Beyond the Spectacular: Contextualizing Gender Relations in the Wake of the Boko Haram Insurgency

Citation:

Pereira, Charmaine. 2018. "Beyond the Spectacular: Contextualizing Gender Relations in the Wake of the Boko Haram Insurgency." Meridians 17 (2): 246-68.

Author: Charmaine Pereira

Abstract:

The aim of this essay is to interrogate gender relations in the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency in a way that recognizes continuities as well as discontinuities across multiple dimensions of social relations. The essay begins by outlining the changing trajectory of the Boko Haram insurgency and scholarly efforts to understand it as a social phenomenon. The second section discusses how research and media recognition of Boko Haram’s violence in relation to women led to a focus on spectacular events, such as mass abductions and suicide bombings. It is critical to recognize the politics of visibility and nonvisibility regarding women in the gendered dynamics set in motion by Boko Haram’s spectacles of violence. Finally, the essay points to ways in which feminist analyses of conflict and militarism throw light on the more suppressed yet critical dimensions of gender relations that surface in the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency.

Keywords: Boko Haram, spectacular, violence, visibility, gender politics

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Gendered Power Relations, Media, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Race, Religion

Year: 2018