Paper short abstract:

Police officers, ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation, had seen the “face of Anini” in crowds, and opened fire. As Lawrence Anini, nicknamed “Robinhood,” re-appears a decade after his execution, how do religion and new media technologies co-produce esoteric spiritual forms?

Paper long abstract:

Nicknamed “Robin Hood” and “The Law,” Lawrence Nomayagbon Anini, notoriously stole from banks and wealthy Nigerians, receiving wide community support as he dashed the poor with money in public markets. During his crime spree across southwest Nigeria, Anini and his companions killed nine police officers, and Anini reportedly vowed to “slaughter fifty more” before being caught and executed in 1987. A decade later, in the predominately Muslim, Hausa-speaking city of Kano, Nigeria, several police officers, ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluations, described seeing the “face of Anini” in crowded public markets, and they opened fire with live ammunition. They feared Anini had returned from death to kill them. In this paper, I explore the co-productions of religion and media, as the persona of Anini re-appears a decade after his death. How do religions and new media technologies co-produce esoteric spiritual forms, with material affects? What critical engagements with Bori and Islamic healing and biomedical psychiatry resonated in the politics of health and state security?