African Studies Seminar: Ini Dele-Adedeji on Known unkwowns and unknown unknowns

Compared to other movements bearing similar characteristics, the literature on Boko Haram is a fledgling one, and is highly discursive. On the one hand, where the sect’s insurgency is concerned, Boko Haram has optimised the use of audio-visual modes (e.g. video recordings of its hostages, of threats, and of sermons). On the other hand, this hyper-visibility can be argued to be a controlled one due to the limited access of non-members to territories occupied by Boko Haram fighters, the insular ideology of the sect’s membership, and the overall difficulty of conducting fieldwork in northeast Nigeria and its neighbouring regions. Within the literature on Boko Haram, schisms have developed in relation to what can be considered factual or reliable data. As a consequence, there are diverging views on what Boko Haram actually is. This paper delves into the ongoing debate by critically exploring the academic and non-academic literature on Boko Haram, with the aim of teasing out the different approaches towards the movement. Relying on a combination of ethnographic fieldwork and a critical deconstruction of scholarship on Boko Haram, this paper argues that the knowledge gaps in this area of study, combined with the lack of ‘’proximity’’ to Boko Haram-related data, have been instrumental in shaping popular perceptions of the movement.

Download the Autumn 2018 programme here. 

All welcome.

This seminar series is convened by the African Studies Research Centre/IAS:

• Dr. Hélène Neveu Kringelbach (h.neveu@ucl.ac.uk)
• Prof. Megan Vaughan (megan.vaughan@ucl.ac.uk)
• Dr. Keren Weitzberg (k.weitzberg@ucl.ac.uk)

Image: Ini Dele-Adedeji