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Terrorism in Africa (African Renaissance Vol 9 No.1 2012)

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ISSN : 1744-2532 (Print) 2516-5305 (Online)

Table of Contents :

Terrorism in Africa: Beyond Essentialism (Editorial)
Jideofor Adibe3

Slavery and Colonialism: The Worst Terrorism on Africa
Mohamed A. Eno, Omar A. Eno, Mohamed H. Ingiriis, and Jamal M. Haji 9

Humans need not justify terrorism of any kind, regardless of whether one is Muslim, Christian or Jew, because it is the axis of evil and devastation of mankind. However, the deliberate use of the term terrorism in recent decades was carefully selected, mainly, against a certain religion (Islam). The idea was then globally politicized by the Western world. Leaving that scholarly view in its own right, we disagree with the opinion raising terrorism as the devil’s just-born child of evil, when in reality Africans had been terrorized for centuries as slaves and human chattel. Hence the basis for the concept of this thesis: conceptualizing the episode of ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorist’ from the broader perspective of its practice from the Middle Passage or the Atlantic Slave Trade. To portray that argument and broaden the scope of the debate over this critically sensitive subject, we divided the discussion into three sections: an examination of what constitutes terrorism and terrorist; history of terrorism and terrorists from an Africa perspective; and the ideological constraints within the subject of terrorism as practiced by the US and its Western allies.

The Cyber Terrorism Shadow Networks in Africa: AQIM and Boko Haram
Denise N. Baken and Ioannis Mantzikos27

Criminals have long leveraged the advances of new and evolving technology for gain or profit. The Internet, and its emerging information communication technologies, are no different. Both have changed the world of unlawful activity, providing it with a global reach that can touch anywhere in the world. Barriers to illegal cyber enterprises are limited only by access to a computer or Internet service. Terrorists have expertly used the forum to train, incite and recruit; and both criminals and terrorists have transitioned activities like money laundering to cyber space. By bypassing other more conventional media, the Internet, or cyber space as it is often called, has become an entirely new forum for cyber activity; activity that is often unconstrained by government censorship or traditional cultural norms.

Boko Haram: One sect, conflicting narratives
Jideofor Adibe47

Virtually everything about Boko Haram is contested – from the meaning of its name, to the reasons for its emergence, radicalisation and whether it is now affiliated to foreign terrorist groups such as the Al Shabaab in Somali and Al Qaeda in Maghreb (AQIM). It is also contestable whether the group is actually responsible for all the numerous terrorist atrocities attributed to it. The article critically surveys all the controversies surrounding the sect and concludes that owing to the paucity of reliable research on Boko Haram, much of what is known about the sect today remains in the realm of speculation.

Keywords: Boko Haram, security, Al Qaeda, terrorism.

The Niger Delta Militancy and Boko Haram Insurgency Compared
Joseph P. Golwa and Simeon H.O. Alozieuwa65

The thrust of this paper is that the discourse on the recent security challenges that confront Nigeria, symbolized hitherto by the Niger Delta crisis and more recently by that of Boko Haram has been characterized by the problematic of conceptual ambiguity. The paper compares the two phenomena and argues that the ambiguity undermines the ability to understand them and the deployment of the appropriate responses to the problem.

Boko Haram Terrorism in Nigeria:Causal Factors and Central Problematic
Ufo Okeke Uzodike and Benjamin Maiangwa91

Boko Haram, the Islamic radical sect from northeastern Nigeria, has been responsible since 2009 for a string of bomb attacks strategically directed at the Nigerian government, security officials, churches, civilians, and the U.N. headquarters in Abuja. With the attacks getting more sophisticated, coordinated and deadly with each year, there are growing concerns, nationally and internationally, about not only the fast deteriorating security situation in Nigeria but also the potential implications for Nigeria.

Given the sect’s focus on the Nigerian government as well as other local targets, it appears that the grievances from which Boko Haram originates is highly localized and emblematic of the conditions of state failure in Nigeria. So conceived, this article explores the contextual factors that gave rise to the emergence and radical evolution of the Boko Haram sect. Informed by the state fragility and the Human Needs frameworks, the paper argues that Boko Haram terrorism is triggered by the cocktail of bad governance in Nigeria, including the widespread failures of state policies, inefficient and wasteful parastatals, and endemic corruption, poverty, unemployment, and extensive underdevelopment in the north of Nigeria. The resulting security conditions have been exacerbated by the spectacular failure of government intelligence and security apparatus. The paper further examines the state responses to the Boko Haram impasse and concludes that the menace is unlikely to dissipate unless the Nigerian government alters significantly the conditions of state failure.

Keywords: Boko Haram, State Failure, corruption, terrorism, poverty, underdevelopment.

[abstract]


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