Boko Haram: scourge of African democracy

The Boko Haram Islamic sect, the perpetrator of numerous terrorist attacks that have recently caused deaths and injuries in Nigeria, has its origins in the colonial and post-colonial history of the North African nation.

"Boko Haram" is translated as "Western education is prohibited". However, it is interesting to note that even within the Muslim community itself, there are conflicting notions as to what the word "Boko" means.

Boko in fact was often used in relation to a second noun, Ilimi, meaning education. Thus, the full expression Ilimin Boko, was used to derogatorily in reference to Western education as distinct from what the Muslim community, understood as the only form of education, namely, Ilimin Islamiyya, that is, Islamic education.

 Ilimin Islamiyya is a form of religious instruction focused on the teachings of the Koran, its recitation and memorization, and is the entry point for children  - especially boys - into the faith of Islam. Courses are taught in Arabic.

With the arrival of British colonization and the introduction of a Western educational system, a contrast between Ilimin Islamiyya and Ilimin Boko was created. The latter was considered inferior and suspect, because it did not teach about the Koran or Islam. Its teachers, alphabets and language of instruction was English. For the local Muslim elites therefore white people and their seemingly incomprehensible ways were often associated with witchcraft, which is known as Boka.

When Western missionaries and the colonial state started a program of education in northern Nigeria, the Muslim ruling classes remained restrained and suspicious of the intentions. For this reason they decided to experiment by sending the children of slaves and lower classes within their communities. It took a while before the ruling classes of the north began to appreciate the values of education as a tool of modernization and began to send their children to school. But the children of the first generation of Muslim elites who attended Western school, were often the object of derision by their own family and friends.

This prejudice has persisted. This is why Western education is categorized as Haram (Arabic: forbidden). The suspicion of Western education is shown by the miserably low and embarrassing statistics of school enrollment all over the Northern states of Nigeria, where Islam holds sway. Today, well over 80% of Muslim parents in the rural areas, but also in urban areas of the Northern states, still refuse to send their children to school to acquire western education. For girls, the situation is worse,  registering less than 10% of children of school age. Hordes of Muslim children and young people who today roam the streets of Nigeria are graduates of the Islamiyya schools, under the tutelage of itinerant teachers, called mallam.

These jobless young people are the fertile recruiting fields of Islamic sects like the Boko Haram and other similar millenarian movements which pop up in northern Nigeria.

Today, ordinary Muslims feel overwhelmed by the tornado of changes around them. Unable to access the tools of modernization, they have remained largely outside the loop of power. In the major cities of their states, almost all forms of civil society are conducted by people they consider foreigners. For example, almost all southern traders are Christian. Their habits and customs, such as consuming alcohol and un-Islamic food, and the celebration of Christian festivals such as Christmas constitute a lifestyle that makes ordinary Muslims nervous for the future of their families and their faith. 

The leader of Boko Haram calls upon faithful Muslims to turn inwards, away from external "contamination," so that Nigeria might become a fully Islamic state and confront the weaknesses of the Nigerian government and the challenges posed by those who do not share the Islamic faith. 

Source: Fides