Boko Haram in Nigeria: Issues in Ideological and Creedal (Mis)interpretations

Location: Rubenstein Library Carpenter Conference Room 249

Boko Haram (BH) portrays itself as a back-to-basics Islamic orthodoxy and orthopraxis movement, but its rejection of Western democratic values and indeed its brutal reactions to mainstream Muslim interpretations of Islamic texts and authors makes it one of the most prominent militant and millenarian 'religious' terror movements in modern Africa.

For the first time, however, original texts, documentary and feature videos/audios, exhortation séances, martial anthems (nash¿d) and documents in Arabic, Hausa, and Kanuri from Boko Haram's networks are being offered in an English translation, The Boko Haram Reader (A. Kassim and M. Nwankpa, 2018), which brilliantly illustrates how Boko Haram was able to delegitimize mainstream orthodoxy and/or opponents to reinforce and articulate its own legitimacy.

This talk will provide a critical review of this important work on Boko Haram, highlighting the volume's usefulness as well as some future avenues for research to establish accurate underpinnings of the movement's textual, physical, and ideological warfare in the religio-political cosmos of sub-Saharan Africa.

Light refreshments will be served.