Understanding Boko Haram ― Terrorism and Insurgency in Africa

The primary objective of this book is to understand the nature of the Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria.

One of the world's most lethal terrorist groups, Boko Haram is formally known as Jama’at ahlis Sunnah lid Da’wat wal Jihad (people committed to the propagation of the Prophet’s teachings and jihad), with Boko Haram being its common Hausa name, which loosely translates as 'western education is forbidden'. The movement’s ostensible goal is to create an Islamic Caliphate starting in Borno State in the North East that will eventually cover the areas of the former Kanem-Borno Empire, including parts of western Chad, northwestern Cameroon, and southeastern Niger.

The central theme threading its way through this volume’s chapters is the relationship between the failure of the state- building project in Nigeria and the outbreak and nature of insurgency. State failure, if not collapse, in Nigeria has different dimensions. The chapters here, therefore, aim to unpack different parts of the puzzle. From fifteen thousand feet up, Boko Haram’s goal of an Islamic Caliphate is a rejection of the modern state system forced on it by the West, and in particular by a conquering Great Britain. Thus, for instance, the borders inherited from colonial rule are considered illegitimate and a caliphate would eventually cover the areas of the former Kanem-Borno Empire, including parts of western Chad, northwestern Cameroon, and southeastern Niger.

This view from above is important, but we also need a more granular look. At the heart of the Boko Haram phenomenon is a country racked with cleavages making it hard for Nigeria to cohere as a modern state. The three historical chapters introduce this theme. Yet as important as the North–South divide is, as explained here, there are multiple cleavages in Nigeria: ethnic, regional, cultural, and religious. Political grievances are common to every society. What gives Boko Haram the space to express such grievances through violence? The volume shows that the insurgency is a reflection of the hollowness within Nigeria’s overall security. The most important public good a state provides is security. In the northeast of Nigeria, by 2015, Boko Haram was in control of more than eleven local government areas, with a population of over 1.7 million people. It was threatening to become a state within a state. For Western actors, Boko Haram is seen as part of the "global war on terror" (GWOT) and the fact that it has pledged allegiance to ISIS encourages this framing. However, as the chapters here discuss, this is an over-simplification of Boko Haram and the West needs to address the multiple dimension of Boko Haram.

This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and political violence, insurgencies, African politics, war and conflict studies, and IR in general. 

James J. Hentz is professor and chair of the Department of International Studies and Political Science, Virginia Military Institute, USA. He is author of several books, including the Routledge Handbook of African Security (2013)?and editor-in-chief of the journal African Security. Hussein Solomon is senior professor in the Department of Political Science, University of the Free State, South Africa. He is author of several books, including Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Africa (2015).