This study investigates the use of violence by Salafi-Oriented Movement Organisations. Drawing
mostly from Social Movement Theory’s “political opportunity” and “resource mobilisation”
thesis, it uses the Northern Nigerian-born Boko Haram (BH) to study how such organisation
evolved and used different forms of violent activisms for goal attainment. On that basis, three main
research questions were formulated: (1) What socio-political structures enabled the evolution of
the organisation in Northern Nigeria? (2) Under what conditions did BH begin to use armed
violence against the Nigerian State? (3) What specific forms of armed violence did BH use and
how were such forms of strategy sustained within the organisation? In answering these questions,
the study relied on data collected through one-on-one semi-structured interviews from religious
leaders in Northern Nigeria (particularly those within the Salafi networks); selected politicians in
the areas where the group operates; some Nigerian security personnel, and on focus group
interviews from victims of BH violence. In addition, the study also drew from other documentary
sources (videos and audio recordings from different leaders in the group), and from internal
correspondence between BH leaders and those of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Along the
primary data, these documentary sources showed a striking historical continuity about the
emergence and activities of BH from inception, up until they began using violence as a means for
goal attainment. The data showed that while the emergence of the group was dependent on specific
Northern Nigerian socio-political and mobilisatory structures, the adoption and sustenance of
different forms of violence in the group were re-enforced by the interactions between the group’s
leadership and the Borno state government; the violent response of the Nigerian government to the
group's initial anti-state rhetoric; the mobilisation of different material resources (accruing from
the organisation’s interactions and collaborations with similar international Salafi networks) and
the internal dynamics in the group (competition between the different factions in the organisation).
These inter-related conditions provided the windows of opportunity upon which both the
establishment of the group, as well as the internal logic for the development and justification of
different forms of violence were sustained within the organisation. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/25758 |
| Date | 06 1900 |
| Creators | Amaechi, Kingsley Ekene |
| Contributors | Strijdom, Johan, Rafudeen, Auwais |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (x, 236 pages), application/pdf |
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