Searching for Boko Haram

A History of Violence in Central Africa

Scott MacEachern

Examines Boko Haram from a local historical perspective, which has not been characteristic of any writings on this insurgent organisation to this point
Investigates the local cultural contexts within which the group originated, paying attention to the ethnic and political aspects of the group in addition to the religious ones
Written from the perspective of someone who has worked in one of the main refuge areas of Boko Haram through the last 30+ years

Searching for Boko Haram

A History of Violence in Central Africa

Scott MacEachern

Description

For the past decade, Boko Haram has relentlessly terrorized northeastern Nigeria. Few if any explanations for the rise of this violent insurgent group look beyond its roots in worldwide jihadism and recent political conflicts in central Africa.

Searching for Boko Haram is the first book to examine the insurgency within the context of centuries, millennia even, of cultural change in the region. The book surveys the deep history of the lands south of Lake Chad, richly documented in archaeology and texts, to show how ancient natural and cultural events can aid in our understanding of Boko Haram's present agenda. The land's historical narrative stretches back five centuries, with cultural origins that plunge even deeper into the past. One important feature of this past is the phenomenon of frontiers and borderlands. In striking ways, Boko Haram resembles the frontier slave raiders and warlords who figure in precolonial and colonial writings on the southern Lake Chad Basin. Presently, these accounts are paralleled by the activity of smugglers, bandits (coupeurs de route--"road cutters"), and tax evaders. The borderlands of these countries are today places where the state often refuses to exercise its full authority because of the profits and opportunities illicit relationships afford state officials and bureaucrats. For the local community, Boko Haram's actions are readily understandable in terms of slave raids and borderlands. They are not mysterious and unprecedented eruptions of violence and savagery, but--as the book argues--recognizable phenomena within the contexts of local politics and history.

Written from the perspective of an author who has worked in this part of Africa for more than thirty years, Searching for Boko Haram provides vital historical context to the recent rise of this terroristic force, and counters misperceptions of their activities and of the region as a whole.

Searching for Boko Haram

A History of Violence in Central Africa

Scott MacEachern

Searching for Boko Haram

A History of Violence in Central Africa

Scott MacEachern

Author Information

Scott MacEachern is Professor of Anthropology at Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine. He holds MA and PhD degrees in Archaeology from the University of Calgary. He has done archaeological research in Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, the United States, and Canada, and travelled extensively in Africa.

Searching for Boko Haram

A History of Violence in Central Africa

Scott MacEachern

Reviews and Awards

"Scott MacEachern's Searching for Boko Haram is an original, arresting and almost beautiful book, which excavates the very distant past to understand what seems." -- Times Literary Supplement

"This book was not written solely for an audience of archaeologists nor of Africanists, it uses accessible language and takes care to explain terms and concepts that specialist audiences sometimes take for granted ... [MacEachern] has focused on imbuing the story of Boko Haram, and the communities impacted by them, with a historicity that marks the movement not just as an emergency of the moment spurred by current trends in global Islamic fundamentalist philosophy, but also one with deep-rooted connections to a place that has a history and cultural (frontier) logic all its own. In this, he succeeds admirably." -- Natalie Swanepoel, African Archaeological Review

"By examining 'the lands of Boko Haram (p.3)... the author successfully debunks the assumption that the territories occupied by Boko Haram are remote and inaccessible... he makes a good case that there is much to be learned by investigating how human landscapes have developed in the region over time." -- Survival

"Scott MacEachern's monograph makes a notable contribution to the study of the history of the Lake Chad Basin region in general and to the study of the activities of the militant Boko Haram group in particular. Indeed, the book may take a rightful place among the works of modern historians and social anthropologists." -- Social Evolution & History

"The years spent in the field make this study invaluable for those interested in the Cameroonian dimension of Boko Haram. Indeed, MacEachern has been working as an archaeologist in Northern Cameroon since 1999 and his analysis of the complex and varied Northern Cameroonian societies is extremely well-written. Compared to other scholarship on Boko Haram, this short book is rather unique... In a context where most publications on the region focus solely on the last ten years of the Boko Haram conflict, MacEachern's far-reaching conclusions - despite their Cameroonian focus - bring an archaeological dimension to our understanding of the region." -- Journal of African History

"This is a masterful work, with the potential to have an impact beyond academia. It explores in a clear and compelling way an intricate cultural history to offer explanation for a specific case of globalized terrorism: a pressing contemporary issue... A book that explains the present through the past, but also the past through the present. It is time for archaeologists to follow his path and start to intervene in key contemporary debates with the unique perspective of the discipline." -- Journal of African Archaeology

Scott MacEachern's monograph makes a notable contribution to the study of the history of the Lake Chad Basin region in general and to the study of the activities of the militant Boko Haram group in particular. Indeed, the book may take a rightful place among the works of modern historians and social anthropologists." -- Social Evolution & History

"MacEachern's work will be useful for specialists in a variety of fields."--Publisher's Weekly

"[E]xceptional....Offer[s] significant new insights into the rise of jihadist violence in Africa."--Foreign Affairs

"In the present turbulent world, the focus that Scott MacEachern brings to 'frontiers,' and to the long history of the 'extraordinary landscapes' which they cross in changing ways over 'deep time,' is deeply informative about the Lake Chad Basin and Boko Haram, while also offering a rich example of the kind of empirical study to be undertaken elsewhere in the world."--Jane Guyer, Johns Hopkins University

"Drawing upon his deep expertise and extensive fieldwork along the Nigeria-Cameroon frontier, Scott MacEachern takes a fresh and innovative look at Boko Haram: one of the world's deadliest terrorist groups. Through a finely-tuned historical and cultural lens, MacEachern skillfully contextualizes the emergence of Boko Haram. In doing so, he adds a long-awaited foundational layer to our understanding of a group that continues to grab global headlines."--Matthew T. Page, author of Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know

"Usually archaeologists write about a remote past with few links to the present. But in the case of Boko Haram in North Nigeria, Scott MacEachern shows how a problem of our times, violent extremism, is better understood through its deep roots in not only the history, but also the prehistory of the south Chad basin, the border area between Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad. The long-term ecological and political processes of these frontier lands resonate in the dynamics of this jihadist movement, and the distant past offers surprising insights into the present. Written with refreshing clarity and an intense personal engagement, this book offers a crucial analysis of the role of frontier areas in jihadism."--Walter E. A. van Beek, University of Leiden