research adopts a socio-historical lens on gendered policing, using an African decolonial feminist intersectional perspective. This approach focuses on the analytical categories of gender, violence, power, and inequality. This approach allowed me to situate the problem of GBV within the legacy of colonial and apartheid violence, where entrenched harmful gendered power dynamics have persisted and are reproduced in contemporary policing through the coloniality of power. By examining how police officials construct gendered power relations and how survivors experience these dynamics, I endeavour to illuminate how the gendered power relations are reproduced, resisted, and maintained in everyday policing in ways that reflect unequal power relations at the interpersonal, institutional, community, and societal levels. This qualitative study uses a bricolage of theories and methodologies embedded in a transdisciplinary approach to design a mosaic of the experiences of police and survivors of the policing of GBV. Using an interpretive phenomenological approach, I conducted an ethnographic study that explored the experiences of survivors and victim advocates at a women’s shelter as well as visible police officials at four police stations in the West Rand, Gauteng. Data collection methods included narrative interviews, informal conversations, participant observation and the analysis of police documents. The data was analysed using a decolonial intersectional narrative analysis and a critical Foucauldian discourse analysis to understand how discursive practices shape gendered subjectivities and power relations. The narratives of participants revealed and/or obscured how gendered subjectivities and intersectional inequalities are constructed, reproduced, resisted and maintained by police officials, survivors, and victim advocates. This study contributes to the growing body of research on the policing of GBV by showing how inequitable gendered power relations are institutionalised and normalised in the police organisational culture and are reproduced through symbolic violence in the everyday discursive practices of the police. By grounding the analysis of policing GBV in an African feminist decolonial intersectional framework this study situates GBV within the context of v colonial/apartheid violence that normalised violence as a means of resolving disputes. A decolonial reading of the policing of GBV reveals how violence became deeply embedded in knowledge regimes that are perpetuated through racism, classism, sexism and other social markers of difference. Additionally, the study draws on the lived experiences of survivors to contribute empirically to the body of knowledge regarding the crafting of a gender-responsive, socially just, and humane policing of GBV.Item Changing Patterns of violence in the Western Sahel(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Krienke, HannahThis dissertation investigates how changing patterns of violence in Mali and Burkina Faso have resulted in the formation of alternative government systems by jihadist groups and community militias. By analysing the interactions between these non -state actors, state institutions, and foreign intermediaries, the study highlights the significant impacts of socioeconomic problems, corruption, ethnic and religious tensions, and climate change, which have given rise to space where power and control of the state is contested. In Mali, violence erupted in 2012 with an insurgent movement that was exacerbated by subsequent coups and political crises, eroding state authority and supporting the growth of multiple armed groups most notably via jihadist insurgency. Violence in Burkina Faso began to grow in 2015, and it was exacerbated with the 2022 coup, which altered the dynamics of domestic and foreign alliances, including the Russian Wagner Group's involvement. Both countries are currently governed by the military, although in both cases the military has struggled to calm violence. The frequency of attacks increasing drastically between 2015 and 2024. Therefore, the dynamics of violence in both countries are examined in relation to the restructuring of local and state interactions and the emergence of new forms of governance. This involves drawing on theories such as Mary Kaldor's t "new wars," who emphasises the relationship between identity politics and armed conflict. Through a comparative examination, the study reveals parallels as well as differences in the ways that violence has impacted state formation and impacted Sahelian populations in Mali and Burkina Faso.