The Crisis of Belonging and Ethnographies of Peacebuilding in Kaduna State, Nigeria

In this timely book, Benjamin Maiangwa expands the concept of belonging to a "place" to account for nuances in the ways that groups construct their identities in relation to others and the environments in which they live. He offers an insightful and critical interventions to debates on indigeneity, autochthony, and nomadism as forms of belonging and ideas upon which the notions and practices of peace and conflicts could be rendered relevant in the context of southern Kaduna, and broadly in other postcolonial societies.--Chigbo Arthur Anyaduba, University of Winnipeg The most outstanding contribution of the book is that it enables the people to tell their own stories of the crisis in southern Kaduna as they experience the situations. The people are also given the opportunity of sharing information about their local peacebuilding efforts, strategies and coping mechanisms. Those managing the problem are now given better perspectives for packaging context specific interventions, which also holds potential to inform future research planning in Peace and Conflict Studies.--Isaac Olawale Albert, University of Ibadan, Nigeria This book establishes Benjamin Maiangwa as a leading Peace and Conflict Studies scholar on African conflicts and Indigenous peacebuilding. The book uses a mixed method of storytelling inquiry, critical ethnography, and action research to explore the roles of indigeneity, nomadism, and autochthonism in intercommunal conflict and peacebuilding in southern Kaduna, Nigeria. His inclusion of local people's stories with regards to the impact of violence, coexistence, and the crisis of belonging between the Fulani and other ethnic groups empowers his research participants' voices. This is a compelling and original book within the critical and emancipatory peacebuilding scholarship that will be read by many scholars, students, and policymakers alike.--Sean Byrne, University of Manitoba