From ‘ethnic militias’ to ‘jungle justice’? Research and change in vigilantism in Nigeria

Abstract

AbstractThe aim of this article is to initiate a new debate on vigilantism in Nigeria by arguing for a re-examination of the links between crime and vigilantism. It contends that, although the existing literature has shed considerable light on the practice of vigilantism in Nigeria, it has also obscured entire dimensions of the problem. By focusing exclusively on vigilante groups or ethnic militias, scholars have failed to anticipate the shift of the bulk of the violence from these social agencies to spontaneous mobs. After highlighting the factors that help explain the marginalization of ‘mob’ vigilantism in the scholarship about Nigerian vigilantism, I use ethnographic materials from my own field research in Lagos to show how crime – or more precisely unexplained crime – fuels intra-community distrust, which in turn fuels vigilante mobilization and violence as it increases the social control that crime-beset communities apply to some of their members who resent such distrust and consider it unfair. The data presented provide fresh insights into one of the most intriguing features of Nigeria vigilantism: the involvement of social delinquents at the roots of urban insecurity.