By Tannuja Rozario and Marina Kumskova
The Fulani Herdsmen crisis remains an important and critical issue in Nigeria. As a largely nomadic group, they move from place to another in search of pasture to realise their claims for political and economic power. Through this process, the herdsmen trespass farmlands owned by locals in their host communities. As a result, there is growing conflict over land between local farmers and the Herdsmen and Christian populated communities and villages are being evicted. Acts of violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, killing, and kidnapping innocent members of the communities became their tactic to achieve ownership of land. In route to attain power, women’s bodies specifically become a means to achieve certain political and economic goals, with little or no recognition neither in academia nor by the international community. Our paper will explore this conflict through a gendered lens. Specifically, this research will look in-depth into gendered strategies of this group, how the Fulani herdsmen use women and what implication this has in communities.
The importance of using sexual and gender-based violence is underestimated in this conflict. Much academic research focuses on urban violence around land conflicts and conflict resolution among crop farmers and Fulani Herdsmen (Oyedokun & Lawal 2017; Oriola & Ayoyo 2017; Kuusaana & Bukari 2015; Idowu 2017). Osaghae (2017) discusses the Fulani Herdsmen conflict through four categories: ethnicity, religion, class, and mobility. He does not focus on how gender is implicated within these categories as a tactic of power. Often, gender becomes a missing in the of analysis the Fulani Herdsmen conflict although this group continues to use women’s bodies as a tool to increase their influence and consolidate their territorial gains. Moreover, Ofem & Bassey (2015) examines the negative approaches of the Fulani Herdsmen group through socio-economic effects. This study mentions that female farmers encounter gender-based violence, but they fail to show how gender-based violence is intertwined with socio-economic status. According to Puar (2007) we need research that uses an intersectional approach to examine counterterrorism and counter extremism. Research based on gender violence should be studied in relation to sexuality, race, nation, class, and ethnicity. Lives in violent spaces should be understood in the totality of experiences. When examining the conflict of Fulani Herdsmen, this is missing within the discourse.
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in Nigeria (WILPF-Nigeria) reports the increasing competition for natural resources between farming and herders communities has led to many violent clashes, including deadly attacks. As the result of this violence, families, particularly women and children, have been displaced and killed by the herdsmen, while no arrests or prosecutions have taken place so far (WILPF Nigeria, 2018). WILPF has also reported the immediate impacts of the Fulani violence include psychological trauma, loss of economic livelihood, food insecurity, lack of access to quality healthcare, disruption in education, and other violations of human rights. In the long run, these experiences hinder women’s empowerment and participation in decision-making and enable binary gendered narratives to emerge about “us” and “them”, making further conflict and instability more likely (WILPF, 2018).
Gender inequality is a strong predictor of violence and instability. Caprioli (2003; 2005) and Tessler & Warriner (1997) found that states with higher level of gender inequality will have greater inter- and intra-state conflicts. Our study thrives to show how gendered strategies are used by Fulani Herdsmen to achieve their goals to attain political and economic authority and examine women’s responses to these strategies. Through an analysis of gender-based violence cases, we rely on gender violence and feminist frameworks to understand the Fulani Herdsmen conflict and its impact on women. Terrorists groups like the Fulani herdsmen have resorted to sexual and gender-based violence to destabilize their enemies and gain political/economic power through sex slavery, physical confinement, and forced marriage (Coomarasawmy 2015). How are groups like Fulani Herdsmen using sexual and gender-based violence for their own political and economic gains? This question, despite the voices of women in Nigeria, has been unaddressed in the international human rights community. In April 2017, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights reported a deadly attack against several communities in the southern State of Enugu by armed Fulani herdsmen and associated militia, adding that the attack appears to be among the most serious in recent years. However, the reporting did not address differential experiences of women and did not discuss the ways in which gender strategies are used as a tactic.
We utilize various frameworks to analyze the gender-based violence acts caused by the Fulani Herdsmen. Such cases will be drawn from journal articles, newspapers, social media, and other media outlets. We are specifically interested in learning from women and women’s groups on the ground the way in which the Fulani violence impacts their lives and what women see to be a valuable solution to the problem. We draw on the ecological framework developed by Heise (1998) to show the likelihood of women becoming victims of violence on the individual, relational communal, and structural level. We will pay attention to socio-economic status, responses to sexual violence, tolerance of gender-based violence in institutions such as schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces, and the cultural and social norms that shape the unequal distribution of power and gender roles. To understand the gendered violence of the Fulani Herdsmen are committing, we must understand the environment that allows this perpetuation. We also look at the patriarchal and fraternal culture that influences the subjugation of women. Theories of masculinity emphasize these cultures/norms as a gateway to employ gendered strategies to achieve power and domination. Therefore, we will look at these frameworks to understand the gender strategies they employ to achieve their goals.
This project will contribute to counter-terrorism literature, as well as inform international decision-making, by showing gender and sexuality are intertwined with the tactics and motives of violent groups. The Fulani Herdsmen provides a useful case of the barriers that limit women’s ability to participate meaningfully in the society and the ways in which masculinized power relations prevent the ability to ensure their safety. This case is crucial to understand because it tackles the cultural and gender norms that put women in situations where their bodies become weapons of political struggle and a resource to maintain violence in Nigeria. The gendered violence committed by other groups in this region such as Boko Haram goes unpunished as well and many girls remain unreturned. Overall, this project will expand our understanding to understand how gender strategies are used by terrorist groups and the root causes of such acts.
References:
Coomaraswamy, R. (2015). Preventing conflict, transforming justice, securing the peace. A Global Study on the Implementation of United Nations Security Council resolution, 1325.
Idowu, A. O. (2017). Urban violence dimension in Nigeria: Farmers and herders onslaught. Agathos, 8(1), 187.
Kuusaana, E. D., & Bukari, K. N. (2015). Land conflicts between smallholders and Fulani pastoralists in Ghana: Evidence from the Asante Akim North District (AAND). Journal of rural studies, 42, 52-62.
Oriola, T. B., & Ayoyo, D. D. (2017). Conflict and sustainable development goals in Africa. In From Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals (pp. 32-52). Routledge.
Osaghae, E. E. (2017). Conflicts without Borders: Fulani Herdsmen and Deadly Ethnic Riots in Nigeria. The Fabric of Peace in Africa: Looking beyond the State, 49.
Oyedokun, M. O., & Lawal, B. O. (2017). Participation of Community Leaders in Conflict Resolution among Crop Farmers and Fulani Herdsmen in Oyo State, Nigeria. Nigerian Journal of Rural Sociology Vol, 17(1).
Shellnut K., & World Watch Monitor. (2018). Nigerian Mass Becomes a Massacre: Herdsmen Kill 18 Worshipers, Adding to Hundreds of Victims. Christian Today.
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom – Nigeria [WILPF Nigeria]. (2018). Joint Shadow Report CEDAW Committee, 67th Session (July 2017). Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom [WILPF]. (2018). WILPF Statement at the CSW62 Multi-Stakeholder Forum on “Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls”. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
