Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture

Islam et troubles socio-politiques au Nord Nigeria: une analyse des origines lointaines de l’insurrection de Boko Haram
Ouba Abdoul-Bâgui

Abstract
Boko Haram, an Islamist sect born in Northern Nigeria, engulfs, beyond this region, all the countries of the southern basin of Lake Chad, endangering not only the security but also the territorial integrity of the states. This Islamist insurgency that Northern Nigeria has known for more than a decade is not the result of a spontaneous generation. It draws its essence from the very history of this region. It would be necessary to go back to the pre-colonial period to not only situate the phenomenon, but also to understand its first motivations and its multiform development during and after the British occupation. Explaining Boko Haram's terrorism only through contextualization, as most studies do today, only makes it possible to understand the phenomenon in part, not in its entirety. The main purpose of this article is to show that the current Islamist insurgency, which created social and political unrest in Northern Nigeria in particular, has distant origins. These date back to the pre-colonial period and developed during and after colonization. Islamic extremism, which has been expressing itself since 2002 with unprecedented violence through Boko Haram, is the result of both the instrumentalisation of Islam and a growing radicalization of positions in Nigerian society.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jisc.v6n1a11