In recent years, sub-Saharan Africa has witnessed an unprecedented rise in terrorist activities. This remarkable increase in violent jihadism makes studying African jihadist organisations indispensable to understanding their profile, local features and significance. Stig Jarle Hansen's unique combination of an Area Studies approach with an International Relations approach in Horn, Sahel and Rift offers a novel opportunity to understand the dynamics within violent jihadist organisations in Africa and beyond.
African jihadist organisations are shaped by and affect their environments. They function in a context encompassing heterogeneous degrees of state penetration of territory, spanning from states that exercise full control of their territory to those that are absent of state control. Hansen's in-depth analysis demonstrates that some states recognised, supported and exploited violent jihadist organisations, for example, Al Qaeda's presence in Sudan in the 1990s. Hansen's core argument is that violent jihadist organisations’ mechanism of survival dictates which form of presence they choose to exhibit and ‘depends on the kind of hostile forces each face’ (18). Thus, the book develops typologies of territorial presence: clandestine networks, accepted presence, semi-territorial presence and territorial control. Each territorial presence has advantages and disadvantages to jihadist organisations. This typology allows us to see the African jihadist organisations as dynamic rather than static and utilising shifting rather than settled strategies.
The analysis also contributes to a critique of the ‘ungoverned spaces’ concept that does not account for non-state structures of governance and ‘argues that a better approach would be to talk of the weakness of governance’ (11). The book not only offers an analytical understanding of the conditions under which jihadist organisations arise, but it also explains how these organisations survive various efforts deployed to combat them and continue to exist in the margins competing with hostile rivals.
The case study approach used in this book demonstrates valuable opportunities to track the trajectories and transformations in the history of violent jihadist organisations in Africa. The book also details how jihadist networks and allies are established and maintained in and beyond the continent.
Hansen's book has several admirable features. He places much needed emphasis on local dynamics, often most critical to the success of African jihadist organisations. The book improves our understanding of the way Islamic ideology has been instrumental in advancing African jihadist organisations. Ideology has played different functions in each stage of the jihadist organisations’ territorial presence, including clandestine network, territoriality and semi-territoriality. Ideology kept these movements together from the early stages of recruitment when the movement was still underground; and ensured order and cohesion during territorial and semi-territorial presence.
Case studies presented in the book show that a combination of charismatic leaders’ influence, enabling factors such as corrupt governments and material benefits, are some of the main drivers that lead to the rise of violent jihadist organisations in Africa. The book also shows that, besides the significance of their global links, the violent jihadist organisations in Africa interact with and exploit local environments. Their local networks include tribal connections and income-generating activities that sustain these organisations.
This excellent analysis is likely to help policymakers involved in prevention and countering violent extremism to design the right intervention for each context. Most of the efforts to combat violent jihadist organisations have been limited to eliminating the leaders of these organisations. However, analysis of the African jihad movements shows that eliminating leaders is not sufficient to combat the growing impact of jihadist organisations. One aspect the book reinforces is that counterterrorism interventions need to address the enabling factors that lead to the rise of these organisations, such as corruption and weak governance, and cut sources of income for these organisations.
