Exclusions foncières des cadets et vivier pour Boko Haram : hypothèse et proposition méthodologique

Abstract

We here submit a proposal based on various fieldworks carried out in some of the countries affected by the violence of the fundamentalist sects known as Boko Haram. On-site surveys show that, due to strong demographic growth, the absence of land reserves and the fact that land inheritance is in practice reserved for the eldest male, there is a large number of young cadets who are thus excluded from land inheritance and, consequently, from a social position. The Muslim religion and its mode of inheritance can then be perceived as protective because they grant inheritance rights to each boy. However, this mode of inheritance is not dominant in the less dense eastern part of Nigeria. In this context, we posit two hypotheses: 1) demographic pressure in a single-heir customary system creates a major land tension through the number of induced exclusions, a tension that pushes, among other factors, for a transition to a local Muslim mode of inheritance that reduces this tension; 2) Meanwhile, this structural exclusion of a large population creates a "pool" from which Boko Haram recruits. Given the current insecurity and the impossibility of field investigation, this paper aims to propose a methodology combining remote sensing and multi-agent modeling to test these hypotheses.

Keywords

• family land tenure exclusions
• Boko Haram
• inheritance patterns
• Lake Chad basin
• land saturation
• social minors