CULTURAL
Boko Haram seeks to purify northern Nigeria from the corrupting influences of Western culture. The group has since transformed into an armed insurgency determined to transform Nigeria into an Islamic state.
The Western influence of British colonialists caused a division among the people of Northern Nigeria, who were once united by Islam. This division saw, on one side, the so-called “civilized” — by Western standards — elite who were used by the British as agents of colonization; and on the other side, the commoners, who vehemently resisted Western influence in the region.
Dissatisfaction with Western influence also led to an emergence of Islamist fundamentalists among people of the Northeastern region of Nigeria.
The reason Mohammed Yusuf founded Boko Haram appears to be that he saw an opportunity to exploit public outrage at government corruption by linking it to Western influence in governance.
HAUSA LANGUAGE
Local residents of the area soon called the group Boko Haram. Loosely translated from the local Hausa language, this means Western education is forbidden. Residents gave it the name because of its strong opposition to Western education, which it sees as corrupting Muslims.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW TO SPEAK HAUSA LANGUAGE
DEVELOPMENT OF BOKO HARAM
Since 2009, the radical Muslim movement in northern Nigeria known as Boko Haram has become widely known in Western media for both its militant actions and its ultra-fundamentalist program. This analysis examines Boko Haram from a historical perspective, viewing the movement as a result of social, political and generational dynamics within the larger field of northern Nigerian radical Islam. The contribution also considers some of the theological dimensions of the dispute between Boko Haram and its Muslim opponents and presents the different stages of militant activity through which this movement has gone so far.
TOP 5 SIGNIFICANT EVENTS
5. First Attack
in 2009 when it raided police stations and government buildings in Maiduguri, and other northern cities. Hundreds of people were killed in the ensuing clashes between the security forces and its members.
4. First Christmas Bombing
At least 32 people were killed in bomb blasts targeting churches on Christmas Eve 2010 in central Plateau state, which straddles Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north and the Christian south.
3. First Suicide Bombing
In June 2011, a suicide bomber rammed a car into the police headquarters in the capital, Abuja, killing eight people.
2. First Cross-border raid and Kidnapping
Its fighters abducted French nationals as they were returning from a visit to Waza National Park. The group said it took them hostage in response to France’s military intervention against militant Islamists in Mali.
1. First Slaves Captured
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video on 13 May 2013, saying Boko Haram had taken women and children – including teenage girls – hostage in response to the arrest of its members’ wives and children.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH ABUBAKAR SHEKAU KIDNAPPING
LEADER OF BOKO HARAM
ABUBAKAR SHEKAU
Abubakar Shekau is the leader of the Nigerian militant Islamist group Boko Haram, which been behind a deadly insurgency in the north-east of the country for the last five years. Nigeria analyst Abdullahi Tasiu Abubakar looks at the country’s most-wanted man, who has been designated a terrorist by theUS
FACTS ABOUT THE LEADER
1. He is well-educated
Shekau was born in a village that borders Niger. There he studied under a local cleric. After this he attended Borno State College of Legal and Islamic Studies where he studied Islam. His other known name ‘Darul Tawheed’ translates as “expert in monotheism”, or “the oneness of Allah”.
2. He is a polyglot (knower of different languages)
As far as we know he speaks many languages fluently: Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri and Arabic. His group rejects all Western things, so English wasn’t his language.
3. He is a master of conspiracy
Even his real age is unknown. It estimates between 38 and 49. The U.S. State Department has Shekau’s year of birth listed as 1965, 1969 and 1975. Analysts consider him to be a loner. He doesn’t speak much with his members.
4. Usually he comes back after death rumors
The Nigerian Army has claimed his death for several times. But every time he appeared again in his propagandistic videos. He was said to be dead in 2009, but appeared on the screens several years later. In August 2013 there were also reports about his death, but they appeared to be untrue and unconfirmed as well.
He was almost caught in September 2012, when the military raided his house. But he managed to run away despite a gunshot wound to the leg. His wife and three children were taken by the military.
5. He wasn’t a leader all the time
Boko Haram was founded by Mohammed Yusuf, a charismatic cleric who insisted on a pure Islamic state in Nigeria. But he wasn’t too effective as a leader. Shekau was much more dangerous and radical. In 2009 Mohammed Yusuf was killed with nearly 700 of his followers. Then Shekau was put in charge.
6. He developed an international brand
As for now, there are too little evidence that Boko Haram has some power and ambitions beyond Nigeria. But its campaigns have spread into some parts of Cameroon, Mali and Niger. In his north-eastern region of the country Boko Haram is the most active. This area is among the least educated and developed areas of Nigeria. Shekau did an awesome propagandistic job there. He convinced the residents that the powers in Abuja are corrupt and a better system of government would be a strict enforcement of Islamic Sharia law across Nigeria. Of course thousands of people believed him. Boko Haram is now known by all the media sources and on all of the continents.
7. He is a master of threats
In May 2013 Shekau for the first time announced in a video that Boko Haram would start kidnapping girls and women. One year later he had showed that his threat was not empty.
8. His head is still worth $7 million
Since 2009 US officials are looking for him. In 2013 US put a bounty on him, offering a reward of up to $7 million for information about his location. Despite multiple reports about his death, there is no confirmation that this award has been cancelled.
CONFLICT MAP OF BOKO HARAM
WORK CITED
www.beaconreader.com/peter-tinti//contextualizing-boko-haram
simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko-Haram
journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de
www.bbc.com/new/world-Africa-22538888
http://www.naij.com/295185-main-secrets-abubakar-shekau.html