- Record: found
- Abstract: found
- Article: found
Ethnic faultline in the farmer–pastoralist conflict (FPC) – when does ethnicity matter to the FPCs? A case study of Adani-Nimbo area in South-Eastern Nigeria
Abstract
The farmer–pastoralist conflict (FPC) has been discussed and given ethnic and religious appellations in some countries of West Africa, such as Ghana and Nigeria. In Nigeria, such a reading of the conflict is rampant in the media and dominant in national political discourse. However, these ethno-religious insinuations have not received serious scholarly treatment in Nigeria or been downplayed. In this paper, I examine the context in which ethnicity becomes vital to the FPCs, based on fieldwork in the Nimbo-Adani area of Uzo-Uwani municipal council of Enugu State affected most by the conflict in South-Eastern Nigeria. This area is an essential hot spot of the FPCs that has not been explored in analyzing the FPCs in Nigeria. The study is based on field observations and semi-structured in-depth interviews. The paper draws on the FPCs literature regarding the influence of ethnic identities on the conflict. It shows that the difference in ethnicity between pastoralists and farming communities is not the primary root of the conflict. At the first outbreak of violence, the difference in ethnicity was not the cause of the conflict. Ethnic identity only gets cited after the first brutal fighting between the nomads and the farming community. Non-violent conflicts often occur because of cattle destruction of farm crops and pollution of water sources. Although the herders are accused of various atrocities, such as rape and kidnapping, the first outbreak of violence was caused by retaliation for killing a herder in one of the villages. Heightening ethnic identity amplifies the construction of the herders’ identity and social status as non-indigenous and non-belonging in the villages. Thus, the villages seek the eviction of the herders based on their social status as non-indigenes. The paper argues that ethnic faultlines matter to the FPCs but only after other factors have initiated the conflict. Therefore, we should pay attention to the primary root of conflicts and how they get the basis for social exclusion activated.
Content
Author and article information
References
C. Ake (2001) Democracy and Development in Africa. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
H. J. Ahmadu & H. Ayuba (2018) “The Role of Group Solidarity in Conflict between Farmers and Fulani Pastoralists: A Case Study of Northern Nigeria,” African Journal of Political Science and International Relations, 12(3), 33–41.
I. A. Alhassan (2017) “Land-Use Conflicts between Settler Farmers and Nomadic Fulani Herdsmen in the Kwahu North District, Ghana,” Contemporary Journal of African Studies, 4(2), 127–154.
E. T. Akov (2017) “The Resource-Conflict Debate Revisited: Untangling the Case of Farmer–Herdsman Clashes in the North Central Region of Nigeria,” African Security Review, 26(3), 288–307.
J. O. Arowosegbe (2019) “Hausa-Fulani Pastoralists and Resource Conflicts in Yorubaland,” Interventions, 21(8), 1157–1187.
T. J. Bassett (1988) “The Political Ecology of Peasant-Herder Conflicts in the Northern Ivory Coast,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 78(3), 453-472.
T. A. Benjaminsen & B. Ba (2009) “Farmer–Herder Conflicts, Pastoral Marginalization and Corruption: A Case Study from the Inland Niger Delta of Mali,” Geographical Journal, 175(1), 71–81.
T. A. Benjaminsen & B. Ba (2019) “Why do Pastoralists in Mali Join Jihadist Groups? A Political Ecological Explanation,” Journal of Peasant Studies, 46(1), 1–20.
T. A. Benjaminsen & B. Ba (2021) “Fulani-Dogon Killings in Mali: Farmer-Herder Conflicts as Insurgency and Counterinsurgency,” African Security, 1–23.
T. A. Benjaminsen, F. P. Maganga & J. M. Abdallah (2009) The Kilosa Killings: Political Ecology of a Farmer-Herder Conflict in Tanzania,” Development and Change, 40(3), 423–445.
P. Blaikie & H. Brookfield (eds.), (1987) Land Degradation and Society. London and New York: Methuen.
C. Boone (2009) “Electoral Populism Where Property Rights are Weak: Land Politics in Contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa,” Comparative Politics, 41(2), 183–201.
C. Boone & L. Nyeme (2015) “Land Institutions and Political Ethnicity in Africa: Evidence from Tanzania,” Comparative Politics, 48(1), 67–86.
A. Bryman (2017) “Quantitative and Qualitative Research: Further Reflections on their Integration,” in J. Brannen (ed.) Mixing Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Research. London: Routledge, 57–78.
K. N. Bukari & N. Schareika (2015) “Stereotypes, Prejudices and Exclusion of Fulani Pastoralists in Ghana,” Pastoralism, 5(1), 1–12.
K. N. Bukari, P. Sow & J. Scheffran (2018) “Cooperation and Co-existence between Farmers and Herders in the Midst of Violent Farmer-Herder Conflicts in Ghana,” African Studies Review, 61(2), 78–102.
J. W. Creswell & J. D. Creswell (2017) Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. London: Sage Publications.
C. Cabot (2017) “Climate Change and Farmer–Herder Conflicts in West Africa,” in Cabot (ed,) Climate Change, Security Risks and Conflict Reduction in Africa. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 11–44.
