Opening ParagraphSince 1980, with considerable regularity during the dry season which propels the rural poor into the urban centres of northern Nigeria, religious riots have erupted in or adjacent to five cities: Kano (1980), Kaduna (1982), Bulum-Ketu near Maiduguri (1982), Jimeta near Yola (1984) and Gombe (1985). In each instance the conflict was remarkably similar. When confronted by the state authorities, an Islamic sect, the 'Yan Tatsine, unleashed an armed insurrection against the Nigerian security forces and those outside the sect, resulting in widespread destruction, in thousands of deaths and in millions of naira of property losses. Indeed, if one were to search for a historical equivalent in Nigerian history, only the communal riots of 1966 surpass the destruction wrought by the 'Yan Tatsine insurrections of the eighties. The account appearing in West Africa, describing the Gombe outbreak, provides a typical press analysis of the insurrection:Fighting began early on Friday, April 29 when a detachment of police moved in to arrest suspected members of a maitatsine type religious sect in the Pantami ward of Gombe. The suspected leader of the religious group is a man named Yusufu Adamu. That was when all hell broke loose. Within hours, some streets had been littered with corpses many of them caught in the cross fire between fanatics and the law enforcement agents. [West Africa, 6 May 1985: 876]For the following analysis it is noteworthy that the correspondent describes the sect as a ‘maitatsine type’, that the insurrection erupted only when the police attempted to arrest an alleged leader and that the members of the dissident sect are labelled ‘fanatics’ without any supporting evidence.

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The depth and duration of economic decline, coupled with ecological degradation, political paralysis, and institutional decay, has created an unprecedented crisis in sub-saharan Africa. Explanations for the multiple crises of African development focus on debates regarding the necessity of following market-oriented economic policies, the capacity of African states to manage either development or reform and the way in which African institutions reproduce societies that are resistant either to state-centered development or to market forces. After allowing for events that are beyond the control of policy, the three schools—neoliberal, structural-nationalist, and institutional—are used to evaluate the literature on peasant agriculture, industry, and state policy. The experience of Nigeria indicates that commercial agriculture is increasing, that structural reforms can have some positive benefits and that its hydrocarbon sector can form a basis for regional industrialization. Finally, the rise of popular democratic movement suggests how the crisis has unleashed elements of a formerly passive civil society which promise to reform authoritarianism and discipline rentier states.

P. Lubeck—Réseaux islamiques et capitalisme urbain : vin exemple d'articulation au Nigeria du Nord. Etude comparative de la situation des étudiants des écoles coraniques de Kano, avant la période coloniale, pendant cette période et de nos jours, montrant comment une institution précapitaliste réagit à l'introduction et à l'évolution du capitalisme, et s'articule aux institutions capitalistes de façon imprévisible et souvent contradictoire. Cette catégorie sociale, recrutée dans la paysannerie, s'est développée au xixe siècle, à la suite de l'établissement de l'empire de Sokoto ; le capitalisme colonial marchand (arachide) a utilisé ses membres comme travailleurs temporaires ; de nos jours, ils constituent une proportion importante de la main-d'œuvre industrielle non qualifiée, les emplois supérieurs étant réservés aux bénéficiaires d'une éducation de type moderne, généralement citadins. Un des résultats de cette situation est que les conflits sociaux du secteur industrialisé s'expriment souvent en termes de valeurs précapitalistes.