Beyond the Modern: Muslim Youth Imaginaries of Nation in Northern Nigeria. (December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dunne, Máiréad; Crossouard, Barbara; Agbaire, Jennifer; Bakari, Salihu
• Other Names: May Vanessa guest-editor.; Byrne Bridget guest-editor.; Holmes Helen guest-editor.; Takhar Shaminder guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Sociology. Volume 54:Number 6(2020)
• Page Start: 1122
• Page End: 1140
• Publication Date: 2020-12
• Subjects: gender -- nation -- Nigeria -- postcolonial theory -- religion -- youth identities; Sociology -- Periodicals; Sociology -- Periodicals; Sociologie -- Périodiques; Sociologie; Electronic journals; 301.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0038038520949835
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0038-0385

Abstract

The rise of different nationalisms in an increasingly unequal and neoliberal world makes predictions about the dawn of a post-national, global society seem both incongruous and fraught with Eurocentric occlusions. In response, we present a postcolonial analysis of research into Muslim youth narratives of nation in Northern Nigeria. This highlights the continued significance of nation for youth as well as the historical fractures – both internal and external – that infused their identity narratives. We further show the entanglement of nation and religion in youth imaginaries, and their anti-colonial ambivalences, notably with respect to gender reforms. Our analysis calls for a sociology of nation that goes beyond a modern framing and instead attends to the agonistic affective relations through which national imaginaries are constructed; the historical sutures that were intrinsic to the creation of postcolonial nations and their enduring persistence as points of fracture.