Before Boko Haram

Anti-establishment radicalism that embraces violence as a conflictual strategy seldom emerges ex nihilo. Especially with terror movements, longstanding anti-establishment traditions often inform the pivot towards bloodshed. Situating this argument in the northern Nigeria case, this paper examines how, decades before Boko Haram, there were growing tensions in Nigeria’s devoutly religious north around similar issues contested by Boko Haram. Such matters include criticisms of the established religious order, denunciation of Western influence, education and materialism in Muslim society, and issues of co-existence with other faiths in Nigeria’s pluralistic society amidst a shifting political landscape. Whereas taking dead aim at the Islamic authorities, emergent radical discourses typically discouraged bloodshed. However, there were exceptions. With an emphasis on personalities and events, the paper uses new archival material and interviews in Northern Nigeria to examine the emergence and activities of the Izala and the Maitatsine—two of the era’s puritanical anti-establishment movements. Whereas the Izala emerged as a powerful religious organisation in northern Nigeria by the late 1970s, its leadership’s anti-establishment criticisms were not a call for violent upheaval. By contrast, the Maitatsine disturbances of 1980 demonstrate a wealth of similarities to Boko Haram’s violence decades later

Archaeology · Boko haram · Criminology · Fundamentalism · Insurgency · Islam · Islamic fundamentalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Terrorism · Violent extremism · History · Islamic Studies and Radicalism · Law · Religion and Sociopolitical Dynamics in Nigeria · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence