Boko Haram’s appetite for violence and kidnapping women has thrust them to the top of the global news agenda. In a few years, they have all but severed parts of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous state and largest economy, from the hands of the government. When they speak the world sees a grimacing ranting demagogue who taunts viewers claiming he will ‘eat the heart of the infidel’ and calling on Nigerians to reject their corrupt democracy and return to a ‘pure’ form of Islam. Thousands have been slaughtered in their campaign of purification which has evolved through a bloody civil war. Civilians are trapped between the militants and the military and feel preyed upon by both.
Boko Haram did not emerge fully formed. In Northern Nigeria — which has witnessed many caliphates in the past — radical ideas flourish and strange sects are common. For decades Nigeria’s politicians and oligarchs fed on the resources of a state buoyed by oil and turned public institutions into spoons for the pot. When the going was good it didn’t matter. Now a new ravenous force threatens Nigeria.