Abstract
This chapter examines the emergence of Boko Haram within the broader historical, social and political context of Islamic reform movements in Northern Nigeria. It argues that the rise of Boko Haram as a radical Salafi-jihadist movement pertains not only to the legacies of Usman dan Fodio’s nineteenth-century jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate that serves as a spiritual inspiration and model for the insurgency, but also to the fragmentation of sacred authority in Northern Nigeria. The author argues that Boko Haram emerged as a formidable security threat to the corrupt Nigerian state as a result of local grievances, the failure of the northern Muslim elites to implement Shari’a, internal sectarian divisions within the Muslim Ummah, as well as predatory elite politics of clientelism that pervades Nigeria’s political landscape.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Adesoji, A.O. 2008. Between Maitatsine and Boko Haram: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Response of the Nigerian State. Africa Today 57(4): 99–119.
———. 2010. The Boko Haram Uprising and Islamic Revivalism in Nigeria. Africa Spectrum 45(2): 95–108.
Azumah, J. 2015. Boko Haram in Retrospect. Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 26(1): 33–52.
Ben Amara, Ramzi. 2011. The Izala Movement in Nigeria: Its Split, Relationship to Sufis and Perception of Shari’a Re-implementation, PhD. Thesis, Bayreuth University.
Brigaglia, A. 2012a. A Contribution to the History of the Wahhabi Da’wa in West Africa: The Career and the Murder of Shaykh Ja’afar Mahmoud Adam (Daura, ca. 1961/62-Kano 2007). Islamic Africa 3(1): 1–23.
———. 2012b. Ja’afar Mahmoud Adam, Mahammed Yusuf and Al-Muntada Islamic Trust: Reflections on the Genesis of the Boko Haram Phenomenon in Nigeria. Annual Review of Islam in Africa 11: 35–78.
Danjibo, N.D. 2009. Islamic Fundamentalism and Sectarian Violence: The ‘Maitatsine’ and ‘Boko Haram’ Crises in Northern Nigeria, Peace and Conflict Studies Program. Ibadan: University of Ibadan.
De Montclos, M.P. 2014. Nigeria’s Interminable Insurgency? Addressing the Boko Haram Crisis, Africa Program Research Paper. London: Chatham House.
———. 2015. Boko Haram: Islamism, Politics, Security and the State in Nigeria. Los Angeles: African Academic Press.
Gwarzo, T. 2007. “The State and Islamic Civil Society: A Case Study of JTI, MSO, and Manarulhuda and Sabilurrashad,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Bayero University, Kano.
Hansen, W. 2015. Boko Haram: Religious Radicalism and Insurrection in Northern Nigeria. Journal of Asian and African Studies: 1–19. DOI:10.1177/0021909615615594
Harnischfeger, J. 2015. Boko Haram and Its Muslim Critics: Observations from Yobe State. In Boko Haram: Islamism, Politics, Security and the State in Nigeria, ed. Marc-Antoine Perouse De Montclos. Los Angeles: African Academic Press.
Hiskett, M. 1994. The Sword of Truth: Life and Times of Shehu Usuman dan Fodio. 2nd ed. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Hoechner, H. 2014. Experiencing Inequality at Close Range: Almajiri Students and Qur’anic Schools in Kano. In Sects and Disorder: Muslim Identities and Conflict in Northern Nigeria, ed. Abdul Raufu Mustapha. Woodbridge: James Currey.
Human Rights Watch. 2014. Those Terrible Weeks in Their Camps: Boko Haram Violence Against Women and Girls in Northeast Nigeria. New York: Human Rights Watch.
International Crisis Group. 2010. Northern Nigeria: Background to Conflict. Africa Report No. 168. Brussels, Belgium.
———. 2014. Curbing Violence in Nigeria 11: The Boko Haram Insuegency. Africa Report No. 216. Brussels, Belgium.
Kane, O. 2003. Muslim Modernity in Postcolonial Nigeria: A Study of the Society for the Removal of Innovation and Reinstatement of Tradition. Leiden: Brill.
Last, M. 1967. The Sokoto Caliphate. London: Longmans.
———. 2008. The Search for Security in Muslim Northern Nigeria. Africa 78(1): 1–18.
———. 2009. The Pattern of Dissent: Boko Haram in Nigeria. Annual Review of Islam in Africa 10: 7–11.
———. 2014. From Dissent to Dissidence: The Genesis and Development of Reformist Islamic Groups in Northern Nigeria. In Sects and Disorder: Muslim Identities and Conflict in Northern Nigeria, ed. Abdul Raufu Mustapha. Woodbridge: James Currey.
Loimeier, R. 2012. Boko Haram: The Development of a Militant Religious Movement in Nigeria. Africa Spectrum 47(2–3): 137–155.
Lovejoy, P.E., and J.S. Hogendorn. 1990. Revolutionary Mahdism and Resistance to Colonial Rule in the Sokoto Caliphate, 1905–06. The Journal of African History 31(2): 217–244.
Mohammed, K. 2015. The Message and Methods od Boko Haram. In Boko Haram: Islamism, Politics, Security and the State in Nigeria, ed. Marc-Antoine Perouse De Montclos. Los Angeles: African Academic Press.
Mustapha, A.R., ed. 2014. Sects and Disorder: Muslim Identities and Conflict in Northern Nigeria. London: James Currey.
Paden, J. 2005. Muslim Civic Cultures and Conflict Resolution: The Challenge of Democratic Federalism in Nigeria. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
Thurston, A. 2014. Muslim Politics and Shari’a in Kano State, Northern Nigeria. African Affairs 114(454): 28–51.
———. 2016. The Disease Is Unbelief: Boko Haram’s Religious and Political Worldview, Brookings Institution, Analysis Paper, No. 22, (January): 1–30.
Umar, M.S. 2012. The Popular Discourses of Salafi Radicalism and Salafi Counter-Radicalism in Nigeria: A Case Study of Boko Haram. Journal of Religion in Africa 42: 118–144.
Wagemakers, J. 2012. The Enduring Legacy of the Second Saudi State: Quietist and Radical Wahhabi Contestations of Al-wala wa-l-bara. International Journal of Middle East Studies 44.
Wiktorowicz, Q. 2006. Anatomy of the Salafi Movement. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 29: 207–239.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Abubakar, D. (2017). From Sectarianism to Terrorism in Northern Nigeria: A Closer Look at Boko Haram. In: Varin, C., Abubakar, D. (eds) Violent Non-State Actors in Africa . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51352-2_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51352-2_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51351-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51352-2
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)