K. H. Chukwuma (2020) “Constructing the Herder–Farmer Conflict as (In)Security in Nigeria,” African Security, 13(1), 54–76.
R. Froese & J. Schilling (2019) “The Nexus of Climate Change, Land Use, and Conflicts,” Current Climate Change Reports, 5(1), 24–35.
S. T. Herrero (2006) “Desertification and Environmental Security: The Case of Conflicts between Farmers and Herders in the Arid Environments of the Sahel,” in W. G. Kepner, J. L. Rubio, D. A. Mouat, and F. Pedrazzini (eds.) Desertification in the Mediterranean Region: A Security Issue. Dordrecht: Springer, 109–132.
A. Higazi (2016) “Farmer-Pastoralist Conflicts on the Jos Plateau, Central Nigeria: Security Responses of Local Vigilantes and the Nigerian State,” Conflict, Security & Development, 16(4), 365–385.
T. F. Homer-Dixon (1999) Environment, Scarcity, and Violence. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
E. E. Igwebuike (2021) “Metaphorical Constructions of Herding in News Reports on Fulani Herdsmen,” Continuum, 35(1), 85–98.
Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). (2016) Global Terrorism Index. Sydney. Available at: http://economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Global-Terrorism-Index-2016.2.pdf [Accessed 9 February 2018 ].
C. Lamont (2015) Research Methods in International Relations. London: Sage.
C. Lund (2000) African Land Tenure: Questioning Basic Assumptions. London: International Institute for Environment and Development.
I. A. Madu & C. F. Nwankwo (2021). “Spatial Pattern of Climate Change and Farmer–Herder Conflict Vulnerabilities in Nigeria,” GeoJournal, 86(6), 2691–2707.
B. Maiangwa (2017) “‘Conflicting Indigeneity’ and Farmer–Herder Conflicts in Postcolonial Africa,” Peace Review, 29(3), 282–288.
M. Mamdani (1996) Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
C. F. Nwankwo (2020) “Essentializing Critical Geopolitics of the Farmers–Pastoralists Conflicts in West Africa,” GeoJournal, 85, 1291–1308.
C. F. Nwankwo (2021) “Discursive Construction of the Farmer-Pastoralist Conflict in Nigeria,” Open Political Science, 4(1), 136–146.
C. F. Nwankwo (2022) “Grammar of Geopolitics: Geopolitical Imaginations of Farmer-Herder Conflicts in Nigeria,” Coğrafya Dergisi,
C. F. Nwankwo & U. P. Okafor (2021). “Moral Wrongs, Indigeneity and the Enactment of Farmer-Herder Conflicts Violence in South-Eastern Nigeria,” GeoScape, 15(2), 120–133.
C. F. Nwankwo, R. U. Ayadiuno, A. N. Ali & I. A. Madu (2020) “Farmer–Herder Conflict: The Politics of Media Discourse in Nigeria,” Ponte,76(1), 191–221.
E. E. Obioha (2008) “Climate Change, Population Drift and Violent Conflict over Land Resources in Northeastern Nigeria,” Journal of Human Ecology, 23(4), 311–324.
J. A. Ogundairo & F. Ijimakinwa (2021) “Pastoralism and Politics of Exclusion in Ibarapa, Oyo State, Nigeria,” African Studies, 1–16.
A. C. Okoli & G. A. Atelhe (2014) “Nomads Against Natives: A Political Ecology of Herder/Farmer Conflicts in Nasarawa State, Nigeria,” American International Journal of Contemporary Research, 4(2), 76–88.
J. O’Loughlin, F. D. Witmer, A. M. Linke, A. Laing, A. Gettelman & J. Dudhia (2012) “Climate Variability and Conflict Risk in East Africa, 1990–2009,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(45), 18344–18349.
F. C. Onuoha (2008) “Environmental Degradation, Livelihood and Conflicts: A Focus on the Implications of the Diminishing Water Resources of Lake Chad for North-Eastern Nigeria,” African Journal on Conflict Resolution, 8(2), 35–61.
S. A. Paalo (2021) “The Politics of Addressing Farmer-Herder Conflicts in Ghana,” Peacebuilding, 9(1), 79–99.
P. Shipton & M. Goheen (1992) “Introduction. Understanding African Land-Holding: Power, Wealth, and Meaning,” Africa, 62(3), 307–325.
C. Tamou, R. Ripoll-Bosch, I. J. de Boer & S. J. Oosting (2018) “Pastoralists in a Changing Environment: The Competition for Grazing Land in and around the W Biosphere Reserve, Benin Republic,” Ambio, 47(3), 340–354.
M. D. Turner (2004) “Political Ecology and the Moral Dimensions of ‘resource conflicts’: The Case of Farmer-Herder Conflicts in the Sahel,” Political Geography, 23(7), 863–889.
A. Vromen (2010) “Debating Methods: Rediscovering Qualitative Approaches,” in D. Marsh and G. Stoker (eds.) Theory and Methods in Political Science. 3rd ed., Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 249–266.