Paper long abstract

Nigeria is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural country with enormous human and material resources. This plurality of beliefs, language and ethnic identities inevitably produce divisiveness and conflicts between and amongst the diverse people of the country. In recent times, the country witnessed a dramatic explosion in the incidents of violent conflicts. In particular, the prolonged conflicts that have been slowing down Nigeria’s progress and development were the recurring conflicts often expressed either in ethnic or religious identities or both. In fact, records show that some of the violent conflicts experienced in the country have occurred in urban Kano with many devastating consequences.

Accordingly, there had been several attempts at managing and controlling conflicts in the country. However, no discussion on conflicts and conflict management can ignore the role of the media. In deed, media is increasingly recognized as a veritable tool that may incite or help prevent, solve and limit conflicts. Media reports, in particular, can be used to spread conflicts or foster tolerance and reconciliation.

This paper investigates how the Nigerian print media reported ethno-religious conflicts that occurred in Kano in the period, 1991-2001 and assesses how the pattern and nature of media coverage contributed to the escalation or de-escalation of conflict situation in Kano Metropolis.

Paper long abstract

The conflicts that occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the 1990s were the most deadly since the Second World War. Many of the conflicts that resulted in the estimated four million civilian deaths during that time took place in the Katanga province in the south east of the DRC. Current literature on conflicts in Katanga specifically, and the DRC more generally, has largely focused on using the Congolese state and resource wars to explain the prevalence of violence in Congo-Kinshasa. Whilst arguing that these factors remain important, this paper will seek to disclose other important ‘internal’ causes of violence in Katanga, such as religious violence. In order to understand these internal causative factors, local perspectives must be considered alongside national and international determinants. This paper will use Kongolo as a local case study to reveal that religious violence, amongst other internal dynamics, was as important a factor in explaining violence as the disputes over who had overall political control in Katanga. The 'Kongolo massacre,' which occurred in 1962 and resulted in the deaths of nineteen priests, highlights the fact that violence perpetrated against religious institutions and in religious spaces must form an integral part of explanations of violence in Katanga. However, discreet categories of violence must be conjoined as local violence committed in religious spaces often had political motives. The priests killed in 1962, for instance, died at the hands of Balubakat rebels who fought more against the politics of Moise Tshombe than Catholicism itself.

Paper long abstract

What is a child? What are its rights? Should a child be free to choose its life? These are the most troubling questions and moral conundrums we face as social scientists when dealing with children and adolescents in our researches. These issues are even more embarrassing when we work with children who live in situation of marginality and exclusion – whose lives are far away from ‘European’ models of ‘normal’ childhood. It is the case of the street children I had the chance to work with in Cape Verde. In this paper I will contest a picture of street children as victims, claiming instead that the majority of younger street dwellers in Cape Verde are fully aware of their choice, self reflexive and autonomous. Street children contradict a notion of the child as vulnerable, dependent and non-autonomous being – and as such needing adults’ protection and authority. Without overlooking social constraints or romanticizing street life, I want to give a picture of street children as self-conscious agents. I will not claim that street children are absolutely free actors living in idyllic conditions. Yet, I want to emphasize their tactical capacity and self-reflexivity – and argue that the normative idea of childhood upon which most humanitarian interventions are based upon is unsuitable for street children in Cape Verde.