Routing ethnic violence in a divided city: walking in the footsteps of armed mobs in Jos, Nigeria

Abstract

Scholars of ethnic riots disagree on which are more susceptible to collective violence between ethnically segregated and diverse socio-spatial settings. Studies of riot-prone cities have produced contradictory conclusions. This article proposes that the ambivalence stems in part from disregarding the mobile nature of armed mobs and conflating their origins with their locations of violence. Drawing upon extensive ethnographic fieldwork involving mobile interviews, in-depth discussions and visual documentation, the article maps the footsteps of armed mobs from their origins to sites of confrontation during the 2008 Christian–Muslim riots in Jos, Nigeria. Findings suggest both segregated and mixed settlements contributed to violence. While armed mobs were likelier to originate from segregated neighbourhoods, mixed settlements, especially those sandwiched between segregated ones, served as frontiers for fighting; armed mobs preferred narrow alleys inaccessible to security forces. These findings' implications can advance the understanding and management of ethnic riots in urban areas.

Urban inequalities and the identity-to-politics link in the Netherlands and Nigeria

“…The question here is whether individuals who choose to act in pursuit of group-based interests coordinate and agree upon a common venue for their collective action. This idea has particular importance for the case of Jos because though the indigenes and the Hausa have prominently engaged in political mobilization and electoral campaigns, they have also deployed violent action in pursuit of their interests and goals (Madueke 2019(Madueke , 2018c. We identify two mechanisms to explain why this is so.…”

‘Team ethnography visual maps’: Methods for identifying the ethnographic object in multiple sites of fieldwork

“…viewed and understood from inside the population/geographic area in question). Examples of co-constructed, cognitive/ethnographic mapping may be noted in assorted studies of food consumption and dietary limitations (Armar-Klemesu et al, 2018;Earl 2018;MacNell, 2018;Zobrist et al, 2018) and in the routing of ethnic violence in contested urban spaces (Madueke, 2018). In each of these studies, various researchers obtained deeper understandings of spatial problems based upon the co-production of maps by those in the settings concerned.…”

Ethnicities and Conflict: A Survey Experiment on the Effect of Narrative Framing on Perceptions in Jos, Nigeria

“…Plateau state, of which Jos is the capital, was one of the most peaceful states in the Middle Belt, avoiding the conflagrations occurring in neighbouring states (Best, 2008, p. 10). However, since 2001, Jos has become one of the cities prone to recurring communal violence, including particularly deadly bouts of ethnic riots in (Best, 2008Higazi, 2011;Krause, 2019;Madueke, 2018;Ostien, 2009;Vinson, 2017), along with more recent farmer-herder clashes with ethnic dimensions (International Crisis Group, 2018). Paden (2012, p. 79), discussing the upsurge in ethno-religious violence in Nigeria notes, 'Without question, Plateau State has had the largest number of violent deaths from conflict of any state in Nigeria: many thousands have died since 1999.'…”