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Introduction

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Political Violence and Oil in Africa

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Abstract

This chapter provides an introduction to oil and political violence in African conflicts, discusses the methodology and scope of this study, and presents a synoptic overview of four other resource-rich countries in Africa (Angola, Chad, Congo, and South Sudan) that have, like Nigeria, experienced oil-related conflicts. It briefly introduces the prelude to conflicts and resistance in Africa dating back to the colonial era where different African communities protested against various forms of rules imposed upon them by colonial rulers. The modes of resistance employed were violent as demonstrated by the Kenyan Mau Mau rebellion, the Maji Maji resistance in Tanzania, the Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba resistance in Senegal and the nonviolent resistance seen in the Aba Women’s riot in Nigeria. This book addresses the reasons explaining why the Ogoni and the Ijaw, having shared similar lived experiences, decide to adopt different strategies of engagement with the state that saw the use of nonviolence and violence in the Niger Delta.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Since two of the interviewees were not in Nigeria at the time of the fieldwork, these interviews were carried out in the USA (during a professional development visit) and the UK (where my institution is located).

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  1. Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University, Coventry, UK

    Zainab Ladan Mai-Bornu

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Mai-Bornu, Z.L. (2020). Introduction. In: Political Violence and Oil in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45525-5_1

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