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The Sahelian model of movement, mobility and spatial uncertainty Societies at both edges of the Sahara have structured their space on the basis of mobility rather than on zones of production activities. Although development strategies persist that are still based on self-sufficiency and zonal specialization, they have retained an ability to deal with uncertainty, including its new globalized forms. This paper presents a dynamic model of this mobility, which is more than straightforward movement, and its application to the urban markets of Gaya, Malanville and Kamba, located between Niger, Benin and Nigeria. It supports the hypothesis according to which the motives of local “patrons”, like the initiatives of States and of development agencies, all have as their aim the improvement of the way uncertainty is managed, but remain nonetheless profoundly opposed as to the strategies to adopt. A generalized mobility therefore shapes the framework of social competition along with the control of space. This feature helps reinject the Sahel region into the mobility flows that shape the contemporary world.