Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home AfricaBib Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Something mightier: marginalization, occult imaginations and the youth conflict in the oil-rich Niger Delta
Author:Anugwom, EdlyneISNI
Year:2011
Periodical:Africa Spectrum (ISSN 0002-0397)
Volume:46
Issue:3
Pages:3-26
Language:English
Geographic term:Nigeria
Subjects:militias
Ijo
magic
Niger Delta conflict
External link:https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/afsp/article/view/484
Abstract:This contribution examines the role of occult imaginations in the struggle against perceived socioeconomic marginalization by youth militias from the Ijaw ethnic group in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It argues that the asymmetric power between the federal government/transnational oil corporations (TNOCs) and the militias may have privileged the invocation of the supernatural as a critical agency of strength and courage by the youth militias. The conflict in the region embodies a cultural revision which has been necessitated by both the uncertainty of the oil environment and the prevailing narratives of social injustice. Hence the Egbesu deity, seen historically as embodying justice, has been reinvented by the youth militias and imbued with the powers of invincibility and justice in the conflict with the government and oil companies. The low intensity of the conflict has limited both the extent of operations and scale of force used by the military task force in the area and thus reinforced the perception of invincibility of the militias attributed to the Egbesu. Bibliogr., notes, sum. in English and German. [Journal abstract]
Cover