 with Islam. Ahmadu Bello, a descendant of dan Fodio and premier of Northern Nigeria from 1954 to 1966, was an elected politician but also an Islamic leader who led conversion campaigns inside Nigeria and helped found the Muslim World League. Today, the heirs of the Sokoto Caliphate and Kanem-Bornu continue to exercise both political and religious influence, while some elected politicians, like former Governor Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State, have explicitly brought their Islamic values into policymaking.
The longstanding Islamization of politics in Northern Nigeria has meant that many movements of dissent articulate visions of Islam that are politically and theologically radical. These movements of dissent have been diverse, but one feature they share is that they have often surfaced at times of crisis. The British conquest of Sokoto was followed by a series of rebellions led by men who claimed to be the “Mahdi” – an Islamic eschatological figure who, it is said, will return near the end of time. In the 1980s, political and economic turbulence in Nigeria was a factor in the emergence of the “Yan Tatsine,” followers of a preacher who relied solely on his interpretation of the Qur’an and who banned the use of some modern technologies, such as bicycles. The 1980s also saw the appearance of the “Muslim Brothers,” who drew inspiration from the Iranian Revolution and called for an Islamic state in Nigeria. Both groups felt persecuted by authorities, leading to cycles of violence. The Yan Tatsine – whose adherents included a number of down-and-out youth – have been cited as a forerunner of Boko Haram, which seems to have a similar recruiting pool.
Boko Haram’s rise taps into major trends in Northern Nigerian history. Their radical theological and political stances and their use of violence hearken back to other groups that rejected the authority of government and the legitimacy of traditional Islamic rulers at moments when everything – politics, the economy, spirituality – seemed uncertain. Their desires for a strengthened and broadened shari’a reflect the disappointments some have felt with the version of shari’a that was restored in 1999. These desires also reflect the deeply unsettled position of shari’a in Northern Nigerian society and in the Federal Republic of Nigeria; in this way Boko Haram is part of a struggle that goes back more than 200 years.
Alex Thurston is a Ph.D. candidate in Religious Studies at Northwestern University. For 2011-2012, he is conducting dissertation fieldwork in Northern Nigeria. He blogs at http://sahelblog.wordpress.com.