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From ‘ethnic militias’ to ‘jungle justice’? Research and change in vigilantism in Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2022

Dany Franck A. Tiwa
Dany Franck A. Tiwa*
Affiliation:
African Centre for Crime and Security Studies (ACCSS Africa), Yaoundé, Cameroon
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The aim of this article is to initiate a new debate on vigilantism in Nigeria by arguing for a re-examination of the links between crime and vigilantism. It contends that, although the existing literature has shed considerable light on the practice of vigilantism in Nigeria, it has also obscured entire dimensions of the problem. By focusing exclusively on vigilante groups or ethnic militias, scholars have failed to anticipate the shift of the bulk of the violence from these social agencies to spontaneous mobs. After highlighting the factors that help explain the marginalization of ‘mob’ vigilantism in the scholarship about Nigerian vigilantism, I use ethnographic materials from my own field research in Lagos to show how crime – or more precisely unexplained crime – fuels intra-community distrust, which in turn fuels vigilante mobilization and violence as it increases the social control that crime-beset communities apply to some of their members who resent such distrust and consider it unfair. The data presented provide fresh insights into one of the most intriguing features of Nigeria vigilantism: the involvement of social delinquents at the roots of urban insecurity.

Résumé

Résumé

L’objectif de cet article est d’initier un nouveau débat sur le vigilantisme au Nigeria en plaidant pour un réexamen des liens entre la criminalité et le vigilantisme. Il soutient que si la littérature existante a apporté un éclairage considérable sur la pratique du vigilantisme au Nigeria, elle a également occulté des dimensions entières du problème. En se concentrant exclusivement sur les groupes d’autodéfense ou les « milices ethniques », les chercheurs n’ont pas su anticiper le déplacement du gros de la violence de ces organisations vers les mouvements spontanés de foules souvent appelés « justice populaire ». Après avoir mis en évidence les facteurs qui permettent de comprendre la marginalisation de la « justice populaire » dans les études sur le vigilantisme nigérian, j’utilise des matériaux ethnographiques issus de mes propres recherches sur le terrain à Lagos pour montrer comment la criminalité, ou plus précisément la criminalité inexpliquée, alimente la méfiance au sein de la communauté ce qui, à son tour, alimente la violence du vigilantisme car elle accroît le contrôle social que les communautés en proie à la criminalité exercent sur certains de leurs membres qui le ressentent comme injuste. Les données présentées apportent un éclairage nouveau sur l’une des caractéristiques les plus intrigantes du vigilantisme nigérian : l’implication de délinquants socials à l’origine de l’insécurité urbaine.

Type
Debating vigilantism in Nigeria
Information
Africa , Volume 92 , Issue 2 , February 2022 , pp. 265 - 282
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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