Contesting Boko Haram: A postcolonial critique of media representation of the ethnoreligious, socio-economic and political conflict in Nigeria

Representative and narrative discourses from international media and academia present an essentialist and misleading idea of African issues, and this misrepresentation has leaked, by association, into a flawed portrayal of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. That is, just as reductionism, ahistorical attributions, and contradictions tend to occur in writing on African conflicts, this has become the tendency with insufficient attempts to define the identity and explain the actions of Boko Haram. Using a postcolonial critique, this dissertation reveals how news media and scholarly reports often undermine and negate the historical, ethno-religious and ideological nuances of Boko Haram’s identity, as well as the socio-economic and political issues that motivate the actions of the sect. Additionally, the examination of Boko Haram’s origins, influences and ever-evolving identity confronts the contradictions and flaws within the group’s own representation, through its ideology and pragmatism. This multi-fold analysis is done through an initial exploration of Nigeria’s history under British colonial rule and the lasting legacy thereafter, which has been responsible for the contemporary violent conflicts that journalist and scholars tend to reduced to Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. This is followed by a critical acknowledgement of the complicity of Nigeria’s political leadership in the socio-economic injustices prevalent between the two predominant religious populations of Nigeria’s rich and educated Christian South, and the poor and disadvantaged Muslim North. Critical Discourse Analysis is used as a method to analyse the representation of Boko Haram from three academic journal reports by African scholars and three international print media news reports. This study seeks to contribute to reports/writings on postcolonial interpretations of violence and conflict in African media studies, and to account for the historical and contemporary complexities within African countries and their inhabitants who are often negated by influential libertarian media and trusted analytical-scholarly articles