Africa's continued rapid development relies on a good understanding of environmental conditions, including precipitation variability. Sahel drought, for example, has been a persistent problem from humanitarian and scientific perspectives for decades. Clear understanding of precipitation dynamics in the Sahel is vital to predict and mitigate effects of changing global climate and local conditions on regional precipitation. I will examine the teleconnections across Asia, the Indian Ocean, and Africa that link large-scale changes in atmospheric circulation to variations in precipitation over the Sahel.  In this presentation I will focus on a number of sensitivity experiments which alter the heating gradient in the Indian Ocean/Asian Monsoon region paying particular attention to how the change in gradient alters the regional circulation and consequently precipitation in the Sahel.