Religion Occult And Youth Conflict In The Niger Delta Of Nigeria

The book examines the nexus between youth conflict and the occult drawing its insights from the oil-rich Niger Delta of Nigeria. It sees the occult represented by the Egbesu deity in this conflict as a form of religious belief imbued in this case with the powers of good. Thus, the religious occult is regenerated and re-energised as an idiom of justice and fairness within the Nigerian state by militant youth fighting the forces of the Nigerian state. Ingeniously, the young men simply dug into the cultural repertoire of the people for a hitherto popular expression of justice and perceived source of potency which they felt would not only provide spiritual protection but also pander to the popular imagination of justice. Even against the background prevalent Christianity, the Egbesu does not generate tension in beliefs but responds to the critical exigency of the immediate socio-political milieu of the people.

Chapter Seven - Marginalization and the Re-Invention of the Occult -- Chapter Eight - Making Sense of it All -- Occult/Magic as Tool of Conflict -- Occult, the Modern State and Underdevelopment -- The Youth, Conflict and Occult -- Reconstructing the Youth in the age of Conflict in Africa: Major Concerns -- Chapter Nine - Some Encouraging Conclusions? -- The Why and How of the Conflict -- Reality, Psychology or What? -- Understanding Occult and Resolving Conflicts -- References -- Back cover

This book analyzes the influence of memory on social conflict as well as the role of ethnicity in state formation and governance in Nigeria. It examines the nexus between the Nigerian civil war and the conflict in the oil rich Niger Delta against the background of memory and ethnicization of the state.

This volume is the first, comprehensive and balanced historical account of the momentous Nigeria-Biafra war. It offers a multi-perspectival treatment of the conflict that explores issues such as local experiences of victims, the massive relief campaigns by humanitarian NGOs and international organizations like the Red Cross, the actions of foreign powers with interests in the conflict, and the significance of the international public sphere, in which the propaganda and public relations war about the question of genocide was waged.

The world's fastest growing continent demographically, Africa displays nearly all the features of today's global security challenges: armed conflict, terrorism, irregular migration, organized crime, great power competition, public discontent, and economic turbulence. John Siko and Jonah Victor present their lessons from professional practice and pedagogical approach from the classroom in a concise guidebook that leads students and professionals through the most important issues, dynamics, challenges, and considerations for analysing and planning responses to security developments in Africa. This book provides issue-by-issue primers on the causes and consequences of Africa's security challenges that include: -how to anticipate security problems across current political and economic events -how to analyse African security institutions and military capabilities -how to understand historical trends across the African continent and appreciate unique variations among countries. -how to identify key drivers of future trends -how to connect security analysis to policy planning Learning is supported through the following features: - Thematic chapters which are optimized to help the reader quickly connect to the key concepts and analytic frameworks within the field. - The most relevant historical case studies, enabling students to engage in sophisticated analysis and discussion. - Connections and contrasts between the situations in North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, which are traditionally studied separately. - Special sections on understanding race and ethnicity, and advice on traveling in Africa. - Chapter-end checklists of key questions to enable practical engagement with the topics covered.

This book unravels the trajectories and dilemmas of development in Nigeria since its independence in 1960. Despite enormous human and material resources, development progress in Nigeria has not met expectations. By delving into the various factors that have influenced development efforts and initiatives, Development in Nigeria: Promise on Hold? aims to draw out lessons to help the country to achieve its potential. In many ways Nigeria typifies the African puzzle of near-misses, a never-ending drive towards development with enormous promise but no real practical output. As in many states within Africa, these failures can be traced to structural inadequacies and the perennial weakness of public institutions. Problems which collectively undermine sustainable development and growth include political corruption, ethnicity, failure of public institutions, distributional injustice, fiscal centralism in a purported federal state, faulty democratic traditions, malevolent elite class, religious and social conflicts, among others. By taking a comprehensive panoramic overview of the country’s historical experience as both a military dictatorship and democracy, Edlyne Eze Anugwom presents a nuanced, comprehensive and contemporary interrogation of the ever-dynamic forces and factors in Nigeria’s development project. This book’s incisive examination of Nigeria’s development aspirations over time will be of interest to students of Development and African Studies, as well as to practitioners and multilateral agencies involved in development planning and intervention in Nigeria who are looking for strategies for overcoming the challenges facing the country.

This book examines the depiction of the Delta region of Nigeria through literature and other cultural art forms. The Niger Delta has been thrust into the global limelight due to resource extraction and conflict, but it is also a region with a rich culture, environment, and heritage. The creative imagination of the area’s artists has been fuelled by the area’s pressing concerns of indigenous peoples, minority discourse, environmental degradation, climate change, multinational corporations' greed, dictatorship, and people’s struggle for control of their resources. Taking a holistic approach to the Niger Delta experience, this book showcases artistic responses from literature, visual arts, and performances (such as masquerades, dances, and festivals). Chapters cover authors, artists, and performers such as Ben Okri, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Isidore Okpewho, J.P. Clark, and Bruce Onobrakpeya, as well as topics like the famous Benin bronze figures and Urhobo Udje dance. Affirming the wealth and diversity of the region which continues to inspire creative artistic productions, The Literature and Arts of the Niger Delta will be of interest to researchers of African literature, arts, and other cultural productions.

This book takes a quantitative look at ICT-generated event data to highlight current trends and issues in Nigeria at the local, state and national levels. Without emphasizing a specific policy or agenda, it provides context and perspective on the relative spatial-temporal distribution of conflict factors in Nigeria. The analysis of violence at state and local levels reveals a fractal pattern of overlapping ecosystems of conflict risk that must be understood for effective, conflict-sensitive approaches to development and direct conflict mitigation efforts. Moving beyond analyses that use a broad religious, ethnic or historical lens, this book focuses on the country’s 774 local government areas and incorporates over 10,000 incidents coded by location, date and indicator to identify patterns in conflict risk between 2009 and 2013. It is the first book to track conflict in Nigeria during this period, which covers the Amnesty Agreement in the Niger Delta and the birth of Boko Haram in the North. It also includes conflict risk heat maps of each state and trend-lines of violence. The authors conclude with a discussion of the nuanced factors that lead to escalating violence, such as resource competition and trends in terrorism during this critical point in Nigeria’s history. Violence in Nigeria is designed as a reference for researchers and practitioners working in security, peacebuilding and development, including policy makers, intelligence experts, diplomats, national defense and homeland security experts. Advanced-level students studying public policy, international relations or computer science will also find this book useful as a secondary textbook or reference.