Nigeria: Boko Haram Not Just Another Silly Name
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When someone decides to enter politics it is naturally assumed that they want to be taken seriously.
Their political policies may turn out to be total lunacy a la Tony Blair or George Bush or Sarah Palin or Margaret Thatcher but, at least initially, you have a chap called Tony Blair or a lady called Sarah Palin and, as they have reasonably sensible names for all you know they could be the next Mahatma Ghandi or Winston Churchill or someone of that ilk.
Sadly they never are but we can only live in hope eh?
When someone enters politics and intends to be taken seriously but then admits to running with the name ‘Goodluck Jonathan’ you have to think ‘Excuse me? Say again? You’re called what??’
When you discover that the country that is about to be governed by a president called Goodluck Jonathan is Nigeria you think ‘Ah! That explains it’ because, unfortunately, when it comes to so many African countries it does indeed explain it.
Hundreds of schoolgirls have been kidnapped in Nigeria by Boko Haram. Now Boko Haram isn’t just the silly name of some pervert who wanted to be taken seriously in pervert circles by kidnapping schoolgirls but screwed up by having a silly name. Boko Haram is a group of extreme Islamists (oh no, not another lot) who have decided that Islam says women shouldn’t be educated and has, therefore, kidnapped girls in the process of being educated with the intention of selling them into slavery.
“I believe the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end for terror in Nigeria,” said Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan at the opening of the World Economic Forum meeting in Abuja the other day.
Er? Sorry? Pardon me?
That’s ok then. President Goodluck Jonathan has good news for Nigerians. Boko Haram kidnapping schoolgirls in their hundreds and selling them into slavery will result in the end of terrorism in Nigeria.
If you can make any sense what so ever in old Goodluck’s statement then you’re a better person than I am.
Correct me if I’m wrong Goodluck.
Boko thingy has kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls from a school in the north east of Nigeria that is notorious for Islamic extremists doing strange things like this. The school in question had 3 soldiers protecting hundreds of school girls. That’s 3 not 300 nor even 30. 3. Three. One, two three.
Boko silly name had already shot and killed schoolchildren yet only three soldiers were protecting the school.
America, Britain and China have offered to ‘help’ although, apart from sending troops in to blow the crap out of Boko Haram I have no idea quite how we, or America or China can actually help.
Mind you, having American, British AND Chinese troops on the ground working together would be quite something eh?
So, we have Goodluck Jonathan, Boko Haram and hundreds of innocent schoolgirls in danger of death and/or being sold into slavery.
I had a ‘Google’ about this slavery thing as I didn’t understand what it exactly meant. Apparently Muslim husbands can have four wives. – Four? Really? You want to be nagged in quadrophonic sound?? – the fifth wife isn’t really allowed under their version of Islam so the fifth wife becomes a slave of the husband and other four wives.
Charming.
Nice place for a holiday is Nigeria don’t you think?
What a bloody world.
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As concerned as I am about drones, this is a perfect job for drones. Above all, if Nigeria grants permission to use them in their airspace, the Boko Haram will be unable to hide. In short order, their actions and patterns of behavior will become transparent, and they will never know we are watching. “Interventions” of all types will be possible, from arrest to aborting their activities.
And if the opportunity arises to take out a large number of them with an airstrike, it might put them on the defensive…or cripple them if the leaders are the targets.
When I was a kid, there was a Disney television program called “Swamp Fox” that glorified a group of Revolutionary War guerrilla fighters in the south who terrorized British “Regulars” with their hit-and-run tactics. http://bit.ly/1qngwK0 Most of the time, and in most current conflicts, the US forces are the “Regulars.” Certainly, in conflicts from Vietnam to current day Iraq and Afghanistan, that’s generally the case. Right now, Boko Haram are the guerrillas in Nigeria, but drones are the ultimate guerrilla fighters, and if ever there was a justification for using them, this is it.
I have to agree although I read they are hiding in deep jungle, and are moving camp regularly. I don’t know how this would effect the targeting.
Infrared sees through trees.
It would be difficult to confirm targets’ identity without a real visual, but it’s very hard to hide from this stuff. Sooner or later…
I would worry these cowards who target young girls would use them as shields though.
Good point, Jess.
Jess you know they will.
