Fulanis are foreign terrorists’

The social construction of a suspect community in the Sahel

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12919156
AutoresP F Ejiofor (0000-0002-4276-1460, Central European University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen15
Número2
Páginas333-355
Fecha de publicación2021-12-10
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCritical Studies on Terrorism (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1753-9161 • E-ISSN: 1753-9153
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17539153.2021.2015841
OpenAlexW4200553454
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas18
Referencias citadas42

Whilst the triggers of the peasant-pastoralist conflicts in the Sahel region have been explained through factors such as climate change, environmental scarcity, population pressures, urbanisation, political ecology, and the failure of traditional negotiation mechanisms, less scholarly attention has been given to the narratives that draw on history to categorise the Fulani as a potentially dangerous ethnoreligious group and how such narratives make peaceful coexistence nearly impossible. This article draws on the theoretical framework of “suspect community” originally coined by Paddy Hillyard to demonstrate how the social construction of the Fulani ethnic group by the media and political actors in Nigeria as foreigners, uncivilised savages, terrorists, rapists, and armed bandits with a hidden agenda to Islamise non-Christian Nigerians has led to the failure of well-intentioned policy initiatives to minimise conflicts between peasants and pastoralists. The article contends that such narratives do not dissolve longstanding peasant-pastoralist confrontations but instead alienate and marginalise the Fulani through punitive security measures thereby preventing the possibility of peaceful politics. The article thus argues that peaceful coexistence requires the rejection of demonising discourses which, in turn, will mean the mutual acceptance of policies aimed at stemming the skirmishes between peasants and pastoralists

Development economics · Economics · Ethnic Cleansing · Ethnic conflict · Geography · Narrative · Pastoralism · Peaceful coexistence · Peasant · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Scarcity · Sociology · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Transboundary Water Resource Management