Anthropologist's New Book Challenges Popular Myths About Sahara Desert
"Shifting Sands" will be published by Basic Books on June 3, 2025.
MARSEILLE, France — A new book challenging common misconceptions about the Sahara Desert and its people will be published in June 2025, offering fresh perspectives on one of Earth's most misunderstood regions, writes Winston Mwale.
"Shifting Sands: A Human History of the Sahara" by anthropologist Judith Scheele examines the desert's complex role in global history, from ancient Rome through colonialism to present-day geopolitics.
"These exoticized portrayals are the products of imperialism and orientalist ideas," writes Scheele, a professor at France's School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences.
Her work draws on two decades of field research in Saharan communities.
The book highlights how several million inhabitants across the three-million-square-mile region have built "complex and cosmopolitan lives" despite environmental challenges and political upheaval.
Scheele argues that viewing the Sahara as merely an empty wasteland ignores its crucial position between sub-Saharan Africa and the Mediterranean, which has shaped global trade, migration, and ecology for centuries.
"Shifting Sands" will be published by Basic Books on June 3, 2025.