Like I keep saying here and other places I sure am glad, even with all the bullshit the GoOpers try to do as far as women go, I was born a female in this country.
Norman,
Points taken..but…not quite.
I gather that this was a bit tongue-in-cheek, and I get the effort at humor and satire, but I feel I must push back a bit.
The Christian Science Monitor is a highly credible news source – despite it’s “funny” name. What’s in a name? Well Dan Murphy does an excellent dissertation in the CSM on the name Boko Haram, because it matters.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2014/0506/Boko-Haram-doesn-t-really-mean-Western-education-is-a-sin
It seems that our somewhat jingoistic tendencies might lead us to believe that a leader with a name such as Goodluck Jonathan or an insurgent group with a “funny sounding” name such as Boko Haram are just quaint, primitive manifestations of inferior intellect. As Murphy’s article makes clear, it’s OUR misunderstanding of the deadly serious meanings of the words Boko and Haram that are at fault. We are prematurely dismissive of other cultures’ language, but both Boko Haram and Goodluck Jonathan are artfully chosen, culturally appropriate tools of communication and, dare I say it, powerful propaganda.
I visited Ghana years ago while my son was there serving in the Peace Corps…during the ’98 embassy attacks in Kenya and Tanzania. Terrorism aside, my brief immersion in what was, admittedly, one of the most westernized of African nations, was a true eye-opener. The vast majority of shops in Ghana bear names such as “In Jesus’ Name Auto Repair” or “God is my Savior Electric Supply” or “Holy Savior Restaurant.” Just as the name “Burger King” sells the product or “The Gravedigger” (Dublin pub) conveys a sense of “atmosphere”, “Holy Savior Restaurant” speaks to an audience to which that name will resonate. Similar naming conventions are prevalent throughout the Caribbean…even in US territories.
Boko Harmam is not talking to westerners with its name. It’s communicating a powerful message to its constituents AND to its enemies in Nigeria and its neighbors…and to agencies such as the CIA that make it a point to study such things. We fail to get the message at our own risk. We trivialize the messenger at our peril. Boko Haram is deadly serious, and it’s name is equally deadly serious. It only sounds “funny” until you realize its meaning.
As for Mr. Jonathan, this article which explores the roots of his name, published in Slate, suggests that westerners are somewhat responsible for his name, and that his name has substantial cultural significance. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2010/09/is_goodluck_jonathan_lucky.html
So, odd as it may be to our ears, Goodluck Jonathan is anything but a joke…especially since colonial forces had considerable influence over the Christian naming convention.
Mr. Jonathan may well be a joke…much as Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is a joke, or former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is a joke. But president Jonathan’s name is not a joke any more than the then very strange sounding Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (a.k.a. Mahatma – a term of reverence)was a joke.
Boko Haram is a lesson…an opportunity…to recognize that humans instinctively do their level best to communicate volumes in few words. We all use words to persuade, educate, advocate. Boko Haram is all of those things. Powerful, convincing, threatening, and deeply religious in its own way.
Boko Haram is evidence that the Crusades continue.
Nice one……..and thank you old bean. Point taken.
One other thing I just now thought of with your question how could we possibly help. Nothing against you personally Norman, I have seen this over and over again elsewhere, why are we helping blah blah blabbity blah they need to man up and so on. My question then becomes, what if this was a bunch of little blond haired, blue eyed, white girls had been taken, would the world then rush in and help.
We must not sit on our hands as we did during WWII when word of the Nazi death camps, and their locations, started leaking out. We did nothing about that. I would hope we won’t repeat that scenario in Nigeria.
I know Mike but my question to the people that don’t want us doing anything is still, what if this were a bunch of little lily white snowflake babies. They would move heaven and earth to find them and everybody knows that who has any sense in their heads, so we need to find these girls.
I sure don’t disagree with that.
Doubt it. It’s not a racial thing Jess. It’s an ‘African thing’. Much of Africa is still populated by people who hold views anathema to the west or behave in ways anathema to the west. As it’s Africa many happen to be black – Mugabe etc etc – but a la South African apartheid, they can be extremely white.
Sad evidence indeed! Religion: the scourge of humanity.
I’ve been following this and it looks like they have started talking about they will do more and do worse. The minute women are respected as human beings in places like this and elsewhere, this shit will come to a dead halt. The FBI and groups like it are going to help try and find these girls.