IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gig/afjour/v46y2011i3p3-26.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Something Mightier: Marginalization, Occult Imaginations and the Youth Conflict in the Oil-Rich Niger Delta

Author

Listed:
  • Edlyne Anugwom

Abstract

This contribution examines the role of occult imaginations in the struggle against perceived socio-economic 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Edlyne Anugwom, 2011. "Something Mightier: Marginalization, Occult Imaginations and the Youth Conflict in the Oil-Rich Niger Delta," Africa Spectrum, Institute of African Affairs, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 46(3), pages 3-26.
    • Handle: RePEc:gig:afjour:v:46:y:2011:i:3:p:3-26
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hup.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/afsp/article/view/484/482
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Caroline Ifeka, 2006. "Youth Cultures & the Fetishization of Violence in Nigeria," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(110), pages 721-736, September.
    2. Kenneth Omeje, 2004. "The state, conflict & evolving politics in the Niger Delta, Nigeria," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(101), pages 425-440, September.
    3. Caroline Ifeka, 2001. "Oil, NGOs & youths: struggles for resource control in the Niger delta," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(87), pages 99-105.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bamidele, Seun & Erameh, Nicholas Idris, 2023. "Environmental degradation and sustainable peace dialogue in the Niger delta region of Nigeria," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    2. Adegbite, Emmanuel & Amaeshi, Kenneth & Nakajima, Chizu, 2013. "Multiple influences on corporate governance practice in Nigeria: Agents, strategies and implications," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 524-538.
    3. Daniel E. Agbiboa & Benjamin Maiangwa, 2013. "Oil Multinational Corporations, Environmental Irresponsibility and Turbulent Peace in the Niger Delta," Africa Spectrum, Institute of African Affairs, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 48(2), pages 71-83.
    4. Christian Omobhude & Shih-Hsin Chen, 2019. "Social Innovation for Sustainability: The Case of Oil Producing Communities in the Niger Delta region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-26, November.
    5. Malachy Chidike Igwilo, 2022. "Niger Delta Conflict and the Challenge of Oil Security in Nigeria," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 6(6), pages 638-644, June.
    6. Raul Caruso, 2010. "Butter, Guns And Ice-Cream Theory And Evidence From Sub-Saharan Africa," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 269-283.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gig:afjour:v:46:y:2011:i:3:p:3-26. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Andreas Mehler (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dueiide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.