Radio War Nerd EP #463 — Into Africa, feat. James Pogue
Guest: James Pogue, journalist
Recorded: August 13, 2024
We talk to journalist James Pogue about his many journeys to the Sahel, from Mauritania to the Central African Republic. We talk gold & mining, revolution in Francophone Africa, camel riding, Russia & Wagner, the fading US Empire, and along the way James' stint in a Bangui jail.
Articles:
-"Gold Fever in the Coup Belt: The Mines of Mauritania", Granta, July 2024
-"Wagner in Africa", Granta, April 2024
*Map of Sahel
*Mauritania
*Central African Republic
Total time: 1:42:08
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
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Comments (37)
gripping and i learned a lot
good episode
Rilly good shew! This guest reminded me of the protagonist in "A Walk on the Wild Side" by Nelson Algren.
This guest is pretty good, but he had some major blind spots about US Empire. Starting off with his weird comments about being anarchist, but supportive of Jeffersonian democracy and his “chud Friends“ but really escalated when he said the US doesn’t have an appetite for civilian casualties. The Russian invasion of Ukraine looks incredibly restrained compared to the US invasion of Iraq. We killed millions plus Libya , Yemen, Palestine. Kind of gross to be honest.
i thought the point was u.s.’s tolerance of *u.s.* casualties, specifically?
great great episode
Who were the people that James mentioned that also had books coming out? And, did James give a date or title of his upcoming book?
That dood was dope. Great couple hours of listening.
Gettleman. The past episode is a nice capsule of Gettleman before Gaza hoax. Sweet innocent Jeffrey alas
My brother snapped his femur skiing this past winter. He can attest to the danger and I'm not sure he'll be skiing again. Still recovering slowly.
My wish was fulfilled for more news on the Sahel. Thank you. Believe it or not, YouTube Shorts is best venue for Burkina Faso news. https://youtu.be/dLJkXuDe3Qg?si=zzX5NYLI6HVfZmPB
Who is the guy the guest mentions and obviously esteems - Tom lechner?
“I’m a big fan of James C. Scott” *Kill Bill sirens*
lmao my response exactly. Then again ten-fold with 'I'm a pro-American Jeffersonian anarchist'
what a great episode, really excited to hear more on the sahel & from this guest
The pipe that James described the camel riders smoking sounds a lot like a dokha pipe a friend of mine picked up while studying in Oman, hadn't thought of that in forever
Agree with previous comments, this guy is awesome and those type of stories were what originally made me love to read cool journalists and even become one….days are long gone but this guys a throwback gem
if anyone wants to read a different guy's adventures in Mauritania (including riding the iron ore train!) this is pretty good: https://mattlakeman.org/2023/08/16/notes-on-mauritania/
Great episode and great guest:)
Losing my shit at 1:35:00 xD "I just want my passport stamped" xD
Awesome episode, great guest
Great ep. Really enjoy the fact that the war nerd pod doesn't ignore africa and events there.
Something that wasn't mentioned re: Wagner's success (so far) in Africa is the Soviet legacy. Soviet development aid to the Sahel in particular was substantial under Krushchev, and apparently there a still Soviet tractors and agricultural equipment chugging along in places like Guinea or Ivory Coast to this day. Lots of young West Africans went to Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University in Moscow, too, and the name should be a hint as to the mutual affinity there. Add to that their substantial military assistance to the Lusophone countries during the 70s and 80s and their counterpart being the CIA and the Soviets looked pretty good from a southwesterly vantage point. Fairly or not, and I'd say pretty much not, the Russians have inherited a lot of that good will from the recent past. We'll see if and when they squander it. Edit: I'd highly recommend trying to get Rahmane Idrissa on for any future Sahel episodes. He's an academic and has that bearing, but he gave one of the most insightful interviews I've ever heard on the subject on The Dig w/ Dan Denvir. He's also written some good pieces for NLR and elsewhere, and has the benefit of being a local.
One of the best guest I have heard on this podcast..
Lmao bet this gentleman has some good Jamie stories
God damn, that was fantastic. Bring him back on ASAP! Added bonus to everything else interesting, he's just a really good podcaster.
The cordon bleu killed me! lmao
Great episode. Bring this guy back
The Ambassador is a great documentary, too
Great stories this episode. I’m all for more anecdotal reporting if it’s this insightful. Immediately bought his book once the interview ended.
Wtf ive never heard of Mauritania in my life…Anglo brain I guess
I've heard of it vaguely before, but only now is it connecting in my brain.
Well it's not the Congo, but it's close! It should be show policy to have an episode on an African topic at least once a month. That way we spread out the extremely lethargic and depressing (while still being important) episodes on Ukraine and Israel
On Congo, David Van Reybrouck could be an option. He’s Belgian and wrote a book on the country. Not sure if he’s up to date on the current conflict, but he is on the past ones
Congrats on not having world changing events happen between recording and publishing this one
Not as good as the other African episode- the one with that NYT guy. He seemed to really know his stuff. You wouldn’t see him authoring a massively incorrect article on Palestine
which article? what was incorrect about it?